Weatherman Draw
Montana
Pictograph in Weatherman Draw, Montana.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
In 2002, the National Trust intervened after the Bureau of Land Management granted the Anschutz Exploration Corporation permission to drill for oil in Weatherman Draw, a valley near Warren, Montana. Considered sacred to several Native American tribes, Weatherman Draw contains the largest collection of polychromatic pictographs in the Northern Plains. although BLM had designated Weatherman Draw as an area of critical environmental concern in order to provide administrative protection for the 1000-year-old paintings, the Anschutz lease pre-dated the ACEC designation. Following lengthy negotiations between Anschutz, tribal representatives, BLM, and the National Trust, the corporation agreed to waive its development rights and transfer its leasehold interest in Weatherman Draw to the National Trust, who will hold them until expiration.
