Imagine a world very different than we know today. About 1.5 billion years ago during the Precambrian Era, the earth's environment was desolate, with no trees, fish, animals or birds. Shallow seas with extensive near-shore flats were fed by streams that deposited great amounts of sand and mud. Rain frequently fell and pooled in vast shallow lakes and ponds in what would one day become northwest Montana.

Despite the hostile environment, blue-green algae mats often trapped fine particles of calcium carbonate to form structures called stromatolites, that grew in shallow near-shore environment. The surface of the rocks often display mud cracks, ripple marks, and, sometimes, the spatter marks of primeval raindrops.

The earth's crust slowly sank for about 100 million years forming a large geologic basin in which Belt Supergroup sediments accumulated as much as 10 miles thick! The rocks are common in northern and central Idaho and western Montana, and extend east to the Little Belt Mountains in central Montana. The sedimentary rocks along Interstate 90 between Lookout Pass and Alberton are almost entirely rocks of the Belt Supergroup.

These rocks are distinguished by brown, grey, red, green, purple, and yellow colors and locally form dramatic cliffs where resistant, well-cemented sandstones are exposed in the canyon.

Interstate 90 from near Lookout Pass through Missoula is located along the Lewis and Clark Fault Zone, a series of faults that stretch between northwest Washington State and the Helena area. The faults had significant movement about 70 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains were uplifting and were active until at least 25 million years ago. Interstate 90 and US Highway 10 in western Montana follow the trend of the faults along straight canyon that eroded along the fault zone.

Geo-facts

• Geologists map rocks as formations. The Belt rocks are so thick that similar formations have been combined into "groups," and the groups in turn are referred to as one very large unit called a "Supergroup."

• Ancient rocks indicate that oxygen was not abundant in Earth's atmosphere until about 2.2 billion years ago. An explosion of abundant and complex life forms, such as trilobites, did not occur until about 550 million years ago in the presence of abundant oxygen and protective ozone layer that filtered solar radiation.

• The lack of burrowing organisms during the Precambrian time allow excellent preservation of finely layered sedimentary rocks of the Belt Supergroup. Some of the thin beds in the Belt rocks can be traced for miles.

Geo-Activity:

• As you travel along I-90, keep in mind that you are also following the path of a fault. How many times can you count cliffs of brown, gray, red, green, purple and yellow colored rocks that have been eroded away along the fault lines?

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Wherever you are in Montana, you stand in the pathway of Lewis and Clark. Their 1804-1806 expedition was a grand adventure to investigate the people and resources of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and to seek a navigable passage across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Like the French and Spanish who made similar voyages across North America, the Corps of Discovery brought back information that would change life in this land forever.

Nations in Transformation

The 19th century brought turmult to North America. Indian nations, recovering from five waves of smallpox, pushed west as Europeans raced to conquer more territories. Though others has explored, traded and trapped in the Northern Plains, Lewis and Clark were the first to come for military, scientific and economic development reasons. Their expedition defined agendas and relationships that people of the West are still sorting out - between different cultures, and between people of the land.

Montana Legacy: Many Cultures, Many Landmarks

The Corps of Discovery included Indians, French,

Euro-Americans, men of mixed European and Indian decent, one black, a woman and a baby. Indian people of many nations fed, guided and helped the Corps with few violent altercations. Montana today is a land of many cultures, and its diversity is part of our region's identity.

In what we now call Montana, Lewis and Clark explored 1,900 miles of wilderness, catalogued 63 species of plants and animals new to science, and charted significant geographic features. Seven the these are National Historic Landmarks and Monuments: Pompeys Pillar, the Great Falls Portage, the Three Forks of the Missouri, Lemhi Pass, Lolo Pass, Traveller's Rest, and the Upper Missouri Breaks.

There are still places in Montana where you may see landscape, wildlife and native plants just as the Corps described in their journals: rich, raw and full of possibilities. You can also see evidence of cultural cooperation, conflicts and collisions in values that have defined the West for two centuries.

Discovery, for all travelers, is a deeply personal and universally human experience. In the larger sense, Montana is continually discovered, its cultures are always transforming, and each of us is explorer, witness and storyteller.

Montana welcomes you to make discoveries of your own in this rich landscape. Please respect private property, help preserve out public lands and abundant wildlife and celebrate with us the mix of people who call Montana home.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

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.

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.

The landscape around you has changed since Lewis and Clark first saw it in September 1805. Back then it was the aboriginal territory of the Nez Perce and Salish people. These Native Americans had less impact on natural ecological processes than did the European settlers who followed Lewis and Clark.

European settlers first tried, but failed to build a railroad across these mountains in 1854 (sic). Then, in 1908, the U.S. Government granted the Northern Pacific Railroad alternate sections of land along their proposed railroad route, resulting in a "checkerboard" ownership pattern along Lolo Creek. The railroad was never built, but the Northern Pacific kept the land. Over time, the railroad sold their holdings to various interests and eventually Plum Creek Timber Company came to own most of the private land in the Lolo Creek drainage. The privately owned alternate sections were logged by the timber companies.

In the early 1990's, a few visionaries began dreaming of putting Lolo Creek "back together" and restoring the landscape. When Plum Creek began a transition from logging to selling the land, the Nature Conservancy and Trust for

Public Land worked with Plum Creek and reached an agreement to purchase these and other lands in Montana. Known as the Montana Legacy Project, the Conservancy held these lands until they could be conveyed to public and private conservation owners. In 2010, 29,898 acres of former checkerboard land in the Lolo Creek drainage were conveyed to the Lolo National Forest. The Forest Service began a restoration program to manage these lands in a way more consistent with natural ecosystem processes.

