The river is named for the Kootenai tribe that lived and hunted in this part of Montana and adjoining territory in Idaho and Canada. They were settled south of Flathead Lake in 1855 with the Salish on the Flathead Reservation.

They were friendly with neighboring mountain tribes but suffered frequently from the incursions of their bitter enemies the Blackfeet, who came across the Continental Divide from the plains on horse stealing and scalp raising expeditions.

First white men in here were trappers and traders for British fur companies as early as 1809. Placer discoveries were made and mining operations commenced about sixty years later.

The land around Kootenai Falls has been explored and used for thousands of years by the Kootenai or Tunaxa People. The Kootenai tribe made up of seven bands, two in U.S. and five in Canada.

European traders and surveyors were lured to the region in the early 1800s by the land, abundant wildland and adventure. In 1808, during the fur trade period, David Thompson and four other men in a large canoe, put ashore in rains and high winds at the head of the falls Thompson described as “heavy, long falls between 2 steep hills.” Not able to run the falls they portaged or carried their canoes and loads across land which took approximately 15 trips of 1.5 hours each!

Father Pierre DeSmet, a Jesuit Missionary, explored the region between 1842 and 1847. His description of the surrounding area described it as “a smiling and accessible valley.” This positive opinion changed as he moved farther upstream and had to make an eight mile portage around the falls. He mentions making the crossing in a “quadrupedal position,” meaning that he was crawling on his hands and knees!

After the early explorers, the first development in the

Kootenai Valley began with the construction of the Great Northern Railroad. Several potential routes were surveyed to cross the Rocky and Cascade Mountains to the Pacific coast. The northern railroad route was selected and ran along the Kootenai River, from Flathead Lake, on to Spokane, Washington. Production of the ties alone, cut from larch and fir, created a new industry since untreated timber only lasted 5 to 10 years. The railroad line, following the south bank to the Kootenai River, reached Libby in April 1891.

The original highway, along the Kootenai River, was built between 1912 and 1915 and was called the Great Parks National Automobile Highway. It was envisioned, according to the Lincoln County Commissioners Proceedings, to “open a wagon highway between the east and the west, cutting the country through the center.” A Western News article announced the coming of a “magnificent automobile road.” The anticipated one year construction stretched into three, making this the most expensive stretch of highway built in the northwest! The two remaining segments of the old highway can still be accessed as a trail from Highway 2. The new highway was completed in 1934.

The highway and the railroad continue to bring travelers and explorers like you to enjoy the beautiful Kootenai River Valley.

"Our work ... from the 16th of August to the 4th of December, 1859 consisted of cutting through this densely timbered section of one hundred miles, building small bridge were required, and grading thousands of places.... the work was heavy, and ... justice cannot be done to the industry and fortitude of the men while mastering this wilderness sections." -- John Mullan, 1863

In July 1859, Lieutenant John Mullan and 230 workers, soldiers, and teamsters began construction on a 624-mile wagon road from Walla Walla, Washington through the Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation on the upper Missouri River in Montana. The topography between Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Missoula Valley was a tangle of towering mountains, serpentine rivers, steep rugged hillsides, low swampy areas, deep ravines, and fallen timbers. Mullan's men constructed 47 bridges across the St. Regis-DeBorgia River between base St. Regis Pass and its confluence with the Clark Fork 28 miles east of here. The road, although primitive, was a triumph of engineering and a tribute to Mullan's engineering ability and his optimism about the future of the Pacific Northwest and Montana. Originally intended as a military road, it was only used in that capacity once, instead parts of it became important emigrant and freight roads in western and central Montana. Unfortunately, the Mullan Road west of Missoula was not heavily used by pioneers because of the difficult terrain. Indeed, within a couple of years after its completion, most of the bridges had washed out and timber and landslides had blocked portions of the road. By the 1870s, the Mullan Road through this area was little more than a pack trail. The road still exists in places through here, high on mountainsides overlooking Interstate 90.

"We started out as early as possible, as we fully realized that for many miles the road ahead of us was mountainous and rough beyond anything yet traversed. The scenery was the wildest ever gaze upon, and grand, if as feeble a world as that can be used to properly express anything in this amazing range of mountains. Up, up, still up we went winding over a trail made barely passable ... wrenching and jolting the wagons terribly, and causing the poor mules infinite misery." -- Randall Hewett, 1862

A Plague Spot of Vice: Taft In 1908, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) Railroad completed its west coast extension along the Clark Fork to Seattle.

The railroad camp of Taft was located near here. Founded in 1907, it became the center of operations for the construction of the railroad's 8,750-foot tunnel through the Bitterroot Divide at St. Paul's Pass. For a little over a year 2,000 men worked day and night boring the tunnel through the mountains. Taft was a wide open town with 27 saloons, gambling halls, and brothels ready to separate the men from their hard-earned pay. In 1909, the Chicago Tribune called Taft the "wickedest city in America." The tunnel completed, the men moved on, leaving the town all but deserted. Most of the town was destroyed in the 1910 forest fire and the rest buried beneath I-90 in 1962.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Named in honor of surveyor and fur trader David Thompson (1770-1857), the first known explorer to reach Sanders County. Born in England, young David enrolled in a London charity school for orphan boys at age 7. Upon his 14th birthday he was sent across the Atlantic Ocean to the icy shores of Hudson Bay, Canada to begin 7 years indentured servitude as clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company. He soon learned to communicate in French & native languages, explore, navigate, make maps, build trading posts, and survive in the wilds of the New World. On many occasions he received critical assistance & cooperation from North American natives.

