"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.

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.

"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.

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.

The Mansion was built in 1895 as the home of Mr. & Mrs. Charles E. Conrad. E.C. Conrad was a prominent Missouri River freighter, trader and pioneer during the Gold Rush and Indian Wars and later founded the city of Kalispell. The mansion has 23 rooms and was designed by Kirtland Cutter, foremost Spokane architect of the time. In 1975 it was donated to the City of Kalispell (by daughter Alicia Campbell and has been restored in all its Victorian elegance and opened to public tours. Directly across Woodland Avenue once stood the magnificent stables, removed in 1926. Only the stone wall remains.

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.

You are at the gateway in the Upper Flathead River which drains Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (the Bob) and the southeastern corner of British Columbia. 219 miles of the three forks of the Flathead are designated as federal wild and scenic river, which means they are managed to maintain their natural primitive environments and unpolluted waters.

Directly to the south of here is the Swan Mountain Range which stretches in an unbroken line for 100 miles. No road crosses the top of it. East of the Swan Range is the Bob.

Just around the next corner going toward the park you can look east into the Great Bear Wilderness created in 1978 to the vital habitat in the park and the Bob for the grizzly bear and other wildlife.

Erected by Montana Highway Commission.

Partnering For Bighorn Sheep Conservation Bighorn sheep populations across the American West nearly faded away forever in the early 1900s due to overhunting and the introduction of diseases from domestic sheep. Here in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, the story was the same. But the tide began to turn when tighter regulations and partnerships for bighorn conservation efforts got off the ground in the 1940s. Today, Montana's bighorn sheep population is one of the Nation's largest.

The Wild Sheep Foundation

The success of wild sheep recovery can be credited to the work of many. One group that made a significant mark is the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF). The WSF has raised millions to benefit Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' (FWP) efforts to conserve bighorns and their habitat through an annual auction of one bighorn sheep license. Winning bids average around $170,000.

In the winter of 2009-10, members of the Montana chapter of the WSF assisted FWP in its pioneering efforts to cull pneumonia-stricken sheep to save a core population of healthy sheep in the East Fork of the Bitterroot. The MTWSF also provides support for research, habitat improvements, public education, population surveys, and land protection efforts that safeguard and enhance wild sheep populations.

The WSF's mission is to enhance wild sheep populations, promote professional wildlife management, educate the public about wild sheep and the conservation benefits of hunting, encourage fair chase hunting, and protect sportsmen's rights. The group, originally called the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep (FNAWS), was formed in 1977 so that men and women could get more involved in the positive management of wild sheep.

Rebuilding through Reintroduction

Beginning in the 1940s, FWP biologists helped to reestablish bighorns by trapping them from population strongholds and transplanting them to historical habitats isolated from the threat of pneumonia carried by domestic sheep and goats. FWP began transplanting sheep into the Bitterroot in the 1970s with help from the Bitterroot National Forest, Ravalli County Fish & Wildlife Association and the Marvin Wetzsteon family.

To the East… In 1972, FWP biologists reintroduced 35 sheep into Tolan Creek and Bunch Gulch on the east side of the valley. Today, this group of sheep (known as the East Fork herd) is well established. A hunting season first opened in 1976 and the herd hit a population high of 246 in 2006. The herd faced a setback in 2009 when it was hit with a pneumonia outbreak.

…and to the West

FWP reintroduced 38 sheep to the West Fork in 1990 from Sun River Wildlife Management area (located about 200 miles north of here). Biologists added another 28 bighorns in 1991 from the Anaconda herd that lives about 50 miles to the east and another 10 from Sun River in 2004. The West Fork Herd hit a high of 120 in 2006.

Pneumonia in Wild Sheep

Bighorn restoration hinges on Bighorn maintaining separation from domestic sheep and goats. The domestics can carry bacteria that are harmless to them but are one cause of pneumonia in bighorns. Devastating pneumonia outbreaks may kill upwards to 90% of a herd within only weeks or months. There is no vaccine to prevent the disease in wild sheep or medications to keep sick sheep alive.

1915 • The Montana hunting season for bighorns was closed indefinitely due to waning population numbers.

1941 • FWP estimated a statewide population of less than 1,000 bighorns. Before European settlement more than 100,000 wild sheep may have lived in what is now Montana.

2008 • Montana estimated a population of 6,000 bighorn sheep in 45 populations from the Idaho border east to the Missouri River Breaks

2011 • A new population estimate revealed that an outbreak of the deadly pneumonia disease in sheep across western Montana, which began in late 2009, reduced the state’s population to about 5,000 sheep.

Home to Two Herds of Sheep From where you stand, bighorn sheep live on the rocky slopes and canyons on both sides of the Bitterroot River. Historically, sheep were spotted in this area from time-to-time, but reintroductions in 1972, 1990, 1991 and 2004 helped to reestablish and bolster the population. Sheep like the remote habitat offered in the valley's East and West Fork drainages, but sometimes they can be spotted near the highway in this area. Through the years, the US Forest Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and private organizations and individuals have worked together on sheep conservation efforts in the valley.