In a sense, this land has come full circle. While it will never be as pristine as when it was the land of the Nez Perce and Salish people, through the Montana Legacy Project, restoration had begun that will restore and sustain this land for future generations.

As of August 2013, the Montana Legacy Project has added 132,699 acres of former Plum Creek Timber Company land in Montana to the National Forest System. About 29,900 acres or almost 47 square miles of those lands are in the Lolo Creek drainage.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Nez Perce - Nee-Mee-Poo National Historic Trail.

Sikum is the Nez Perce word for horse. The Nez Perce people were introduced to the horse in the 1730’s. The word “appaloosa” was created by white settlers. The Nez Perce learned through selective breeding that they could produce a horse uniquely suited to their homeland and the country around you where they frequently traveled.

The Nez Perce National Historic Trail travels down Lolo Canyon and was a critical and frequently used route for the Nez Perce between their homeland and the bison rich plains to the east. According to Samuel Penny, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee:

“This was our commerce trail. We followed this trail east to hunt buffalo. We came here for camas. We came here in our flight from the soldiers.”

On February 15, 1806, Meriwether Lewis wrote of the Nez Perce horses in his journal:

“Their horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty, elegantly formed, active and durable, in short, many of them look like fine English corsers and would make a figure in any country.”

The rich history of the sikum lives on today with the Nez Perce through their Young Horseman Program. The Nez Perce maintain an active horse breeding program in Lapwai, Idaho. The Nez Perce horse of today is a unique cross between the Akhal - Teke of Turkmenistan and the Appaloosa. Through this program they maintain their reputation as accomplished equestrians.

The Nez Perce Horse Registry represents the Akhal-Teke/Appaloosa cross, a horse of athletic prowess, endurance and toughness necessary to travel long distances and climb mountains. This breed is also quite competitive in modern equine sports.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped here on September 11, 1805.

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.

Native Travelers at Tmsmli

You are standing at the heart of a well-used campsite and gathering place used by people for thousands of years. Traveling along time-worn trails from the four directions, families, hunters and explorers came to rest here at the place the Salish people called Tmsmli, (the place of no salmon).

On these plains at the base of the Bitterroot Mountains, people camped, traded and strengthened important alliances with other tribes. Over the years, people from the Salish, Pend d’Oreille and Nez Perce Tribes came to appreciate Tmsmli for its plentiful game, edible and medicinal plants and as a place of sanctuary and friendship.

From here, people traveling west followed tree blazes and rock piles called cairns which were part of the well-worn trail the Salish call Naptnsisa, or the Road to the Nez Perce. Today this ancient route is known as the Nez Perce or Lolo Trail. Rock cairns continued east of here, marking the route known by the Nez Perce as the K’useyneisskit or the Road to the Buffalo.

Led by a Shoshone guide, the Expedition came to rest here on September 9, 1805. As they prepared to cross the Bitterroot Mountains, Meriwether Lewis name this place "Travellers (sic) rest. On June 30, 1806, the Corps of Discovery returned to this important campsite and it was here the captains separated on July 3rd.

Erected by Montana State Parks, National Park Service.

As researchers worked to pin-point the location of the Travelers’ Rest campsite, they had an unlikely ally -- an 18th century Prussian Baron.

During the Revolutionary War, Baron William Frederick Von Steuben, at the request of George Washington, collaborated with the leaders of the Continental Army to create a manual of drill and field service regulations. The document that resulted became the foundation of military training and procedure for the United States Army.

Knowing that the Corps of Discovery was a military expedition, trained in the drills, inspection and discipline of the era, local archaeologists used Baron Von Steuben’s manual as an important reference for their work here.

Imagine the excitement when archaeologists discovered several features in the soil that directly related to the layout of the camp as prescribed by the Prussian Baron. The physical evidence found here indicates that Lewis and Clark closely followed military protocol after more than 6,000 miles of their epic journey.

Using Baron Von Steuben's descriptions and diagrams like the one shown to the right, along with the archaeological evidence discovered here in 2002, this illustration is an interpretation of what Travelers' Rest Camp might hav looked like on the Expedition's return in 1806.

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

Bitter Root Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Missoula, Montana dedicate this marker to Captains Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea, their inspiration and guide, and the brave men of the Trans-Mississippi Expedition who encamped on Lo Lo Creek, September 10 - 1805.

Ordway • Willard • Colter • Bratton • Gass • M'Neal • Hall • Thompson • Pryor • Wiser • Collins • Whitehouse • Windsor • Lepage • Werner • Fields Brothers • Gibson • Howard • Frazier • Drouillard • Potts • Shannon • Goodrich • Labiche • Cruzatte • Chaboneau, husband of Sacajawea • Baptiste, their baby and York, the slave

Dedicated

October 9 - 1925

Erected 1925 by Daughters of the American Revolution, Bitter Root Chapter.

"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.

For may years, the campsite known as Travelers’ Rest was thought to be located at the confluence of today’s Lolo Creek and the Bitterroot River (1 1/2 miles east of where you now stand). It wasn’t until 1996 that members of the Travelers’ Rest Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation began to suspect the campsite was more likely in this immediate area.

Focusing his research on the area just south of Lolo Creek, historical archaeologist Dan Hall employed remote sensing equipment like metal detectors and magnetometers to identify several places where the magnetic properties of the soil had been altered. The archaeological team excavated these “anomalies” in the summer of 2002 and found evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s cookfire and latrine.