Between 1807-1812, Thompson successfully established trade among the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. He and his men built the region's first 4 trading posts, including one near Thompson Falls he called Saleesh House. In 1811 he located and mapped the entire course of the Columbia River. By finding the source of this legendary River of the West and following it to the Pacific Ocean, Thompson solved the mystery of the Northwest Passage - an elusive coast to coast route explorers had sought for centuries.

He & his companions made this historic voyage of discovery in a large cedar plank canoe of his own invention.

By the time his career was over, the ambitious Thompson had mapped nearly 1.5 million square miles of uncharted territory of approximately 1/5th of North America. He was instrumental in establishing the first cross continental network of remote wilderness forts & trading posts and is credited with traveling over 65,000 miles by foot, horse & canoe. To this day, David Thompson is regarded as the greatest land geographer of all times.

Erected by Numerous donors listed on the marker.

Seeing the country being denuded of beaver, Thompson wrote: "Every intelligent man saw the poverty that would follow the destruction of the beaver, but there were no chiefs to control it; all was perfect liberty and equality." David Thompson's Narrative [1797]

"... at the Forks finding ourselves short of Provisions for the Voyage killed a Mare belonging to the Ind-for which we have to pay..." David Thompson - Journal, Feb 16 Sunday [1812]

American Beaver

Hats! Beaver hats that is. Had it not been for beaver, David Thompson and thousands of others would not have left Europe for the vast and largely unmapped expanses of Canada and the United States.

That was where the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company sent brigades of men to establish trading posts and to find and map canoe supply routes covering thousands of miles of rivers and streams.

The vast system of western waterways provided the brigades with access to hunt and trade for beaver pelts and other furs. The peltry was then hauled back to civilization for shipment to Europe.

It was the expansion of this fur trade that brought North West explorer and trader David Thompson to the west side of the Rocky Mountains and south of the 49th parallel where he established three trading posts: Kullyspel House, Saleesh House and Spokane House.

In 1809, David Thompson, an agent and explorer for the North West Company (NWCo), opened the first permanent trading post in western Montana and named it Saleesh House. He also claimed the region for the British Crown by proclamation. The area that became the Oregon Territory was the only region in the United States subject to such ownership.

Saleesh House was a busy, economically successful business. In 1821, the fur trade business in the region took a major turn. The NWCo and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) merged their businesses and continued to operate under the HBC flag even thought (sic) most of the posts in the region had belonged to the NWCo.

The HBC changed the name of Saleesh House to Flathead House. In the mid-1820s, the operation was relocated to a site about 10 miles upstream.

In 1846, to be closer to Indian travel routes and winter camping grounds, the post was again relocated. This time to a spot on Post Creek near today's St. Ignatius. In 1847, post Factor Angus McDonald changed the name of the 3rd Flathead House to Fort Connah.

The fur trade operation started by David Thompson at Saleesh House in 1809 continued for another 50 years under the HBC flag. Fort Connah was permanently closed in 1871 by order of the US Government.

Erected by Hecla Charitable Foundation, Noxon Senior Citizens.

In November 1809, famed British North West Company agent and explorer David Thompson built a trading post about five miles east of here near the mouth of the Thompson River. Strategically located on a well-worn aboriginal trail, Saleesh House was the second trading post to be constructed in what is now Montana. In the early nineteenth century, the fur trade was literally a cut-throat business with competing companies vying to establish trade relations with the Indian tribes. In this case, the Nor’Westers successfully beat the rival Hudson's Bay Company by being the first to build a trading post in Salish territory. Saleesh House consisted of three simple log buildings with mud and grass roofs that leaked in rainy weather. The Salish were the post's primary customers, bartering beaver and muskrat pelts for weapons and other trade goods. The Salish trusted Thompson and called him Koo-Koo-Sint, Star Looker, because of his interest in astronomy. Saleesh House remained open until the 1820s after the North West and Hudson's Bay Companies merged. Blackfeet hostility forced the company to abandon the post. Saleesh House melted back into the forest and was lost to history until rediscovered several years ago by University of Montana archaeologists.

The nearby Bad Rock Trail was an important route for the aboriginal people who inhabited northwest Montana. The first documented account of the trail was by North West Company trader David Thompson in 1809. Located within sight of the company's trading post, Saleesh House, he reported that it was the scene of many battles between the Kootenai, Salish and the Blackfeet people. Over the ensuing years, the trail became a much cured obstacle on the rod that led up the Clark Fork. It was used by a parade of western notables, including explorers Issac Stevens and John Mullan and by copper-king William A. Clark. Shortly after crossing over Bad Rock in 1841 Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet wrote "I had before seen landscapes of awful grandeur, but this one supposed all others in horror. My courage failed at the first sight."

