“Rainbow-arched Montana prairie settles into dusky silence after an evening thunderstorm. ‘The country on both sides of the missouri from the tops of the river hills, is one continued level fertile plain as far as the eye can reach,’ [Capt. Meriwether] Lewis wrote. Spring fires set by the Indians kept the plains treeless but luxuriant with tall, protein-rich grasses that supported buffalo and other game.”
—From the National Geographic book Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery, 1998