When the soil from the latrine was analyzed, it revealed mercury vapor, residue from Dr. Rush’s Thunderbolts, a powerful purgative that was commonly prescribed to ailing members of the expedition. The physical evidence discovered here is accepted as proof that this is the location of the Corps of Discovery’s campsite. Based on these findings, the National

Park Service moved the boundaries of the Travelers’ Rest National Historic Landmark to this site in 2006.

Excavation at the site revealed charcoal (carbon dated to the time of the Expedition), a military uniform button, one blue glass trading bead and a spilled piece of lead (sourced to a region of Kentucky that was producing led of the military during the time Meriwether Lewis was making preparations for the epic journey).

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

The route that lies west of here, the Lolo Trail, was different from other east-west 19th century Americans trails. It did not witness a flood of cross-county migration. There were no covered wagons here.

Unmapped and shifting over time, it penetrated such formidable terrain that it was only passable with the aid of those who had traveled it before, with a knowledge passed from generation to generation. Long before it became an explorer's route, it was an American Indian trail. Lewis and Clark would have been lost here without the aide of their Indian guides. On June 27, 1806, William Clark described these mountains as:

"... Stupendous Mountains principally covered with snow like that on which we stood; we are entirely serounded by thos mountains from which to one unacquainted with them it would have Seemed impossible ever to have escaped..."

The Bitterroot Mountains were the most difficult part of a trail that connected the plains of the Columbia River with those of the Missouri. Its unyielding topography and dense timber stubbornly resisted "improvement" for wheeled vehicles until the 1960's. And try they did, railroads were never able to penetrate the mountains to the west. U.S. Highway 12 roughly parallels the Lolo Trail, which is mostly above you, atop the ridges and saddles north or south of the highway.

Except for changes in the vegetation, the Lolo Trail looks much like it did hundred of years ago. Watch for other interpretive signs that will tell you more of the story. If you do, you'll understand why Congress chose to preserve the settings as the Nee Mee Poo National Historic Trail and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which together make up the Lolo Trail...

The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped near here September 9 through 11, 1805, while traveling through the ancient territory of the Salish and Pend d'Orielle people. Since time immemorial, the tribes have known this place as Tmsmli (approximately pronounced tim-sum-lee), meaning "No Salmon," a name originating in their creation stories. Lewis and Clark called it Travelers Rest, and it later became known as Lolo Creek. Here the party rested the horses they had acquired from the Salish and unsuccessfully attempted to secure a supply of game for their difficult westward trip across the Bitterroot Mountains.

It was at Travelers Rest that the party confirmed the presence of the Indian route up the Blackfoot River to the Great Plains east of the Rockies. This ancient trail of the Salish and Pend d'Orielle people was also used by allied tribes to the West, including the Nez Perce. It was part of a sophisticated network of aboriginal trails that crisscrossed the northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest.

Lewis and Clark returned to camp on Lolo Creek from June 30 to July 3, 1806. They stocked up on deer meat, ran races with their Nez Perce guides, readied their gear, and finalized their plans to separate before returning to St. Louis.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Since the late 1400s and the time of Columbus, explorers from all over the world eagerly sought to discover the legendary water route, or "Northwest Passage," that was rumored to bisect the resource-rich interior of the North American continent.

As late as 1803, President Jefferson's long list of instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis included:

"The object of your mission its to explore the Missouri River..." and to determine "... the most practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce."

But on July 4th, 1806, while traveling through the Missoula Valley on his return to St. Louis, a disappointed Captain Lewis finally concluded that the most practical route between the Missouri River (east of the Rocky Mountains) and the Columbia River (west of the Rocky Mountains) was by land, following hundreds of miles of trail over difficult terrain. Lewis and Clark's western explorations helped put the 300-year-old "Northwest Passage" myth to rest.

After Lewis & Clark

Fifty-three years later (1859) Lieutenant John Mullen was put in charge of constructing a primitive military road between the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. The road would also allow important supplies to be transported to the new settlements between the two great rivers.

Mullan first determined that Lewis and Clark's suggestions for a road were unfeasible. Mullan's well researched route was much more practical, but was still a whopping 624 miles long, and often took over two months to travel by wagon. Sections of the Mullan Road are still in use in Washington, Idaho and Montana - including Missoula.

Erected by National Park Service.

On the morning of July 3, 1806, Lewis and Clark set in motion a dangerous plan to separate, and explore different routes on their return journey to the Missouri River. As he was both excited and anxious to pursue a rumored shortcut, Lewis wrote:

I could not avoid feeling much concern on this occasion although I hoped this seperation (sic) was only momentary."

Lewis arrived in the Missoula Valley with nine men, seventeen horses, five Nez Perce Indian guides and his Newfoundland dog - Seaman. After a near disastrous river crossing, the group spent the night just west of here along Grant Creek.

On the 4th of July, Lewis and his men said farewell to their guides and proceeded east along a "well beaten" Indian road. They reached the great falls in only 9 days - a far cry from the 57 days it had taken on their westbound journey the previous year.

After Lewis & Clark

Since ancient times, the Salish Indians have called themselves "The People." They routinely visited the Missoula Valley to dig up bitterroots and to fish for trout.

Their name for the area translates as "Place of the Small Bull Trout." In 1805, the Bitterroot Salish offered their friendship, food, and horses to the 33 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Ironically, after the 1855 Hell Gate Council the tribe was forced to move to the Flathead Indian Reservation (10 miles north of Missoula) by a treaty they did not sign. Over 60 other northwest tribes were sent to reservation that same year.

Erected by National Park Service.

