Legacy Update

Contextual note: This article was written in the Spring of 1999 in response to a project by architecture students proposing developing the pillar with 4 story elevators for people and tunneling through it. In the Fall of 2000 a grain elevator company bought property nearby and started construction. President Clinton boldly declared Pompeys Pillar a National Monument in January 2001 to help protect it. Thank you Bill.

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People have no need of teaching if they could only think and speak the truth, and ask for what they like and want, and nothing else - John Ruskin

Seeing Pompeys Pillar over the years, I have questioned the wisdom of the caretakers. Improvements are now being planned. Newspaper articles are being published. In my mind different scenarios pop up that I worry about. Do we need a building next to the Pillar for tourists to buy t-shirts? Do we really need stairs hanging off the Pillar so everyone can climb it?

What about other support items like planting a flag, paving a parking lot, installing sewers, dumpsters, radio communication, elevators, NORAD defense radar systems, and giant TV screens so we can all do the wave? Hey, they wanted to put a theme park at Little Big Horn Battlefield! I assume everyone has gone nuts.

During one of my stressful caffeine induced attacks, I called Dick Kodeski, a planner for BLM who is in charge of the Pompeys Pillar project. He calmly assured me there would be no tunneling through the Pillar, in his lifetime anyway. He also consoled me by explaining the Historic Landmark is protected by an historic zone 1/8^th mile around it - about the size of a K-Mart parking lot. They plan to put any support buildings outside this area and possibly shield them from view with "berming".

They are planning an interpretive trail along the Yellowstone River. Also, they have already planted native vegetation, with the help of old photographs, trying to replicate the setting of 1806 when Captain Clark carved his name in the sandstone pillar. I guess that is as much as we Americans can hope for in this Golden Age of Casinos, but if I hear any more about 4 story elevators, I've got his number and e-mail.

Now that my heart is not fibrillating any more, let's use this opportunity to do a hypothetical case study. I will show how communities can transform themselves by leveraging their existing resources, create a world-class tourist attraction, and provide long-term economic stability and jobs for their kids.

Using Pompeys Pillar area as a model without talking about specific people or individual desires allows us to keep arms distance from real world problems so we can learn concepts. This should be easy for me, I have never met anyone from the area and know nothing of their plans or holdings.

In other words, to apply this example to your project, forget about money, land owners, and speculators, and form a vision before tackling the real issues. This will allow you to see beyond possible petty local issues and focus on creativity, alternative viewpoints, and long-term thinking for the benefit of everyone - the big picture.

You won't get bogged down with one member of the group on the first meeting saying (with his most fervent Ross Perot twang), "That idea will cost me $12.50 in new taxes. I don't have $12.50. If you think I'm gonna let you waste my money on this project for a bunch of slackers to come and visit for free, you're crazy. Now this chart shows…"

Or a George Bush mimic saying, "Now Bar, we've got this hot dog stand for Junior and I want it right next to the pillar so everyone can, you know, a thousand points of light and all that, see the mustard sign reflection in that, that Yellowstone thing there flowing by. Have you seen my fishing pole?"

Why not do a President Clinton clone while we're at it, "This new initiative, the nine hundredth one of my administration, will set aside 40 acres of land at one of our most prized historic sites for the Captain Clark's Gallery of Gaming, make my brother Roger a captain of casinos, put 40,000 new policeman on the streets of Toledo, and cure 3 childhood diseases."

You can see how tedious some meetings can get right away. Everyone is worried about getting theirs because it's human nature. The practical issues will always be there to be solved. Show the group you will not play favorites and will rise to a higher standard for the benefit of all. This will provide your group with a framework for success from the start.

Ask what achievements you would like to look back on when you are eighty? That you put a hot dog stand and a casino next to an historic landmark? That you saved $12.50 in taxes and then took a trip to Las Vegas for $12,000? A group with a mission statement that includes everyone and has lofty goals will outperform a group that tries to get farmer Brown's land subdivided and sold. Platitudes like saying we want our town to have a better economy won't work, either.

Start with a good mission statement like, "we want to provide the world with a world-class place to visit and share our natural wonder." People can get excited about this mission and put energy into it because they are not working for farmer Brown or the realtor, they are providing a legacy and the world will recognize their contribution.

You will all make more money over the long-term if you approach your community project from this different perspective. Now the question is, what makes a world-class place to visit? You study that to provide information that will guide your group. Jump into the project and the answer will be discovered. The most important thing is the desire to do it. Look to Lewis and Clark's journey for an example of courage and get started today. Realize that during the tough times ahead you will have it pretty easy compared to their journey.

One way to start is to study successful examples from the past and present. What did Greece do differently? How come Venice was so successful? Don't laugh, I'm not suggesting we try and copy these places. We are looking for ideas to apply to our project. For instance, a tourist attraction in Greece would probably have a strong processional aspect, roads with columns, open air markets, temples on hills. People like this stuff for good reasons. How can we put it to work in your project so you can benefit by it?

