Click here to go to the main page.



Whitehall Lewis & Clark

Bicentennial Murals

The peak for the Lewis & Clark Expedition Bicentennial was 2005, but historians, tourists and others are expected to continue visiting Whitehall in 2007 to tour the dozen Whitehall Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Murals.

The murals drew large audiences throughout 2005 and have been southwestern Montana historical and artistic landmarks since 2002. The murals, bright and colorful works of art that depict actual historical events, have been recognized by the Montana Lewis & Clark Commission for their accuracy, quality and historic value.

The twelfth and final Lewis & Clark mural in Whitehall was placed on the Rocky Mountain Bank building in late September 2002, and a "History of Whitehall" mural was completed in December 2002 on the new library addition. The spectacular Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Murals series, which has attracted national recognition, portrays a dozen events that occurred during the expedition.

The first mural painted depicts Corps of Discovery members pulling a boat upstream on the Jefferson River as the expedition traveled west in 1805, and the final mural completed depicts the Corps floating east back home in 1806. So the dozen murals depict the full experience of Lewis & Clark in the Jefferson Valley…venturing west to the Pacific Ocean and returning home to the east.

The murals are artistic and historic gems painted on buildings in Whitehall, and they tell the local story of one of America's greatest expeditions.

The murals, a project sponsored by the Whitehall Chamber of Commerce, were started in 1999. Twelve murals decorate 12 Whitehall buildings, and each mural depicts an actual expedition scene, activity or event that occurred in the Jefferson River Valley near Whitehall.

Whitehall muralist Kit Mather has researched the journals of Captains Lewis and Clark or other members of the expedition. Mather has taken the words from the journals and essentially transformed them into paintings, and the paintings tell the story of Lewis & Clark's journey through the Jefferson Valley.

The murals have become one of the "must see" attractions along the Lewis & Clark Trail and have been extensively featured in national and regional publications. The murals draw visitors from across the country (and internationally) and with the convenient location of the murals in Whitehall, it only takes a short tour and a short amount of time to visit all 12 of them.

Geocaching — the use of GPS systems to identify locations — is a growing recreational pursuit and geocaches can be found at the murals. Go to www.geocaching.com and type in the Whitehall Zip Code of 59759. Happy hunting!

Fast facts about the Whitehall murals:

  • Whitehall resident Carilyn Jenkin did the calligraphy that adorns each mural.

  • The murals have received so much recognition that Whitehall is becoming known as the "City of Murals."

  • The Whitehall Chamber of Commerce mural project received nearly $17,000 in grants and local contributions, including a $10,500 grant from the Montana Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission.

  • The largest mural is 11 feet by 90 feet and depicts a passage from the journals referring to signs of buffalo and beavers. The smallest mural is 7 feet by 18 feet and depicts a passage from the journals about an Indian observing the Corps.

  • The murals are also geocache locations and have been visited by hundreds of people who combine the new technology associated with geocaching with the artistic history embodied in the murals.

  • The mural of Sacajawea is based on a painting by Edgar S. Paxon, now in the permanent collection of the Museum of the Arts at the University of Montana in Missoula.

  • To see photographs of each mural, of muralist Kit Mather at work or a map of the murals, click on the buttons below.