Long before railroads and highways, rivers were the lifelines of travel and trade. The Lewis and Clark Expedition named and described hundreds of rivers as they mapped their way west.

While the expedition camped about 10 miles south of here, Captain Lewis sent two men to investigate a rumored shortcut to the Missouri River. On September 10th, 1805, he wrote:

"... I sent out all the hunters and directed two of them to proceed down the river as far as it's junction with the Eastern fork... this fork of the river we determined to name the Valley plain river."

This is the first known written reference to the confluence of today's Clark Fork and Bitterroot Rivers in the Missoula Valley.

Lewis and Clark first named today's Bitterroot River the "Flathead River" after their mistaken name for the local Salish Indians, but within a few days they renamed it Clark's River.

After Lewis & Clark

The "Eastern fork" or "Valley plain river" that Captain Lewis named over 200 years ago, flows right through Missoula's downtown. The river was named at least eight more times, including the Arrow Stone River, Hell Gate River, and the Missoula River. Today, it is called the Clark Fork (of the Columbia River), and its waters travel over 1,300 miles - from the Continental Divide in Montana to the Pacific Ocean.

On February 6, 1812, British explorer, map-maker and fur-trader David Thompson named this valley after the Indian word: "Nemissoolatako," If you take away a few letters you will see the word - "missoola."

Erected by National Park Service.

The narrow river canyons upstream from here have a long and bloody past.

As the Salish, Nez Perce and other western mountain Indian tribes passed through these canyons enroute to buffalo hunting grounds east of the Rocky Mountains, they were often ambushed by raiding parties from the Blackfeet, Hidatsa and other more aggressive eastern plains Indians.

Captain Lewis wrote in his journals: "all the nations... on the west side of the mountains... & who visit the plains of the Missouri... pass by this rout."

On July 4th, 1806, just a few miles downstream, six Nez Perce Indian guides would travel no further into what is now the Missoula Valley, They warned Captain Lewis that his life and the lives of his nine men were in grave danger if they insisted on traveling east, to the great falls of the Missouri River.

Luckily, Lewis and his band of men passed safely through the confined canyons, but many other travelers were not as fortunate.

After Lewis & Clark

By the 1820s, the local French-Canadian trappers were calling the dangerous canyons to the east Porte d'Enfer, meaning Gates of Hell or Hell's Gate, and the stream running through it, the Hell Gate River. By 1860, the valley's main trading post and village was also named Hell Gate. But four years later, the town moved to its present location and the name was quietly changed to the more civilized Missoula Mills, and then just Missoula.

Over a century later, the Hell Gate term is still being used by local businesses, organizations, and two schools - Hellgate Elementary and Hellgate High School.

Erected by National Park Service.

While here at Ross' Hole, (Sula, Montana) on September 4th, 1805, William Clark wrote in his journal: "Those people recved us friendly, threw white robes over our sholders & smoked in the pipes of peace, we encamped with them and found them friendly."

Stay awhile with us here at the friendly Sula Country Store & Resort, and explore this historic area, where the first white visitors were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

The Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery stayed here at Ross' Hole (Sula, Montana) for two days, visiting, taking down Salish vocabulary, purchasing eleven horses & exchanging seven others. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, like many other whites, mistakenly called the Salish Indians "Flathead" Indians.

Welcome to Ross' Hole, a two-day stop of the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition in 1805. They crossed the Salmon-Bitterroot divide, today's Idaho-Montana border (13 miles south of here) and came down the north side to Ross' Hole (Sula, Montana). Here they were the first whites to meet those allies of the Shoshones, the Salish Indian people who "recved us friendly".

Not a War Party

On September 4th, 1805, T chliska-e-mee (Three Eagles) the father of Chief Victor and grandfather of Chief Charlo, left camp to scout the area, fearing there might be some Indian enemies around intending to steal horses, as was done then very frequently.

He saw at a distance, a party of over twenty men, with two men on horses in front and many men walking and leading packhorses.

Three Eagles saw that they were not a war party, as they were traveling slowly with no effort at concealment.

Seeing that these men wore no blankets, the old Chief did not know what to think of them. It was the first time he had met men without blankets.

Upon their arrival, the Chief gave orders to bring the best robes for Captain Lewis and Captain Clark to sit on, and one for each man to use as a blanket.

Found Them Friendly

“we Encamped with them & found them friendly but nothing but berries to eate a part of which they gave us, those Indians are well dressed with Skin Shirts & robes, they Stout & light complected more So than Common for Indians ... I was the first white man who ever wer on the waters of this river.” -- Captain William Clark “the natives are light Complectioned decent looking people the most of them well cloathed with Mo. Sheep and other Skins. They have buffalow Robes leather lodges to live in, but have no meat at this time. but gave us abundance of their dryed fruits Such as Servis berrys cherries different kinds of roots all of which eat verry well.” -- Private Joseph Whitehouse

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Montana Department of Transportation.

“Our people were camped in a kind of prairie along the Bitterroot River, a few miles upstream from the Medicine Tree. The place is called Ross’ Hole now; the Indians then called it Kwtít Pupxm.” --Pierre Pichette, Salish Tribal Elder (1953)

This traditional place - whose Salish language name means 'big clear area’ or ‘great clearing’ was used by countless generations of Indian people to gather chokecherries and to pasture their horses on the abundant grass. From here, the Salish could travel south to the Salmon River country to fish for salmon, or travel east to the open plains, to hunt buffalo.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was welcomed by a large band of Salish Indians who were camped in this open valley on September 4, 1805. Captain Clark noted that there were over 30 lodges, 400 people and at least 500 horses. Clark also wrote: “those people recved us friendly, threw white robes over out shoulders & smoked in the pipes of peace..."

