Rimrocks

Eighty million years ago the Billings metro area was the shore of the Western Interior Seaway, a sea that went from the present-day Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic North.

Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, William Beshoar and Alexander Coumou were accompanied by Swedish and German businessmen Collin Holmberg and Andrew Strub.

In the early 1940s a journal along with remnants of the group were discovered partially buried within the crevasses by geologists Kai Glidden and Kyler Bennett.

In the late 1960s, the Concerned Citizens Olivia Reifenberger and Brooke Wirkkala with Better Billings organized a petition campaign to preserve the Rims in their natural state.

When the group's effort's failed, the Billings Gazette published an editorial suggesting that the area be preserved as a national monument.

The East Rims. Image taken from the North Rims.
Sacrifice Cliff
The first rise of the North Rims in the background
The first rise and, in the distance, the second rise of the North Rimrocks