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This trek will take about six hours from Billings, driving on
Hwy 310. A 4-wheel vehicle is not required.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
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 Although this unusual rock cairn is located just south of the Montana border in Wyoming,
it is part of the Pryor Mountains locale that leads northward into Petroglyph Canyon. The builder of the cairn has
not been identified. It sits on the edge of a small hill that marks locations
for numerous mining rights markers, long since abandoned, and it also is
stationed at the southern entrance to Petroglyph Canyon.
It sits about ¼-mile to the northwest of the road leading to the draw, and
about 1 mile north of the Cowley airport’s entrance. Cowley is on Hwy 310.
You take Hwy 212 south
out of Laurel,
and turn onto Hwy 310 at Rockvale. Continue to follow this road south through
Edgar, Fromberg, Bridger, Warren, (Cross into Wyoming) Frannie,
Deaver, and finally Cowley. At Cowley turn north on the access road leading
to Cowley Airport, located about two miles
distant. [Use BLM Map # 36 for reference.] From the turnoff at Cowley
continue for about five miles on the County Road leading to Petroglyph Canyon and the Bentonite Haul &
Crooked Creek Roads.
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As you
walk north up the hillside towards the cairn, you will notice the white-post
mining claim markers scattered all over the area. To the right of this
picture, about 100 feet, is a wooden post boundary
marker for T9S R96W T57N Wyoming Prime Meridian. This is located just south
of T9s R26 E Montana Prime Meridian. The cairn is about three-feet square,
and six feet high. Its sides are essentially aligned with the compass
headings (N-S-E-W.) The top of the hill has numerous flat square sandstone
rocks lying about. A branch of Dry Creek is barely visible in the background.
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