Montana’s state parks contain the remains of ancient American Indian campsites, buffalo jumps, tipi rings, and intricate paintings and carvings. Historic sites, left by Montana’s most recent inhabitants over the last 200 years, such as homesteads, barns, and mining towns, also appear within our treasured state parks.
Prehistoric and historic sites are fragile, nonrenewable resources. Observe and visit sites within parks, but act respectfully while you are there. Help Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks preserve Montana’s valuable heritage. Explore Montana’s past and help protect it by following these simple guidelines.
Help protect our state parks and the wonderful resources they offer. Our heritage sites are a lasting treasure that connect us to long–gone eras that are a part of who we are today. Be our eyes and ears when you visit our cultural parks. If you find a vandalized heritage site (modern graffiti or holes dug in prehistoric campsites), please report it to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks at (406) 444-3750.
State Parks with Prehistoric Sites
Ancient Pictograph
Leave artifacts where you find them
If you visit a state park that contains a prehistoric campsite, you may find chipped stone tools or other artifacts as you explore. Artifact collecting and unlawful digging within archaeological sites destroys irreplaceable scientific information about past peoples and violates the Montana Antiquities Act.
Don't touch paintings or carvings
When you visit sites where prehistoric paintings and carvings are found (called pictographs and petroglyphs by archaeologists), observe these images but don’t touch them. Chemicals and oils on your hands are harmful to the images and can speed up deterioration. Painted images, because of their antiquity, are fragile. Touching them may cause the paint to flake off the rock face. Take pictures at these sites, but do not trace images in chalk to enhance photographs as this harms these ancient resources. If you visit a rock shelter or cave that contains painted or carved images, be aware that campfires built inside these areas will blacken cave walls and allow soot to collect on the prehistoric images.
State Parks with Historic Sites
Historic CCC Bridge
Leave all buildings and artifacts in place
When visiting Montana’s state parks that exhibit remains of the homesteading, mining, and industrial eras, you will see historic landmarks, buildings, structures, and possibly historic artifacts (cans, glass, bottles, ceramics, machinery). Leave all artificacts as you find them. If you enter a building, please leave the interior as you discover it. Removing or tearing wallpaper or placing graffiti on walls affects the integrity of historic buildings. Recently, vandals have left their names and initials on building walls. FWP is working to remove these modern intrusions.
