Pompeys Pillar Visitor Center Opens for the Season

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT NEWS RELEASE
Billings Field Office

Release Date: 04/27/12

Contacts:		Jeff Kitchens, 406-896-5235
		Kristen Lenhardt, 406-896-5228

Pompeys Pillar Visitor Center Opens for the Season

The BLM’s Pompeys Pillar National Monument is excited to announce that it will be opening the doors of the Visitor Center Saturday, May 5. Hours of operation for the visitor center will be 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., seven days a week. The main entrance gate will also be open during these hours of operation. Daily fees of $7.00/vehicle will be the same as last year. Walk-ins are always welcome every day from dawn to dusk.

According to Jeff Kitchens, Pompeys Pillar National Monument Manager, a lot of changes and upgrades were made during the winter and he and the staff are looking forward to another successful year. “We especially want folks to put July 28 and 29 on their calendars as these will be the dates of the Monument’s annual Clark Days Celebration.”

Pompeys Pillar contains the signature of Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and was set aside by Presidential Proclamation as a BLM National Monument. The monument is part of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System, a system of lands set aside for their unique cultural, natural and geological values. Clark’s inscription is the expedition’s only remaining physical evidence visible of its actual route. An interpretive center at the site recounts Clark’s journey through the Yellowstone Valley in 1806. More information on the national monument can be found at http://blm.gov/99jd.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

--BLM--

Billings Field Office 5001 Southgate Drive Billings, MT 59101

Last updated: 06-28-2012