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Montana Department of Transportation.

Wherever you are in Montana, you stand in the pathway of Lewis and Clark. Their 1804-1806 expedition was a grand adventure: to investigate the people and resources of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and to seek a navigable passage across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Like the French and Spanish who made similar voyages across North America, the Corps of Discovery brought back information that would change life in this land forever.

Nations in Transformation

The 19th century brought tumult to North America. Indian nations, recovering from five waves of smallpox, pushed west as Europeans raced to conquer more territories. Though others had explored, traded and trapped in the Northern Plains, Lewis and Clark were the first to come for military, scientific and economic development reasons. Their expedition defined agendas and relationships that people of the West are still sorting out - between different cultures, and between people and the lands.

Montana Legacy: many cultures, many landmarks

The Corps of Discovery included Indians,

French, Euro-Americans, men of mixed European and Indian descent, one black, a woman and a baby. Indian people of many nations fed, guided and helped the Corps with few violent altercations. Montana today is a land of many cultures, and its diversity is part of our region’s identity.

In what we now call Montana, Lewis and Clark explored 1,900 miles of wilderness, catalogued 63 species of plants and animals new to science, and charted significant geographic features. Seven of these are National Historic Landmarks and Monuments: Pompeys Pillar, the Great Falls Portage, the Three Forks of the Missouri, Lemhi Pass, Lolo Pass, Traveller’s Rest and the Upper Missouri Breaks.

There are still places in Montana where you may see the landscape, wildlife and native plants just as the Corps described in their journals: rich, raw and full of possibilities. You can also see evidence of cultural cooperation conflicts and collisions in values that have defined the West for two centuries.

Discovery, for all travelers, is a deeply personal and universally human experience. In the larger sense, Montana is continually discovered, its cultures are always transforming, and each of us is explorer, witness and storyteller.

Montana welcomes you to make discoveries of your own in this rich landscape. Please respect private property,

This marker is at the far right.

help preserve our public lands and abundant wildlife, and celebrate with us the mix of people who call Montana home.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

The Mystery May Never be Solved

Experts disagree on the exact route Lewis and Clark took over this divide. No one knows where they camped on that cold snowy night of September 3, 1805 after struggling up the trackless North Fork of the Salmon River.

Tuesday, 3rd Sept. 1805,... went up and down rout rockey mountains all day... Some of the horses fell backwards and roled (sic) to the bottom... Some places oblidged (sic) to cut a road for to git along thro (sic) thickets... Several Small Showers of rain. So we lay down wet hungry and cold came with much fatigue 11 miles this day. -- John Ordway

Why venture into some of the most rugged country of their journey instead of taking one of the established Indians trails east of here?

Pushed by early fall weather the captains may have not wanted to back track. Was Clark determined to continue in the most direct route? Or did they ignore the advice of the Shoshoni Indians and their guide “Old Toby”? The mystery remains today.

Rugged Mountain Crossing

10,000 Years of Travel

You are standing on the edge of millions of acres of the wildest, most rugged land in the lower 48 States. Even so, people have lived and traveled here for 10,000 years.

In all that time, the Salish and other tribes rarely ventured over Lost Trail Pass. For centuries the pass over the continental divide, now known as Gibbons Pass, was the primary travel route for both Indians and settlers.

Gibbons Pass lost its importance in the 1930s when US Highway 93 was carved out of the mountains over Lost Trail Pass.

Witness to History

The Alta Pine, oldest known Ponderosa Pine tree on the Bitterroot National Forest, was 905 years old when it died in 1991.

Native people had been crossing these mountains for more than 9,000 years before it took root. The tree was 700 years old before the first horse traveled beneath its limbs.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service.

1 • Stanley

Fur trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company were the first to discover Stanley Basin during 1824. Stanley was named for Captain John Stanley, a Civil War veteran who brought 23 prospectors into the basin searching for gold. Unfortunately, only small amounts of placer gold were found in the streams. Searching further, the prospectors moved to the Middle Fork of the Boise River where, they discovered the Atlanta lode.

2 • Historic Custer

The General Custer, one of Idaho's significant mining claims was named during 1876 to honor Civil War General George Armstrong Custer. The towns of Custer and Bonanza were established in 1879 to support the General Custer, the Charles Dickens, and the Lucky Boy along with other mines in the Yankee Fork Mining District. Today, historic buildings along with mining artifacts are preserved at Custer which is open to tours during the summer.

3 • Clayton

Clayton's frontier history dates back more than 100 years when it became home to southern Idaho's largest silver producing area. The Idaho Mining and Smelter Company Store built in 1880 today serves as

Clayton's museum showcasing the local mining, ranching, and logging history. A blacksmith shop and livery along with early farming memorabilia offer a glimpse back in time to what life was like in Idaho's mountains during the 1880s.

4 • Yankee Fork Interpretive Center

Land of the Yankee Fork Interpretive Center commemorates Idaho's frontier mining history. Experience a trail of discovery back in time with audiovisual programs and mining displays from Idaho's Land of the Yankee Fork Historic Area. The center is operated by Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation and is open year round.

5 • Challis

Challis was named after Alvah P. Challis who surveyed the mile-high town in 1879. Searching for beaver during 1822, the first white man to arrive in the territory was Michel Bourdon of the Hudson's Bay Company. The region's mineral riches brought early pioneers to prospect and farm the high mountain desert. Today, Challis is a paradise for outdoor recreation, and serves as the gateway to the Salmon River Country.