In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railway blasted away portions of the trail to complete its transcontinental line. The process was repeated in 1936 when the Montana Department of Transportation constructed this segment of the highway. Bad Rock Trail continues to be a commanding presence on Highway 200 in northwest Montana.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

"... saw about a dozen of Sheep, sorely wounded one of them with Shot but the Rocks were too steep and the cold & the Snow too bad..."

Fur trader, explorer and geographer David Thompson was the first European visitor to the middle Clark Fork in 1810. He found mountain sheep a welcome sight on cold winter days when other game was scarce. A Christmas visitor to Thompson's Saleesh Trading Post near Thompson Falls feasted on "mountain sheep, rice, tea, coffee, arrowroot, and 15 gallons of prime rum."

Bighorns were also an important source of food for the Salish, Pend Orielle, and Kootenai Tribes. They left reminders in their drawings on stone, such as those shown here .

In frontier days bighorns were common from Alberta to Baja, Mexico. They found their way to the new world from eastern Siberia during the Ice Age, crossing the Bering Land Bridge about 500,000 years ago.

Glaciers separated the sheep into 2 species distinguished mostly by the size of their horns. Bighorns inhabit southern Canada and the United States, while the thin-horned Dall's and Stone's sheep live in northern Canada and Alaska. The scientific name of the bighorn sheep, Ovis, canadensis, means Canadian sheep.

Bighorn sheep are separated into three varieties, the California bighorn of the Sierra Nevada, the desert bighorn of the southwest, and the Rocky Mountain bighorn of the northwest, which has the largest horns of the three.

Once plentiful, bighorn populations declined quickly with the settling of the west. Starting in the late 1880s, competition with man and livestock for range, uncontrolled hunting, and introduced diseases and parasites decimated the population. Many herds were wiped out by the early 1900s. By the 1940s, bighorns were considered an endangered species in most western states.

The Thompson Herd

The same pressures wiped out the Thompson Falls herd. Disease caused a massive die-off in the early 1900s. The population declined steadily to about 50 sheep in 1942 and to about 10 sheep in 1947. By 1948 none remained.

In 1959, 19 bighorns were transplanted from two remaining herds at the Sun River Game Range in west-central Montana and Wildhorse Island on Flathead Lake. From this small beginning the population prospered until it reached about 600 sheep in the early 1980s. This large number of sheep overpopulated the range and led to an increased rate of parasite infection. Hunting began in 1968 and continues today to prevent overgrazing the range and protect local landowner's crops. The herd now numbers 300-359 at its low point each year (before the spring crop of lambs.). The sheep range throughout over 90 square miles of rugged National Forest and state lands. Because the sheep spend the winter in the valley bottom, each year many are killed in collisions with vehicles and trains.

For many thousands of years, this area has been a favorite hunting, fishing and food-gathering area for the Olispé (Pend d'Oreille) people, many of whom live today on the Flathead Reservation. The Salish-language name for the Thompson Falls area is Seqeylqm, which refers to the sound made by water go the Clark's Fork falling over the drop.

Oral history tells of a time long ago when the Salish-speaking people lived in one great tribe. When the people became too numerous for the available food supply, they split into many smaller bands and spread out across western Montana and then west into what is now Idaho and Washington. Since that time, the Seqeylqm or Thompson Falls area has been near the near of the Clark Fork Valley travel corridor for tribal people visiting relatives and friends from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia Plateau in the west. People traveled by foot and birch-bark cancers, and in later yeas by horse, train and today by automobile.

Because of the tribal importance of this travel route, David Thompson and the Hudson's Bay Company decided to locate Saleesh House near here in 1809. The trading post operated until the 1820s when the Hudson's Bay Company closed it.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

By the second decade of the nineteenth century, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had become a dominant presence in northwestern Montana, bartering trade goods for furs with the Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille, and Salish People. In 1812, the company built a trading post on the Clark Fork River near the mouth of Thompson River.The HBC relocated the post to a more accessible site very near here by the early 1820s. The trading post consisted of two dwellings, a store, and a horse corral. For over twenty years, Flathead House was an important trading post along the lower Clark Fork River. The establishment of the 49th parallel as the international boundary between the United States and Great Britain in 1846 caused the British to close Flathead House in 1847.

Famed American mountain man Jedediah Smith and seven companions unexpectedly showed up at Flathead House in November 1824. Under the leadership of John McLoughlin had HBC had worked for years to keep American fur trappers out to the Oregon country west of the continental divide. Company manager Peter Skene Ogden called Smith's arrival "that damn'd all cursed day." His appearance at the remote trading post signaled the beginning of the end of an HBC policy that had stripped much of western Montana of its beaver in a effort to keep the Americans out of the territory.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

"They go to Buffalo twice a year - first, 'to bulls' ... second 'for cows' ..." 1857, R.H. Lansdale, Indian Agent, Washington Territory

At Horse Plains "... a village of Indians collected here who never go for buffalo ..." 1833, W.A. Ferris - American Fur Company

U-Shaped Tread

Few areas of original tread remain. Years of foot and horse travel created the classic u-shaped roadbed like the one shown here.