Put your ideas together and discuss the things you like the best and why. Stay open minded. Do a study on the best way to utilize the land for everyone's benefit. Hire a professional to take your idea, make it work, and expand on it. This will save you time. Don't rely on your neighbor; the one with a T-square and the John Nagey Learn to Draw books. Don't hire a yes man. You need someone who will challenge you to expand your creative thinking.

How can we keep your land from looking like a subdivided junky mess that no one in their right mind would want to take 5 minutes out of their day to stop and visit? That takes creativity and determination. Usually, you will find that great tourist destinations have great natural beauty and man made structures developed in a way as not to interfere. Rio comes to mind or Yellowstone Lake or the original lodge at Old Faithful.

We have a great power we seldom use; hindsight. Follow the few great examples of land strategies that have successfully been used in other parts of the country and the world. Then, look to the typical cheap and gaudy development along the strip in every community (and National Park) and see that you do not want this - and do things to avoid it.

Here are some of my ideas to get you started. Maximize the benefit to the crumbling town of Pompeys Pillar when developing the Pillar. Require the traffic to drive to the town first (at the foothills) on the old frontage road and create a staging area. People can park, get gas, have a picnic, use the restrooms, buy gifts, and access the town a short walk away on a nice path. This keeps the development away from the Pillar and the river. Build your lodge in town and reinvigorate the town. Don't build a Motel 6-1/2 - build a ten!

One way to eliminate strip development around the pillar is to eliminate the public road. Provide a private road with no opportunity for access or development. Build the private road and a foot path from the staging area straight to the river where the interpretive trail begins, which takes the visitor along the river to the pillar.  People may bike or drive along this private road or maybe you could bus them. Test the concepts to see what works. This is anticipation, drama; leading your audience along a desired route for maximum effect.

Instead, most towns say, with the voice of Eeyore the burrow on Winnie the Pooh, "Here's our pillar - park over there - casino on the right - get in line - wonder why we don't get more visitors and all our money goes to advertising - we've tried everything - even the giant billboards don't work."

To get lots of tourists to believe you have a special place, you have to think it yourself first! You don't show them you think it by trashing your place. They can see that a mile away. I personally don't think building fake military forts out of logs or putting a casino in every restaurant and gas station is the way to build long-term visitors.

Always test your concepts to see which will work the best in your situation and have a number of alternative plans to use for a contingency. If a particular landowner is going to be stubborn or a particular item is too expensive for the return on investment, move on to the next scheme. The back up plans should follow your overall mission statement.

This type of project gets noticed in architectural, interiors, business and general interest magazines. Think Architectural Record, Contract Design, Town and Country Magazine to help attract visitors from all over the world. Even Reader's Digest, and Sunset Magazine will do their version of the success story you created. Other publications will pick up these stories and advertise for you.

You must leverage your resources. You will need all the leverage you can muster for people to come and see the Pillar, especially a few years down the road when all the excitement wears off. They will not do stories on a casino laced strip development and funky visitor's centers with T-shirts hanging up on the porch for sale - unless it's Las Vegas.

Paying for the project is always going to be a problem. But you have helped yourself rise to the task by turning the project into a lifelong dream to leave a legacy, instead of a year long project to make a buck. People have an uncanny ability to figure out ways to get what they want - if they really have the desire. To fan that desire, you need a strong mission statement from the beginning.

Do the project in stages if you have to. You now have a master plan that people will pay attention to and you can proudly strive for. As you make money on the initial projects apply them to the next stage. When that is accomplished start on a round of financing for new small business in your town with a new mission statement waiting in the wings. This will take you from a tourist economy to a business economy.

We need to protect our heritage and create a place that people all over the world can dream about. Only in this way can you make a lasting legacy appropriate for a place that you are now steward of. You can't do this while trying to be like every other stop on the route.

You will make more money, gain more free publicity, attract more tourists, and leave a legacy for your children and the future. Your name will be on the project similar to Captain Clark's; in stone, on a pillar, by a river, in Montana.

Copyright 1999 by Jeffrey C. Baston, NCARB, AIA

Together we can:
Plan great little competitive communities and leave a legacy to the future.

See the director's contact page or e-mail jb@redfly.com.

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AUGUST 25, 2000: Hate to say I told you so but, have a gander at the new grain elevators being built near the pillar. Maybe we can "berm it". Billings Gazette article and photo.

Jan 3, 2001: Hearing set for March 26 in Billings to appeal permit to build grain elevators. Billings Gazette article

It may be noteworthy, Montana has 145,556 square miles, or approximately 93 million acres of open range (give or take a casino or two).