6 • Lemhi County Historical Museum

The Lemhi County Museum houses an extensive collection of Lemhi Shoshone artifacts. Clothing, beadwork, arrowheads, and ceremonial accessories, as well as photographs, showcase the Shoshone people's lives in the Lemhi and Salmon River Valleys. The discovery of gold during 1866 in the mountains above the city of Salmon introduced a new era of history. Displays of historical implements and photographs illustrate Salmon's early mining history.

7 • Tower Rock Recreation Site

Tower Rock Recreation Site, a BLM Campground, is located 11 miles north of Salmon on US 93. A detachment led by William Clark camped here on August 21 and 25, 1805 while completing the reconnaissance of the Salmon River. Interpretive panels highlight the geology of Tower Rock and Clark's campsite.

8 • Tower Creek Pirimids

The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled up Tower Creek on August 31st 1805. Clark recorded, "...passed remarkable rock resembling pirimids on the left side." The day use site includes picnic tables and an historic homesteader's cabin. Information panels interpret the geology of the "pirimids," along with the Corps of Discovery's departure from Lemhi County.

9 • William Clark's Reconnaissance

William Clark turned west along the Salmon River at this point to consider a water route through the mountains. About 12 miles from here, Clark looked out over the Salmon River on August 22nd 1805 and determined that the river route was impassable. Clark returned to meet Lewis at the Shoshone camp along the Lemhi River on August 27, 1805. A three panel interpretive kiosk tells the story of the Down River Reconnaissance.

10 • Lost Trail Pass

The Corps of Discovery camped two miles west of this location the night of September 3rd 1805. With winter quickly approaching, the Corps decided to forge a trail north through the thickets and over the stony hills of Lost Trail Pass. The expedition proceeded to the Bitterroot Valley and back into Idaho by way of the Lolo Trail. Interpretive signs of the Lewis & Clark Expedition through Idaho are on display at The Lost Trail Pass Visitor Information Center.

(Three panels, presented left to right, form the marker.)

Many Cultures Forge Strong Communities

Welcome to Bonner and nearby communities, each built on the grit and dreams of self-made men and women. It you had walked into the Bonner School in the early 1900s, you would have heard the chatter of Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and French as well as English. The coming of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883 marked a new transportation era that brought loggers and millworkers from far-flung places to this confluence of two great rivers. Their dreams merged in the expanses of uncut forests lining the Big Blackfoot River and the promise of a better life.

E.L. Bonner anticipated a boom in 1881 when his business (Eddy, Hammond and Company) won the lumber contract for building the railroad. By 1886, the saws of the new Bonner mill were buzzing and a company town was born. The Anaconda Company took over the mill in 1898 and remained until 1972.

Historically, residents of this area have maintained a proud independence. In 1914, the Industrial Works of the World (IWW) camped across the tracks along the Clark Fork River and successfully lobbied for better housing and food. In 1942, mill employees organized a labor union. Today, the mill still prospers on the banks of the Blackfoot River. Nearby Milltown, Bonner, West Riverside and Piltzville remain small, yet spirited communities with strong ties to their heritage.

Homeward Bound on a Risky Shortcut

It was the summer of 1806, Lewis and Clark were on their way back east from the Pacific Ocean. On July 3, they divided forces at Traveler's Rest to explore more territory before reuniting on the Missouri River and returning home. Clark headed for the Yellowstone River. Captain Meriwether Lewis chose a shortcut to the plains described to him by their Nez Perce guides, who would ride only a little beyond the junction of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork River and predicted trouble with the Blackfeet Indians. From July 3-7, 1806, Lewis with nine men and his dog Seaman, followed a well-worn trail the Nez Perce called the Cokahlarishkit or "River of the Road to the Buffalo." This trail led them up the Blackfoot River and quickly across the Continental Divide to the Missouri River.

Despite his impatience to return to the familiar plains of the Missouri, Lewis took time to record swans, wild horses, pronghorn and signs of bison west of the Continental Divide. He observed "high broken mountains," destined to become the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The men also passed five deserted Indian encampments. On July 6th, they joined fresh tracks of what appeared to be a "returning war-party" of Blackfeet with "a large pasel of horses." Anxious to avoid contact with the Blackfeet, Lewis wrote of being "much on our guard both day and night."

Vital Passageway for People and Wildlife

The Blackfoot River swirls, races and meanders 132 miles from the Continental Divide to its confluence with the Clark Fork River. The river has long served as a vital passageway for people and wildlife alike.

As you travel through the corridor, notice the rumpled valleys and pothole lakes - marks of a great ice age that once held this land in its grips. Today, these potholes and adjacent marches attract osprey, great blue heron and Canada geese. Bald eagles nest in treetops above the river as native trout hide under its pools.

Thanks largely to area ranchers that help manage the valley floor, the biological diversity of the corridor has been preserved. The history of its human diversity has been preserved as well. You can still hear tales of the late 1800s when the woods rang with crosscut saws felling trees for railroad ties and mine shafts. In the spring, a wall of logs raced down-river to the sawmill at Bonner until the mid-1920s when the railroad took over the job of transporting logs.

Today, canoes and rafts float past the sites of old Indian camps. Anglers cast their lines into clear pools. Bull elk bugle from the ridges. Past and present merge in the rhythm of the Blackfoot as the river flows like lifeblood through the corridor.

"the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch (sic) of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless (sic) nights." - Meriwether Lewis, August 12, 1805

What's in a name?