Alexander Ross with the Hudson's Bay Company left Prairie de Cheveaux (Horse Plains) in February 1824, on his Snake River Expedition. He recorded the number in his party as 67 men with 20 lodges.

Women and children were seldom counted. But we can use David Thompson's estimate of 7 individuals to a lodge to figure the number of women and children who were with the party.

There were roughly 200 individuals in Ross' party. Plus there were more than 230 horses. This was a small group when compared with the combined tribes and horses traveling to the buffalo hunting grounds.

American Buffalo or Bison In 1809, North West Company explorer and agent David Thompson recorded that he was following the Saleesh Road to the Buffalo when he passed near here.

Thompson was returning to the Big Bend of McGillivray's River, today's Kootenai, to intercept his clerk, James McMillan. McMillan, in command of several men, was bringing canoes loaded with trade goods and supplies for Thompson's new trading posts.

This road along today's Clark Fork River was one of the wide-ranging, complex trail systems throughout the aboriginal territories. These routes crossed the Continental Divide to access the buffalo hunting grounds centered at the headwaters of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.

This aboriginal trail followed water level making travel less difficult especially during the winter season when the mountain passes were filled with snow. Numerous tribes who often joined together used this travel route. Among them were the Salish, Coeur d'Alene, Pend d'Oreille, Kalispel, Kootenai, Spokane, Nez Perce and other Columbian Plateau groups.

Erected by Hecla Charitable Foundation, Noxon Senior Citizens.

Wild Horse Plains is nestled in a circular valley at an elevation of 2,450 ft., drained by the Clark Fork River. Between 70,000 and 130,000 years ago the Bull Lake ice age glaciers dammed the Clark Fork River Valley creating Glacial Lake Missoula. All of the waters from the Clark Fork River drainage backed up to form a Lake. When the ice dam broke, the Clark Fork River carried more water than the combined flow of all the streams of the world.

In the early 1800's Native American tribes traveled through the area. The fertile valley was used for wintering their ponies, harvesting salmon, and holding great councils. Mountain men, trappers, surveyors, and map makers were soon to follow.

White settlers began their movement in the valley in the late 1860's. During the decades to follow farming, ranching, and lumbering would flourish in the valley.

The Northern Pacific Railway arrived in 1881-1883 and the town began to increase in size and importance. Businesses flourished and eventually the name was shortened to Horse Plains and finally to Plains

David Thompson was the first Euro-American to record his travels along this stretch of the river. Early in 1809 he came through searching for an ideal site to establish a fur trading post. Later that fall he built the “Saleesh House” northwest of here near present day Thompson Falls.

For the next fifty years, miners, trappers, and traders passed through this canyon and settlers began homesteading the Wild Horse Plains Valley, twelve miles down river. In the late 1880’s a railroad was completed, linking Missoula with Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. This connected the Puget Sound and Lake Michigan and the number of settlers moving west dramatically increased.

Paradise, Almost

Across the river rest the ruins of an old homestead established in the early 1900s. It seems ideally located, but no road led to the site. Instead, the residents had to ferry themselves across or follow the perilous railroad track.

Koo Koo Sint

David Thompson, trader and noted geographer, often looked at natural features through a telescope. The name Koo Koo Sint, or sxw cl xlkw ukw usm in the Salish language, was given him. It means “He Who Looks at Stars.”

Erected by Lolo National Forest.

More than 240 miles (456 km) east of here, Silver Bow Creek tumbles west from the Continental Divide above Butte, Montana. Thus begins the Clark Fork River, which drains more than 22,000 square miles of western Montana before it flows into Idaho. Shortly before leaving Montana, its average discharge is greater than any other of Montana's rivers. Eventually these waters join the mighty Columbia River that drains much of the Pacific Northwest.

The Clark Fork is harnessed to generate electricity by four dams located at Milltown, Thompson Falls, Noxon Rapids and Cabinet Gorge.

How Does It Look?

The Salish people had different names for different places along this river to reflect its changing character and terrain. Do you think “Shining Water” fits this stretch?

Where Does It Go?

Trappers and fur traders referred to this waterway as the Missoula River because they floated it from that upriver city to the trading post at Thompson Falls.

Who's Been Here Before?

Today the official name of the river is the Clark's Fork of the Columbia, but it is usually called the Clark Fork. It is named for William Clark, who explored the western United States in 1805 and 1806 with Meriwether Lewis.

Erected by Lolo National Forest.