Remembering a Champion for Bighorns

Duncan Gilchrist, an avid outdoorsman, devoted a lot of his time and energy to wildlife conservation. After many years in Alaska as a forester, bush pilot and hunting guide, “Dunc” moved his family to the Bitterroot Valley in 1976. He spent many years of his life living here in the valley, working on projects centered on bighorn sheep.

Duncan joined the Ravalli County Fish & Wildlife Association (RCFWA), a group devoted to preserving fair chase hunting in the valley, and served as president of the organization from 1982-1983. He also served on the board of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep (FNAWS).

The Department of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University recognized Duncan for his work with sheep, including his dedication to finding a cure for Pasteurella pneumonia (a nearly always fatal respiratory disease in sheep).

Capturing the Wilderness in Print and on Camera

Duncan authored numerous books, some of which chronicled the condition of the state’s bighorn sheep herds, their natural history and field care of big game. Altogether, Duncan authored 11 books on outdoor subjects.

Photography and videography were also passions of Dunc's, and he traveled the world to capture images of wild animals. In 2001, the International Wildlife Film Festival honored him in Missoula, MT for his numerous wildlife film contributions.

Dunc passed away with a video camera in his hands in the fall of 2002 doing what he loved - filming wildlife for eternity.

Legends of the High Country Bighorn sheep, named for the large curved horns on males (rams), are legendary for their ability to climb steep and rocky terrain, like the landscape that surrounds us here in the southern Bitterroot Valley. A large male may weigh over 300 pounds and stand over 42 inches tall at the shoulder. A ewe (female sheep) will have smaller, shorter horns that curve only slightly. Ewes typically weigh 100-150 pounds.

Although today's bighorn population is much lower than it was historically, the return of the bighorn to many parts of its native range across the West is a wildlife restoration success.

Power in the Horns & Hooves

Fighting for dominance, males charge each other at speeds of more than 20 miles per hour, their horns crashing with a crack that can be heard more than a mile away. The animal’s thick, bony skull usually prevents serious injury. Sometimes, during the late fall mating season (referred to as the rut), you might catch one of these battles near the highway in this part of the valley - keep your eyes and ears peeled as you continue your travels.

To master high country travel, bighorns have balance-aiding split hooves and rough hoof bottoms for natural grip. These attributes, along with keen vision, help them move easily on rocky, rugged mountain terrain.

Every winter leaves its mark on the horns of bighorn rams. Horns stop growing when nutrition is poor in winter; forming annual rings – like tree rings! You can age a ram by counting, the prominent rings.

Seasonal Shifts for Survival

Just like many wild animals, bighorn sheep shift their living and eating patterns based on the season. In the summer, bighorns graze on grasses or sedges on 5,000-8,500 feet alpine meadows or hillsides. In the winter, bighorns descend to lower elevation mountain slopes where snow is not nearly as deep. There they feed on grasses and woody plants such as willow, sage and rabbit brush. Reintroduced populations sometimes do not adopt the migratory habits of the original native herds and may be seen near the native winter range year-round.

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.

Rattlesnake Creek enters the Clark Fork River across from this point, completing the journey from its headwaters high in the Rattlesnake National Wilderness Area. Missoula’s first building was a two-room log cabin constructed by William T. Hamilton in 1858 near the mouth of the creek. Hamilton built the cabin to serve as both his home and as a trading post. The building also housed the town’s post office for several years. Hamilton was elected county sheriff in 1861.

When the Stevens Bridge (located near St. Patrick Hospital) washed out in 1869, William Burmester operated a ferry near the mouth of Rattlesnake Creek as the primary means of crossing the Clark Fork within the present town’s limits. It continued as such until the Higgins Avenue Bridge was constructed in 1873.

In 1897, lumber baron Thomas Greenough contracted Missoula architect A.J. Gibson to design and built a mansion on the banks of the Rattlesnake approximately three blocks north of its mouth. In 1902, Greenough’s widow, Tennie Epperson Greenough, donated 20 acres of land along Rattlesnake Creek to the City for its first public park, which was named Greenough

Park in honor of its benefactor.

Rattlesnake Creek provided water power to run Missoula’s first lumber and flour mill west of the creek. The clear waters of Rattlesnake Creek served as Missoula’s drinking water supply until 1983.

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.

(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.

"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.

For millennia, the Blackfoot River corridor has been part of the homeland of the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people. They and visiting members of other tribes used a vast network of trails to criss-cross this region of great abundance -- rich in game, fish, roots and bulbs, berries, medicinal plants, paint, and countless other resources.

Long before the advent of modern highways, the Clearwater Junction area -- known in Salish as Čćnpá (pronounced Ch-tsin-pah -- the name of a prominent warrior) -- was also a junction in the Salish-Pend d'Oreille transportation system, From here, trails reached to the four directions.