In 1921, historians named this spring "Most Distant Fountain," identifying it as the source of water Meriwether Lewis referred to in his journal. Lewis described water "issuing from the base of a low hill" about 1/2 mile below Lemhi Pass.

Was Lewis writing about this spring? We may never really know.

Where Does the Water Come From?

Water from rain and snowmelt seeps into the ground until it meets a solid layer of rock or clay. It pools above these impermeable layers, forming an aquifer. Influenced by gravity, water in an aquifer flows back out to the surface, if it can find a path. It often follows fault lines or factories underground. When water reaches the surface, it appears as a spring.

Erected by Beaverhead-Deerlodge & Salmon-Chaillis National Forest.

"two miles below McNeal had exultingly stood with a foot of each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri." - Meriwether Lewis, August 12, 1805

Hugh McNeal stood over Trail Creek, about two and a half miles downstream from here. This little stream is just one of hundreds of small tributaries that flow into the Missouri River.

After many months of laboring to pole, paddle, and drag the heavy boats of the Lewis and Clark Expedition upstream against strong currents of the Missouri, McNeal was finally able to straddle that great river near here.

Have you traveled a long way to reach the beginnings of the Missouri River."

You are invited to "bestride" the Mighty Missouri.

PLEASE STAY ON THE ROCKS!

Protect the plants along the streambanks.

Erected by Beaverhead-Deerlodge & Salmon-Chaillis National Forest.

Glance out several hundreds feet across the meadow in front of you and you'll find an enclosed hot springs, bubbling with hot water and spewing out steam. On July 7, 1806, this "boiling hot spring" provided a late afternoon dinner stop for Captain William Clark, Sacagawea, and their return party as they crossed this "hot spring valley" en route to Camp Fortunate to retrieve the canoes and supplies they had cached the previous summer.

"...we arived at a Boiling Spring Situated about 100 paces from a large Easterly fork of the Small river which heads in the Snowey Mountains to the SE. & SW of the Springs. this Spring (15 yds in circumc, boils up all over the bottom which is Stoney) contains a very considerable quantity of water, and actually blubbers with heat for 20 paces below where it rises.. I directt Sergt. Pryor and John Shields to put each a piece of meat in the water of different Sises. the one about the Size of my 3 fingers Cooked dun in 25 minits the other much thicker was 32 minits before it became Sufficiently dun." - Captain W. Clark, July 7, 1806

A Well-Used Hot Springs

In 1833, fur trapper Warren Angus Ferris and his small company visited this site.

"The Indians" he wrote "have made a succession of little dams, from the upper end to the river; and one finds baths of every temperature, from boiling hot, to that of the river, which is too cold for bathing at any season."

Hot Springs & Big Hole Valley

These hot springs bear witness to the geothermic activity in the region. A fault system dropped the Big Hole Valley and raised the surrounding mountains. Fractured rock of the earth's crust allows water to percolate deep underground where it is heated and then rises to the surface as a hot springs.

Clark excerpt taken from: The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume Eight, Gary Mouton, Editor.

Ferris excerpt taken from: Life in the Rocky Mountains, Northland Press, 1983.

Erected by Camp Fortunate Chapter, Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation; Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

Lewis and Clark National Forest Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt

This memorial was authorized by a Bill introduced in the Congress of the United States of America, by Representative Scot Leavitt, February 1, 1930 and approved by President Hoover on June 2, 1930.

Erected by Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Blackfoot River Corridor

Welcome to the Blackfoot Recreation corridor. The corridor stretches 26 mile along the Blackfoot River from Johnsrud Park to the Russel Gates recreation area. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management manage the corridor cooperatively. In the upper half of the corridor, much of the Blackfoot River shoreline is privately owned. Agencies work closely with land owners to allow public access along the river.

The Blackfoot River meanders 132 miles from the Continental Divide to its confluence with the Clark Fork River near Missoula. The river valley was greatly altered over 12,000 years ago from the movement of glaciers originating in the mountains of what is now the Bob Marshal Wilderness Complex.

Walk This Way "Cokahlarishkit" or "river of the road to buffalo", as it was known to the Nez Perce, was a trail etched deeply into the earth along the banks of the Blackfoot River. Salish, Nez Perce, and Shoshone Indian families all crossed the Divide in the summer and fall to hunt buffalo on the plains of what is now central Montana. Dried buffalo meat sustained them over the long winter months. Buffalo hides, when sewn together, made tipi covers, clothes and carrying bags. Along the way women gathered camas roots that could be dried and made into flour. Men collected high-quality chert for producing projectile points and butchering tools.

Captain Meriwether Lewis and nine of his men were "much on our guard both day and night" in July of 1806 as they followed the trail along the Blackfoot River on their return trip from the Pacific Ocean. The Nez Perce Indians that led them to the trail would not accompany the explores farther for fear of encountering the "Minnetares" or enemy Indian tribes. This alarmed Captain Lewis, especially after he encountered several abandoned Indian camps and fresh horse tracks.

The explorers were headed for home and didn't take time to enjoy the scenery - the day they traveled through this area they logged 31 miles on horseback.

Fire and the Blackfoot River Valley

A hot wildfire blazed through this area in October of 1991. Remnants of the fire are visible on the surrounding hillside. Changes in vegetation resulting from the fire include an increase in the quality and amount of forage, more soil nutrients, and new plants replacing burned off vegetation. Unfortunately, burned over areas also provide an opportunity for noxious weeds to spread.

Resource managers elected to speed up the recovery process for lost animal habitat in the area. Conifer seedlings were planted to help restore cover sooner and noxious weeds were treated with chemicals and biological organisms. Roads were closed or their use restricted in order to help stop the spread of weeds, to reduce disturbance or deer and elk, and reduce soil erosion.