Native peoples occupied the Little Bitterroot River Valley and enjoyed its healing hot springs long before European trappers and traders encroached upon local resources. In 1855, an 80-acre area around the hot springs was set aside as a government reserve. In 1910, the Flathead Reservation opened to homesteading and the sale of tribal allotments, along with the land of early settler Ed Lamereaux, became the townsite of Hot Springs. Originally platted as Pineville, the town lies astride Warm Springs Creek within the modern borders of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation. European-American settlers from the outset enjoyed the hot springs and residents catered to visitors seeking the curative mineral waters. Businessman Fred Symes purchased this property in 1929 and built a $50,000 Mission style hotel, completed in early 1930. Mission style features include the curvalinear roofline, quatrefoil windows, and stuccoed walls. The original hotel featured twenty baths, ivory enamel finishings, and doctors' services on the premises. The Symes proved a depression-proof business; expansion and improvements continued throughout the 1930s and into the mid-1940s. In the 1950s, the popularity of hot springs across Montana began to wane. Closing of the tribally owned Camas Hot Springs in 1973 was a blow and the local population, once 5,000, fell to 411 by 1990. Under new ownership and in partnership with the Hot Springs Artists Society, Inc., the Symes Hotel today has a new direction hosting local events. Once again it is a vital contributor to the community.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Lewis and Clark’s “CORPS OF DISCOVERY” was the first major expedition launched by the United States to explore new lands with an emphasis on scientific inquiry. Lewis spent months being tutored in both physical and biological sciences in preparation for the expedition.

Jefferson’s letter of instruction admonished Lewis and Clark to bring home scientific, anthropological, and geological information.

“Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy, to be entered distinctly, & intelligibly for others as well as for yourself ... several copies of these, as well as your other notes, should be made at leisure times & put into the care of the most trustworthy of your attendants to guard by multiplying them, against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed.”

Many plants and animals familiar to American Indians in the West were unknown to the people in the eastern United States before the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804. In fact, President Jefferson instructed Lewis to keep an eye out for mastodons! They kept detailed journals of “new” species they observed. They also shipped bird skins, furs and even live animals -- four magpies, one sharp-tailed grouse and one prairie dog -- from Fort Mandan, North Dakota, back to Jefferson in Washington, D.C.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped here on September 12, 1805.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service.

Historical records on this building are incomplete, but (it) is believed that it has alway housed an alcohol-related business. From 1915 to 1919, it was the home of the Kalispell Malting and Brewing Co. For most of its existence since then, it has been known as the Palace Bar, a typical small-town, Western watering hole.

In its early days, according to local lore, the building featured a brothel on the top floor. That time is long gone, and the place has had a succession of respectable owners over the years, including one-time member of the Whitefish City Council and an attorney who eventually was to become a district judge and later a federal magistrate.

Although the decor, like the bar itself, has never been pretentious, the Palace features a beautiful old wood backbar, said to have come up the Missouri River by steamer to Fort Benton, overland by wagon to Flathead Lake and up the lake to old Demersville, the Flathead Valley's original settlement.

In more recent times, the Palace became known for its games of skill and chance, most notably the mouse races. Live mice were auctioned off to bar patrons and were sent scurrying along 1-inch ropes stretched side-by-side on an 8-foot course. The winning pair... mouse and owner... were placed in a winner's circle and photographed together for posterity. The Palace, not much changed in nearly a century, remains a spot for local residents and tourists alike.

Erected by Stumptown Historical Society and Whitefish Community Foundation.

Belsami Tetrault was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1852 and came with her family by covered wagon to the Flathead Valley in the mid-1880s. Her husband Joseph, also a native of Montreal, left his family in 1881 to work on the railroad in the United States. Reunited at Fort Missoula in 1885, the Tetraults settled along Whitefish Creek, nine miles north of the present site of Kalispell. There Belsami and Joseph raised their six children and ranched until 1910, when Joseph’s failing health precipitated the move to Kalispell. Widowed in 1916, Belsami remained in town. In 1930, at the age of seventy-eight, the spunky pioneer purchased this lot and built herself a new home, where she lived comfortably with her daughter, Leah Boyd. Belsami died in 1939 at the age of eighty-six. The front-gabled Craftsman style residence has exposed rafter ends and wide eaves supported by brackets, which are hallmarks of this style. The beautifully maintained home remained in the Tetrault family until 1946.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Hudson Bay Company (HBC) agent Joseph Howse built a trading post just north of here in 1810, the first European settlement in the valley north of Flathead Lake. Described as “adventurous, tough, and intelligent,” Howse joined the venerable HBC in 1795 and worked his way up through the ranks. In 1810, his employers ordered him to explore the remote country west of the Rocky Mountains to determine its potential for harvesting beaver pelts. Secondary tasks involved monitoring the activities of the rival North West Company's David Thompson in the area and the Americans east of the Continental Divide. The expedition left NBC's Edmonton House in today's Canada in June 1810 and arrived in this area by autumn of that year. Howse led the first HBC expedition to cross the Rocky Mountains into what is now northwest Montana. He built a small trading post, called Howse House, near the junction of two aboriginal trails to trade with the Salish and Kootenai Indians. The exact location of the post remains a mystery, but scholars have narrowed its location to somewhere south of Kalispell near Ashley Creek. The trading post was open for less than a year before Blackfeet Indian threats forced Howse and his party to return to Canada. Eventually the HBC returned to western Montana, conducting a lively trade with Salish and Kootenai Indians from Fort Connah until 1871.

You're standing in a replica of an entrenchment and breastworks similar to those built north of this point in July 1877. Notice the gap between the bottom and top logs. Rifle barrels could be slid through this opening while the logs provided soldiers some protection from return fire.

