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Eye of the Needle, White Cliffs area, Wild and Scenic portion of the Missouri

River, Montana, June 6, 2001

[View: south.  47º 54’ 49” N — 110º 03’ 37” W]

[Lewis]                                                                               Friday May 31^st 1805.

The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most romantic  

appearance.  The bluffs of the river rise to the hight of from 2 to 300 feet and

in most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white

sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression of

water. . .  The water in the course of time in decending from those hills and plains

on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand clifts and woarn it into

a thousand grotesque figures, which with the help of a little immagination and an

oblique view at a distance, are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone

buildings. . .  As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment

would never have and end. . .