Aspen: A Touch of Color - 1 Page 1 of 2 |everal groves of
quaking aspen trees enhance the landscape of the area Lewis
called "the prarie of the knobs," from the number of knobs
hillocks being irregularly scattered through it." Each grove
consists of a large number of clones of a single parent tree.
Because the earth sciences as we know them were still in their
infancy, Lewis could not have recognized the knobs such as those
shown in this photo as moraines or piles of glacial debris,
which may have been deposited here as recently as 17,000 years
ago. The groves pictured here surround the vestige of a glacial
tarn or pond, which now is rimmed by crystalized salt leached
from the surrounding soil. | Lewis and Clark notice aspen ore
than a year into the expedition, having traveled hundreds of
miles through flora and fauna new to them, Lewis recognized a
tree native to New England in the middle of Montana. On July 16,
1805, at "tower rock"—the first "gate of the Rocky
Mountains"—near Cascade, Lewis "passed a small