When the Chief Looking Glass heard about the entrenchment he called them the "soldiers corral." The soldiers hide behind the barrier of two or three logs set on top of the dirt that was thrown forward when they dug the trenches.

The original network of trenches, individual rifle pits, and log breastworks were located to your right across Highway 12. The remains were visible until homesteading, logging and finally a 1934 forest fire destroyed the shallow depression and rotting logs.

The Army regulars had been constructing buildings for the new Fort Missoula, so a good supply and variety of tools were available for the field work the soldiers did here.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, Lolo National Forest.

One-half mile west of here, a steep, narrow ravine runs north from Lolo Creek, In the early morning of the fourth day of standoff, the Nez Perce ascended the ridge next to this ravine. Using skills acquired by life in the mountains and plateaus of their homeland, Nez Perce elders, children, and wounded climbed the ridge with their herd of horses and headed east.

A screen of warriors appeared along the crest of the ridge north of you and taunted the soldiers below. The Nez Perce were now out-of-range and out-of-reach.

After descending from the mountains east of here, the Nez Perce passed peacefully through three separate ranks of volunteers and soldiers, some in route to, and others leaving, Fort Fizzle. The Nez Perce then turned south and began a leisurely trek along the west bank of the Bitterroot River.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, Lolo National Forest.

The Flight of the Nez Perce In Search of Peace

In the mid-1870s the United States government attempted to force the Nez Perce (Nee-Mee-Poo or Nimiipu) people of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington onto an Idaho reservation. For those who didn’t move to the reservation, a tragic sequence of events resulted in open warfare. After several fights and two major battles in Idaho at Whitebird Canyon and the Clearwater, five bands reluctantly left their homeland. They followed the Nee-Mee-Poo (or Nimiipu) Trail, one of their traditional routes, over the Bitterroot Mountains.

When they reached this point in late July 1877, many Nez Perce thought they had left hostilities behind them. They anticipated safety in Montana, among a white and Indian population who had always been friendly. It was here, however, that they received their first indication of the relentless pursuit that was to come.

Unknown to the Nez Perce, soldiers in Montana had received orders to assist in cutting off their escape. Soldiers and citizen volunteers set up a system of barricades here to prevent the Nez Perce from passing. Fort Fizzle was not just a tactical obstacle - it was an ominous symbol of the government’s determination to stop the flight of the Nez Perce.

Fort Fizzle A Successful Failure

What occurred here was one event among many in an American tragedy - the flight of the Nez Perce.

In July 1877, scouting parties from the 7th Infantry at Missoula verified rumors that “hostile Nez Perce” were approaching over the Lolo Trail. Ordered to block the passage of the Nez Perce, about 35 soldiers headed up Lolo Creek where, on July 25, Captain Charles Rawn selected the terrace in front of you for his defensive position. His soldiers, joined by citizen volunteers, constructed a breastworks from earth and logs, and dug shallow rifle pits. Over 200 men joined forces to prevent the Nez Perce from passing.

About four miles west of here, at Woodman Flats, parleys were held between the Nez Perce and Rawn’s forces; the Nez Perce were ordered to surrender arms, ammunition, and horses. They refused, promising to pass peacefully.

Many of the citizen volunteers accepted the Nez Perce promise. Sharing fears of destructive retaliation on families and property, they abandoned the “fort” and trickled home. Soon Captain Rawn had insufficient forces to fulfill his orders - orders from an Army still embarrassed by the Little Big Horn disaster of 1876 and now stung by Nez Perce victories in Idaho.

On the morning of July 28, the Nez Perce bypassed the breastworks by climbing up the low ridge to your left and traveling just out of sight behind the ridge in front of you. They descended east of here and entered the Bitterroot Valley. The “fort” had “fizzled.” But it was a successful failure. The battle few participants wanted was avoided. The Nez Perce proceeded south through the Bitterroot Valley, confident that they had a non-aggression pact.

When the confrontation here was over, locals sarcastically named this place "Fort Fizzle" to ridicule a mission that failed.

Regulars & Volunteers

An Uncomfortable Alliance

The events here at Fort Fizzle brought citizen volunteers shoulder to shoulder with Army regulars. It was, however, an uncomfortable alliance. The Army regulars viewed volunteers as a disorganized, undependable mob looking for thrills and booty. The volunteers thought soldiers were illiterate immigrants, drunks and shiftless Easterners unable to hold a job.

Upon hearing of the imminent arrival of the Nez Perce, the Governor issued an emergency call for citizen volunteers. Missoula’s newspaper ran the plea, “HELP! HELP! COME RUNNING!” Scores responded, coming from nearby communities. Leading the volunteers were their “officers,” elected in democratic fashion based on prior military experience and local reputation.

The soldiers were volunteers too, but for five years of service. Some were career soldiers, several were Civil War veterans, and many were immigrants. Most had been laborers or tradesmen prior to enlistment; their ages ranged from 18 to 49. Some of these soldiers were killed or wounded 12 days later at the Battle of the Big Hole.