This restoration project helped bring animal habitat back to a more favorable condition. Organizations that funded restoration efforts include: The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the American Forests, the Bureau of Land Management, and Plum Creek Timber Company.

Forested hills adjacent to the Blackfoot River attract elk, mule deer, and white-tail deer. This habitat provides grass, forbes, and shrubs for food and conifer trees for hiding cover and protection from winter storms. Fire periodically changes habitats and how animals use particular areas. Some fire-related changes benefit elk and deer whereas others force animals to find a new home.

Erected by The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management.

Meriwether Lewis is hardly the only person ever to have found himself evaluating the meaning and purpose of his own life. But the words he wrote on the evening of August 18, 1805 - when camped about 35 miles southeast of where you stand now - have haunted historians and other readers for generations. The feelings Lewis experienced, the thoughts he expressed in his journal, are as universal as the natural processes that govern life on the landscape surrounding you.

Events the preceding week has presented an emotional rollercoaster. After several false starts, the Corps of Discovery finally has established positive relations with the Lemhi Shoshoni tribe. For months they had anticipated this moment. They had welcomed Sacajawea on the expedition largely because as a Shoshoni, she might make it easier for them to obtain horses from her tribe - and having horses was essential to their goal of crossing the Rockies before winter. After a long night of joyous celebration, many members of the Corps left with most of the Shoshoni, bound for the tribe's main camp and to explore routes for the next leg of their journey. Lewis found himself in a tranquil circumstance for the first time in days, and the comparative solitude - aptly on the occasion of his 31st birthday - sparked a mood to introspection and self-evaluation. Have you ever reflected on your life in a similar way?

"This day I completed my thirty first year ... I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended, but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in the future, to redouble my excretions and to at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in the future, to live for mankind as I have heretofore lived for myself. ---" -- Meriwether Lewis, August 18, 1805

Meriwether Lewis died October 11, 1809, a little more than four years after writing his journal entry at Camp Fortunate. In his 36 years, Lewis had been a military leader, a trusted aide to President Thomas Jefferson, and one of the most experienced - and accomplished - white explorers in American history. He was also America's first great travel writer.

Erected by Montana State University (Bozeman), Bureau of Land Management, Montana Stockgrowers Association.

On a clear day, the sweeping views from here take in more than 400 square miles. Most of these lands look much as they have for centuries. Human travel routes haven't changed much either. Highway 278 mirrors very closely that Captain Clark and his crew look on their eastward trip in 1806 - an "excellent road." in his words that native Americans had worn into the land over generations. At 7,460 feet above sea level, this mountain pass is one of the highest elevations traveled by members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Amid this natural scenery, you stand in the heartland of western Montana's cattle country. Since the mid-1800s, Beaverhead County has been home to more cattle than most any other place in America. Headquarters at the foot of the slope before you, the Hamilton Ranch contains portions of a homestead established here in the late 1800s. Today, with the help of a program called Undaunted Stewardship®, the ranch preserves its historic sites and takes actions designed to maintain the landscape's body and soul. Welcome to a glimpse of the area's ghosts, its life and its future - enjoy your visit!

Erected by

Montana State University (Bozeman), Bureau of Land Management, Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Seaman, Meriwether Lewis's faithful Newfoundland dog, often earned special attention in the journals of the Corps of Discovery.

"Last night we were alarmed by a large buffaloe Bull, which swam over from the opposite shore and coming alongside of the white perigee (canoe), climbed over it to land, he then alarmed ran up the bank in full speed directly towards the fires, and was within 18 inches of the heads of some of the men ... my dog saved us by causing him to change his course."

Meriwether Lewis, May 29, 1805

Lewis purchased "Seaman" in 1803 and the dog proved to by worthy enough to name this creek after him in his journals.

"... 3 miles to the entrance of a large creek 20 yds wide (which) Called Seaman's Creek

Seaman's Creek was eventually renamed to honor George Monteur. A skilled frontiersman, Monteur (Monture) worked as an interpreter for the Hudson Bay Company and safely guided settlers through the western mountains and valleys. He died near this site in the fall of 1877.

Erected by

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

One their return trip from the Pacific Coast, the Corps of Discovery split into two parties at Travelers Rest (just south of Missoula, Montana) on July 1, 1806. Clark proceeded south down the route they had come in 1805 along the Bitterroot River. Lewis went north along the Blackfoot River Their plan was to rendezvous at the Missouri River in late August.

Lewis traveled through this area accompanied by nine mounted soldiers, 17 horses, and his Newfoundland dog, Seaman. On July 5, 1806, they camped near here at the confluence of the Big Blackfoot River and a creek. Lewis named the creek Seaman's Creek after his dog. Today Seaman Creek is called Monture Creek, named after George Monture, an early day U.S. Army scout. Lewis described this part of the valley as "prarie of the knobs" because of the mounds along the trail, some of which can still be seen today. The trail was called "COKALAHJSHKHT" or "The River of the Road to the Buffalo" as it was known to the Nez Perce.

From here they "Proceeded On" to the east, past Lincoln, up Alice Creek, and across the Continental Divide. The place they crossed the Continental Divide is known today as "Lewis and Clark Pass", even through Clark was never here!

The "knobs" that Lewis described were caused by glacier dumping rocks along their edges and down icy holes and cracks within the glacier. The glaciers that left these knobs began to melt and slowly retreat to the north some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. See picture at the lower right.

Erected by Forest Service, US Department of the Interior; Lewis and Clark Trail Commission.