I was quite uninterested in history in school but gained a new found appreciation and love for it while homeschooling our children. The area that Betz and Mr. Studly live in has its own fascinating history - history that includes dinosaurs, Indians and some really neat 'leftovers' from the flood.
Medicine Rocks, Montana fits that category. Just outside Ekalaka (an hours+ drive from the ranch on gravel road) is one of Montana's 'primitive state parks'. Free entrance all year long, camping allowed but no trash pick up. It's not along a main road so it's probably not highly visited - which is a shame.
"It’s a place where “the spirits stayed and the medicine men prayed,” this site of unusual formations of sandstone jutting 50 feet above the surrounding sage- and pine-spackled prairie." ~Brett French, Montana Outdoor, July - August 2005
INDIAN HOLY SITE
American Indians didn’t need geologists to tell them Medicine Rocks was extraordinary. The Arikara, Assiniboine, Mandan, Gros Ventre, Sioux, and Cheyenne all camped near Medicine Rocks at one time or another. The Sioux Indian name for the unusual stone columns is Inyan-oka-la-ka, or “Rock with a Hole in It.” Many of the sandstone structures are perforated with holes of various sizes carved out by relentless winds that sweep across the prairie. In one local account, Walter H. Peck wrote that he talked to Charging Bear, a Sioux Indian who said Medicine Rocks was a place “where the spirits stayed and the medicine men prayed.” Though Indians no longer camp in the area, the site still contains old tepee rings, stone and bone artifacts, and baked clay cookware. ~Brett French, Montana Outdoor, July-August 2005
My personal belief is that this earth is not as old as scientists claim and I chuckle at times at the descriptions.
~~Millions of years ago, a gentle freshwater river flowed through this country, cutting a path from today’s Miles City southeast into an estuary of a prehistoric sea near what is now Camp Crook, in northwestern South Dakota. The river may have looked much like a larger version of today’s Missouri as it moved across the landscape, depositing sandbars over a 5-mile-wide swath.
Slowly the sand built up in underwater dunes roughly 50 feet thick. Under the pressure of their own weight, the dunes compacted into stone, which thousands of years later were shaped by wind and rain into the unique pillars, arches, and other shapes of Medicine Rocks State Park. Eventually, the river’s flow slowed, allowing salt water to creep upstream from the estuary. Geologists know this because atop the Medicine Rocks sandstone is a layer of crusty, gray sand riddled with burrows made by marine worms. By dating pinhead-sized teeth of early mammals from the Torrejonian Age, they also know Medicine Rocks was formed 61 million years ago.~~
Slowly the sand built up in underwater dunes roughly 50 feet thick. Under the pressure of their own weight, the dunes compacted into stone, which thousands of years later were shaped by wind and rain into the unique pillars, arches, and other shapes of Medicine Rocks State Park. Eventually, the river’s flow slowed, allowing salt water to creep upstream from the estuary. Geologists know this because atop the Medicine Rocks sandstone is a layer of crusty, gray sand riddled with burrows made by marine worms. By dating pinhead-sized teeth of early mammals from the Torrejonian Age, they also know Medicine Rocks was formed 61 million years ago.~~
For a gal who hasn't been out and about much I was completely enthralled to realize that I stood in the midst of some really cool remnants of a 'whole world flood' and also walking on ground where Indians have been. I realize that the flood and Indians left their marks in our neck of the woods also but we've erased all traces of it. Out there there's miles and miles of evidence still standing.
Mr. Studly thought he just had to walk out onto a ledge that was far above ground level. Pictures never capture depth very well.
We had a few history making moments ourselves on top of those rocks.
Chief Bull Cutter on the lookout.
Jay & I thought we'd 'hug a few trees' since we don't consider ourselves 'tree huggers'.
And the Medicine Rocks will always be memorable for us because Papa Smurf acquired his name that day - no reasonable explanation, just something Betz pulled out of the blue. yuk, yuk.
It's also the day he was going through work withdrawal and his brain conjured up a story about snow snakes that continued to develop as the day went on. Full episode report on Betz's blog http://meandhimandthetumbleweeds.blogspot.com/2009/07/snow-snakes.html
And it was the day we discovered a blue-eyed snow snake lurking around the top.
Using our zoom lens on the camera we were able to get a closer look of this very rare specimen.
Using our zoom lens on the camera we were able to get a closer look of this very rare specimen.
And upon closer inspection we realized we are lucky enough to lay claim to having one of these creatures all to ourselves.
Walking back to the truck the story got bigger and bigger.
All in all it was a memorable day in many ways.
We serve an awesome God and I am always, always fascinated by His creation - sandstone, snow snakes and family.
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