Although skeptical about the volunteers, Captain Rawn realized that he could not hold his position without them. When the citizen volunteers began leaving after accepting the Nez Perce promise to pass peacefully, Captain Rawn bristled at the militia’s refusal to submit to his authority. Another officer threatened to shoot a volunteer officer to prevent “desertion.” But the volunteers left anyway.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service.

West bound, the trip up Lolo Creek was the start of a remarkably arduous and life-threatening part of the expedition's journey. Eastbound, the passage down Lolo Creek represented victory over one of the most formidable barriers to cross-country travel they had encountered.

Heading West: September 11-22, 1805

When Meriwether Lewis reached the Continental Divide south of the Bitterroot Valley on August 12, 1805, he expected to see a plain descending toward the Pacific Ocean; instead, the dream of a Northwest Passage was shattered when he saw "immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us."

The captains enlisted the services of a Shoshone guide they called Old Toby, who told them of a rugged Indian road through the mountains leading to the west. They decided to give it a try.

Lewis and Clark had planned to be at the Pacific by this time, so they must have felt a growing sense of urgency when they saw the snow-covered mountains. The Corps of Discovery stopped for a few days just east of here at a place Lewis named Traveler's Rest, where they prepared for the difficult journey ahead. The expedition was about to face the last and most intense test of their abilities before reaching the Pacific.

The expedition left Traveler's Rest on September 11, 1805, following a trail along the ridges above the brush-choked creek bottom. Clark's journal entry on September 22, 1805, described the road as "verry bad passing over hills & thro' Steep hollows."

Several of the expedition's horses were injured when they rolled down steep hillsides. Snow fell, almost obliterating the trail and turning what had been a difficult journey into a nightmare. By the time they emerged from the mountains on September 22, 1805, members of the expedition were plagued by diarrhea, skin rashes, lethargy, and other symptoms of malnutrition. They found themselves in the home of the Nez Perce, who generously assisted the expedition with their journey west.

Returning East: June 24-30, 1806

After wintering at Fort Clatsop near the Oregon Coast, the expedition came back across the Bitterroots, arriving at Traveler's Rest on June 30, 1806. The captains had decided earlier to split the group into two parties to explore more of the Louisiana Territory on their way home. Leaving Traveler's Rest on July 3, 1806, Captain Lewis lead nine mounted soldiers, seventeen horses, and his Newfoundland dog, Seaman north to the Clark Fork and up the Bitterroot River. Clark led the rest of the party south down the Bitterroot Valley. They promised to meet in a month at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service.

At 10,157 feet in elevation, magnificent Trapper Peak rises higher than any other peak in the 200 mile-long Bitterroot Mountain Range that extends along the Idaho-Montana border from the Snake River Valley in Idaho to the Clark Fork River in Montana. The Range included howling wilderness, yawning canyons, and towering mountains covered with a heavy growth of pine and fir. Huge sheets of ice carved the granite mountain and left glacial landforms known as horns, cirques, moraines and aretes. These give the massive mountain its jagged form and distinctive profile.

Historical Events

Trapper Peak has witnessed human activity in the Bitterroot Valley for at least 8,000 years. Earliest Valley occupants were prehistoric hunters and gatherers. The Bitterroot Salish Native Americans thrived in the Valley until 1891, when they were moved to the Flathead Indian Reservation. In 1805, members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed here; followed by traders, trappers, and missionaries. In an attempt to flee from the U.S. Army in 1877, the non-treaty Nez Perce

Native Americans passed peacefully through the Valley on their way east. Mining, agriculture, and logging brought settlers -- and in 1876 the mountain was named by Granville Lee Shook, a surveyor for the Anaconda Mining Company, for its trapping success. Trapper Peak's tiimeless and sturdy form represents history; from the historic travelers of the past to the modern-day traveler of tomorrow.

Erected by Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Darby Civic Group.

