Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-02-26
Euv0oean Tourists ZiuUe/ to Montana TO See
W0ndery Matrices haze Passed Up far Z ears
Bv GEORGE NGARsH


and even fewer have seen, the
Medicine Rocks district Of south
eastern Montana near Ekalaka
and Baker. Yet Theodore R0Ose-
welt described this area as, ~The most
Enthusiastically beautiful place have
ever seen" There Is an old saying that
people do not appreciate that which
Is close 20 them. Thousands of Butte
residents have never been down a mine.
Yet it is the first thing tourist wishes
20 see. While visitors come from Europe
and Asia to see MOntana's national
parks, many MOntanans never take the
trouble to drive a hundred miles to see
them. The same thing Is true of the
Medicine Rocks. It remained for a dude
from New York state who had come 70
the west for his health to tell the world
and Montana itself about these gro
tesque sculpturing of nature.
Hundreds Of sandstone buttes, some
of them nearly 100 feet high, and all
carved by wind erosion into the forms
of temples, forts, castles, towers and
SpiralS cover the area. Some OF them
have tunnels that a mounted horseman
could ride through. The Medicine Rocks
are so called because the Indians held
their dances and the medicine men
performed their weird rites at this
place they believed holy. The first I
pioneers found some Of the rocks 4
writing. AS late as 1881, the Indians
congregated there in ceremonial OBJ /
servanceS. Spear points and arrow
heads are frequently found at the foot
of the rocks
The best time to view the Medicine
Rocks is by the light Of the full moon.
The region seems even more eerie then
than it is by daylight. The moonlight
brings into lurid and ghoStly relief the
bold corners and strange looking eS-
carpmentS of rock, while against them
the still limbs of the pines stand out
like rigid bars of iron. The white faces
of the cliffs and the ground between
them is turned into shining silver,
while the intensely black shadows Of
the buttes take on forms tnat are
grimly fantastic. Every cave and Granny
In the rocks looks as black as though
it were painted on the surface with a
brush. When the branches OF the trees
move. the bright moonlight dances on
the ground as though 1t were sheet
of molten metal The scene seems as
unreal as fairyland.
After Theodore Roosevelt had estab-
Hshed his cattle ranch near Medora,
N 81 in 1899 he and two of his cow :
boys went on a hunting trip into the (
Big Horn mountain country. On his T
return he wrote: I'VE came in sight Of :
as singular bit of country as have !
ever seen. The cowboys had christened :
the place Medicine Buttes. Over an J
irregular tract of gently rolling SANDY
hills perhaps three-quarters OF q mile !
square were scattered several hundred
detached and isolated butteS or cliffs. !.
Some of them rose as sharp peaks or :
ridges or as connected chains but very
much the greater number had flat tops :.
ike little tablelands. The sides were y
.hanneled by the weather into the q
rtv-or n m
INNS, battlements, Spirals and flying P
ortresses all mingled in the strangest D
confusion v
Many caves were worn clear through s.
he butteS and they were at every l,
height at the sides, while Lodges ran U
lcroSs the faces and shoulders and L
columns 1utted out from the SIDE cor
lers. At the bases of most Of the cliffs g
rev pine trees, some Of them OF con- T,
iderable height and the sand gave "
verifying a clean look. 1t seemed inn IL
oSsible that the hand of man had not il
lad something to do with its form2- Al
ion" Il
Early residents Of Baker say that h
hey saw RooSevelt's name carved on Ill
he side of the Medicine Rock known 81
S odd Fellows Temple" The name
7as still legible in 1910 but the con-
inual erosion of Wind-bloWn sand has
ince worn it away. ~
These wonders of nature which are X
aid to rival the Garden of the Gods II
4 Colorado are easily accessible by W
tate highway Visit them-and don't NJ
Orget your camera. Leave your car and ~
ralk alone among the rocks. Then in NJ
our minds eye visualize the past. b
imagine a huge campfire shooting bs
parks against the black sky. Look at 81
he rapt faces Of the Indians as they tn
ratch the insane cavortings of the b
Medicine man with his painted face XII
nd buffalo-horn headdress. Listen to be
is wild shrieks above the beat Of the hf
0m-toms Then repress a slight shiver
nd return to the comfort OF your car. sli
tn