Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 55 Hall's geoarchaeological investigations are the amped- up, high-tech version of "groundtruthing," a long used to approximate the location of other Lewis and Clark camp- sites along the infamous overland stretch through the Bit- terroots. Assayer, rancher and Lost Trail Hot Springs owner James West Gallogly grew obsessed with the Corps' route through the Bitterroot Mountains and throughout the early 1900s walked hundreds of miles to retrace their steps using way-finding techniques and cross-checking his route with the Corps' journals. The very name "Lost Trail" commem- orates the only two times the Corps got lost on their jour- ney—both times, it happened in Montana. Knowing the precise location of Travelers' Rest has not dramatically affected Lewis and Clark's clout in America's popular imagination. The NRHP nomination points out that pinpointing the campsite's location was not done to glorify the Corps of Discovery, nor to dismiss the millennia of histo- ry as a cultural crossroads for Native Americans. Given how imprecise history is by its very nature—no one is ever telling the entire truth, and speculation is baked into the very fiber of historical research—one might well ask, so what? So what if we know exactly where Meriwether Lewis popped a squat? One answer to the "so what" concerns public interpreta- tion, or how history is presented to the public. When a per- son can stand in a place and know with confidence that they are standing in the same spot as some important figure did long ago, the past comes alive in a way that it wouldn't oth- erwise. Such an experience makes history more immediate, tactile, and visceral—in short, it makes history feel more im- portant. And for all historians, that is, after all, the light at the end of the tunnel: that people will realize how important the past is in understanding the present. COVID-19 led to record visitation at Travelers' Rest State Park, but also saw a drop in new memberships for the Trav- elers' Rest Connection. The Travelers' Rest Chapter for its part did not solicit membership renewals for the first time in its history. The two organizations officially merged last year, and continue to work towards mutual goals: rebuilding their membership base, and developing more history-based pro- gramming for the park. DALE DUFOUR

• Cover