In the Hellgate Treaty negotiations (1855), Xwetxxcln (Plenty Horses or chief Victor) and the Selíš people rebuffed efforts of US officials to get them to abandon the choice lands of their ancestral Bitterroot Valley. After Xwetxxcln died, settlers successfully lobbied President Grant to declare the Flathead Reservation "better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe" in 1872. Congress sent future President Garfield to arrange for the removal of the Selíš. Stmxé Owoxqeys (Claw of Small Grizzly or Chief Chariot) said the Bitterroot was where the bones of his ancestors were buried, and he would not leave, but his "x" mark was forged onto the Garfield agreement. More whites moved illegally onto Selíš lands, and pressures intensified with construction of the Missoula & Bitter Root Valley Railroad in 1888. In November 1889, faced with the worsening condition for his people, Stmxé Owoxqeys finally agreed to leave. The Selíš therefore planted no crops, but Congress delayed funding for removal for two years, pushing many people to the brink of starvation. Finally, in October 1891, General Henry Carrington and troops from Fort Missoula roughly pushed the tribe on the sad march north to the Reservation. The Government reneged on the promised aid for relocation, but the Selíš nevertheless managed to rebuild their lives in the Jocko Valley.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Fort Owen’s log and adobe walls witnessed dramatic changes as the Bitterroot Valley emerged from remote wilderness to settled agricultural community. The Jesuit fathers who had established St. Mary’s Mission nearby in 1841 closed their doors in 1850, and trader John Owen purchased the property. Owen operated and expanded St. Mary’s mills, cultivated the fields, enlarged the fort, and kept a well-stocked trade room, thereby transforming the mission compound into a vibrant trading post complex. A man of many talents, Owen also served as agent to the Flathead Nation from 1856 to 1862, and for a time the fort was agency headquarters. Owen and his Shoshone wife, Nancy, created a refined and comfortable haven in the vast timberland, extending gracious hospitality to Indians, traders, trappers, missionaries, settlers, and travelers. With the 1860s came gold-seekers and a fresh clientele, but the newly completed Mullan Road by-passed For Owen and trading dwindled. Upon Nancy’s death in 1868, Owen’s mental health deteriorated. In 1872, Fort Owen was sold at sheriff’s sale to Washington J. McCormick, who operated the fort’s mills until 1889. In 1937, the Fort Owen site was donated to the State of Montana, and the donors sponsored stabilization and partial reconstruction of its sole remaining building, the East Barracks. Archaeological investigations initiated in 1957 by the University of Montana continued through 1980, exposing the fort’s walls and foundations. Since 1971, the Stevensville Historical Society has been instrumental in interpretive reconstruction, continued stabilization, and maintenance of this noteworthy site.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Jesuit priests and lay brothers founded St. Mary’s Mission—the first mission in the Northwest—near this site in 1841. The Jesuits closed the mission in 1850, returning in 1866. For the next quarter century, they helped the Salish adapt from hunting to farming as the buffalo disappeared. The priests helped support and advocate for the Salish people and provided medical services and spiritual guidance to both Indians and whites. When the U.S. government forced the impoverished Salish to leave their beloved Bitterroot Valley for the Flathead Reservation in 1891, St. Mary’s closed. An influx of homesteaders prompted the creation of St. Mary’s Parish in 1910, and the old mission church reopened. In 1911, the Salish returned to St. Mary’s to celebrate their Bitterroot heritage, a tradition they still maintain. The historic district includes the 1866 church and pharmacy, designed by the multi-talented Father Anthony Ravalli. Ravalli, also the architect of Idaho’s famed Cataldo Mission, employed log building techniques, ingeniously adapting European ecclesiastical architecture to the remote frontier. Chief Victor’s log home and the Indian burial ground recall the Salish presence. Adjacent is St. Mary’s Cemetery and Father Ravalli’s final resting place. Two gnarled apple trees provide living evidence of the Jesuits’ agriculture. The new St. Mary’s, built in 1954 with donations from Montana and beyond, represents an unprecedented preservation effort to save the endangered mission church from deterioration through constant use. Today, St. Mary’s churches—old and new—define the historic complex as a place of significance to both Indian and white communities.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

In 1850, Major John Owen established this trading post on the original site of St. Mary's Mission. It was the first permanent white settlement in Montana, and welcomed Indian, trappers, gold seekers and settlers.

By the late 1860s, major travel routes had by-passed Fort Owen for more straegically (sic) situated trading posts near present-day Missoula. In 1871, Major Owen sold the fort and thereafter its walls and structures slowly deteriorated.

Enjoy you visit to Fort Owen. Pease leave nothing but footprints and take nothing with you but photographs and memories.

Erected by Montana State Parks.

Construction of the last Hudson Bay Trading Post, within the present borders of the United States, was started here in 1846, and was completed in 1847 by Angus McDonald. Angus originally named the fort "Connen" after a river valley in his Scottish homeland, but later changed it to Connah for easier pronunciation by the Salish, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille and other Indians in there area.

Fort Connah was built about 1/2 mile east of here and remained an important trading center for the Indians until the U.S. Government forced the British owned company to abandon the post in 1871. At its height, Fort Connah consisted of only three buildings. The store house is the only original structure that still survives.

The Mission Valley was thrown open for settlement in 1910. Prior to that time it was almost entirely virgin prairie, unplowed, unfenced and beautiful to see. You road a saddle horse to get places. Some people wish it were still like that today.

Many descendants of Angus McDonald still live in the Mission Valley.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

"Capts. Lewis and Clark parted here with their parties & proceed on" Sergeant John Ordway, Thursday July 3, 1806

An often overlooked aspect of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is the decision to separate when they left Travelers' Rest on July 3, 1806. This decision was made months earlier during the winter at Fort Clatsop. During that time the captains had determined what they believed to be the shortest route across the continent with Travelers' Rest a crucial point.

By following the network of ancient routes that led to and from Travelers' Rest, the captains and their party were to split again and again - reuniting into new groups as they explored more of present day Montana with an eye toward completing the mission given them by President Jefferson.

Expedition 'Splits" on Their Journey Home

This map shows how the Expedition traveled as they made their way back to St. Louis. The first of many splits occurred when they left Travelers' Rest on July 3, 1806. On August 12, 1806, the two groups reunited near the (sic) confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and then proceeded on to St. Louis,

Erected by Montana State Parks, National Park Service, Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association.