Long before the passage of this limestone outcrop by Lewis and Clark, this monolith served as an important landmark as well as a meeting place. The indigenous natives known as the Shoshone people came to this area each year during the summer.

Sacagawea, who was with the Corps of Discovery had told Lewis and Clark about this landmark and they had been looking for it for some time prior to their arrival here on the fifth of August, 1805. It was expected that the Shoshone would be here who they hoped to obtain horses. The horses would aid them in crossing the Rocky Mountains prior to the winter set in.

Upon their arrival at Beaverhead, they did find the Shoshone, whose chief, by amazing coincidence, was the brother of Sacagawea.

Then, as early as the middle of the 1800′s the ancient that had existed here had become the primary travel route used by ranchers and their cattle drives. When by 1860, gold had been discovered, freight wagons used these same ancient trails, now the Montana-Utah road to bring supplies to the prospectors and soon after the settlers, which road was the most heavily traveled in the entire state of Montana..

In 1863, the Point of Rocks stage station was open which included a hotel, saloon, and post office and remained open until 1885. Roads form all over Montana converged here, those from Helena as well as from the Big Hole valley. Then, railroad began to cross the area and took over the clientele of the stage stop making it obsolete.

Still, from 1863 to 1885, 22 years, the Point of Rocks Stage Station was the go to place for anyone to or from Helena, Virginia City, Bannack and many more places.