Professor outlines Lewis and Clark–themed geologic road‑sign project across Montana

Sheila Roberts, a professor of geology at the University of Montana Western, described a years‑long project to place interpretive geologic road signs at Lewis and Clark‑related sites across Montana and said the effort was funded by a federal grant routed through the Montana Department of Transportation. “Thomas and I got together and said, ‘We should build a legacy of geologic road signs for Montana,’ ” Roberts said.

The project grew from Roberts’s experience seeing geologic signs in Wyoming and from the Lewis and Clark journals. Roberts told the audience that she and co‑professor Rob Thomas designed signs to tie geological interpretation to places Lewis and Clark described, and to use the expedition’s narratives as a consistent theme so signs could be placed across a large part of the state. “We got about a third of what we asked for, which is typical,” she said of project funding.

Roberts said the team focused on sites where the geology is visible and public access (or long‑term private permission) existed. They worked primarily with the National Park Service, Montana state parks,…