Leaving His Mark, the Clark Rock

​William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, certainly left his mark in history. He also left it in a sandstone column in Montana, known today as Pompeys Pillar. He wrote in his journal about carving his name on the rock. He did not write about carving his name on any other rock. But, did he leave another mark behind?
 
In the September 14, 1911 edition of the Idaho Statesman there was an article about a rock found by the son of M.D. Yeaman, who was described as a pioneer farmer. Yeaman’s son allegedly found the rock while plowing a field near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Snake River. A scar made by the plow can be seen on the rock. Carved into the sandstone was “Clark 1805.”
 

In 1805 there were not a lot people named Clark trekking around what would become Idaho. Speculation grew that it was William Clark who had carved his name into the rock. To historians the location of the stone seemed too far south for it to have been genuine. Clark documented his travels well, and those documents don’t seem to place him on the South Fork of the Snake. Mr. Yeaman had a theory about that. He thought the stone might have been traded by Indians and found its way to the banks of the Snake.
 
To confuse things a bit further, the Statesman received a letter a few days later in which a second stone was said to exist. The article is reproduced below.

​The story of the rock, or rocks, seemed to die after that. There was a mention of it in the May 1997 issue of We Proceeded On, the official publication of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation.
 
Thanks to Idaho State Historical Society Curator of Collections Sarah Phillips, I’m able to show you a picture of the Clark Rock. She located the rock in their collection and sent me the photo below right.

The genuine Clark marking on the left is from Pompeys Pillar. Compare it to the stone found in Idaho on the right. Since the carving on the pillar is in cursive it is difficult to say if the word "Clark" was done by the same hand. One could speculate that Clark would have used cursive again for a second stone, but who is to say? The only marks that can really be compared are the numerals. The 8 and 0 on the rock seem to have been formed differently than the same numbers​ on the pillar. Meanwhile, the 5 in both instances does look similar.

We will probably never know for certain. My best guess is that the Clark Rock is just a prank.

Thanks, again, to the Idaho State Historical Society for use of their photo of Clark Rock.