I stood at this spot for quite awhile and imagined all that could have transpired here back in the day. Imagine a 14 year old girl, kidnapped and horsebacked across a 1000+ miles of wilderness and forced to start a new life. She is then sold to an old nasty frenchman, with whom she has the 'life issue' (to be charitable to old nasty frenchman) of having a young child. Lewis and Clark show up out of the blue looking for a guide who can get them to pretty much the spot she was taken from. It all works out and years later Sacajawea shows up back at this very place and is reunited with her tribe and her family. All this happening after guiding a group of men across unknown terrain for that same 1000+ mile journey with a new baby on her back.
Today the Lemhi valley is a quiet spot. Forgotten about in back of beyond Idaho, sitting at the base of the climb to Lemhi Pass. It is pretty even in the heat of a semi-arid summer. Cows are all over the place. So are chukars. Huge scree slopes are all around as you start the climb up through the Agency Creek drainage. It's easy to imagine the presence of those many historic figures passing by, maybe even on the very piece of earth on which you are standing. As for Sacajawea history does not know what happened to her. No one knows where she is buried. No one is sure when she was even born. At least we know where this young woman, responsible for who knows how much of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's success, was born. A granite monument with words etched in stone makes note of this place. Something for the ages.