To the east, the trail continued past the Ovando area, called Sntntnmsqá (Sin-tin-tin-im-skah -- Place Where A Person Tightens a Horse's Reins). From here, people crossed the Continental Divide via several passes to reach the buffalo-rich prairies of the Dearborn, Sun, and Missouri Rivers.

To the south trails traversed the hills to the Clark Fork River.

To the west, the trail continued down the confluence with the Clark Fork, called N?aycčstm (Jn-aye-ts-ch-sten -- Place of the Big Bull Trout), and places beyond.

And to the north, trails lead toward Placid Lake, called Čtáll?e (Chithl-qul-il-eh -- Referring to Dry Land Exposed when the Lake Recedes in Fall) and Seeley Lake, called Ept Ćixwćwt (Epthl Tsiwh-tsuwht -- Has Ospresy).

From the Seeley-Swan, trails led east to the Bob Marshall Wilderness, west toward the Jocko and Mission Valleys, and north to the mouth of the Swan River at Bigfork, called Nqeytkwm ( Jn-qeythl-kwum, Referring to the Sound of Falling Water).

These ancient trails and placenames and hundreds of others, continue to hold great importance to the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people today.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

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.

While the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway was an epic undertaking, the celebration to mark its completion was less than extraordinary. The railroad's president, Henry Villard, planned a last spike ceremony for September 8, 1883 near the mouth of Independence Creek, "an impoverished flat surrounded by negligible heights" about three miles southeast of here. He had a large pavilion built and decorated with flags, bunting, and pine boughs. The massive pavilion could seat a thousand people in upholstered seats. Villard also built a large wooden platform next to the tracks and a showy bandstand from which Fort Keogh's Fifth Infantry band could entertain his invited guests. He brought in five posh excursion cars from Minnesota, each one filled with dignitaries - mostly Europeans who provided financial support for the railroad - and a delegation of Crow Indians lead by Iron Bull. President Ulysses Grand and former Secretary of State William Dewart were also among the assembled luminaries.

The big day dawned oppressively hot. Villard scheduled the celebration for 10 a.m., but it didn't start for another five hours. While the invited guests lounged about in the shade of the pavilion, hundreds of people from Helena and other surrounding communities arrived uninvited to watch the proceedings. Villard provided food to his guests, but not to the Montanans. The endless speeches continued and the crowd grew restless -- especially since the speeches were directed at those in the pavilion and not the majority of attendees. As Secretary Dewat "spoke as long as should have been possible, then droned on and on," the multitude began calling for President Grant to say a few words. The disruption became bad enough that Villard threatened to call in the military to restore order; the crowd didn't back down and the yelling became louder, Finally Grant stood and directly addressed the throng, giving what many felt was the best speech of the long afternoon.

It wasn't until 5:30 that Villard proceeded to the railroad tracks drove the last spike, symbolically completing the railroad. It was too dark by then to take any photographs. As two locomotives advance and touched cowcatchers, the engineers descended, shook hands and climbed back aboard. The dignitaries then rebounded the trains and continued on to the west coast, leaving Villard $250,000 poorer and the mob to find their way back home with empty stomachs.

John Mullan

One of the 332 guests sitting in the shade of the pavilion on September 8th was a rather unremarkable man. He wasn't an industrialist, European royalty, or a politician. But he had played a critical role in the proceedings they'd all come to witness. John Mullan came west in 1852 as a lieutenant in the US Corps of Topographical Engineers. A recent graduate of West Point, the Army assigned him to assist Washington territorial governor Issac Stevens in the survey for a northern transcontinental railroad route. For the next nine years, Mullan enthusiastically carried out his mission and from 1853 to 1862, constructed a military wagon supply route from Walla Walla, Washington to Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation on the upper Missouri River. The road, while not entirely a success, did much to open up western Montana to settlement in the 1860s and 1870s.

The Northern Pacific Railway eventually paralleled the Mullan Road for Mullan Pass west of Helena to Spokane, Washington.. None of the speeches that preceded the driving of the last spike mentioned John Mullan and his efforts to bring a railroad to the northern Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Despite the snub Mullan must have felt, he was proud of his contribution to the construction of the railroad. He later wrote an old friend that "you can well imagine that my heart wells up with gladness at seeing realized one of the germs of my live and fulfillment of so many years of hard and patient toil in the mountains where I was so largely a pioneer thirty years ago."

Few points along the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition have the significance of this site, now beneath the waters of Clark Canyon Reservoir. Noted on their maps as "Fortunate Camp", the Lewis and Clark Expedition journeyed here hoping to obtain horses from Sacagawea's people, the Lemhi Shoshoni.

Following an Indian trail in advance of the main party, Captain Lewis first reached this site on August 10, 1805. Two days later, he crossed the Continental Divide west of here, and met the Lemhi Shoshoni. Although suspicious of the white men, they returned with Lewis to meet the rest of the party, arriving back here on August 17, 1805. At the meeting, Sacajawea was reunited with brother, Chief Camehwait, whom she had not seen for five years.

Through her, Lewis and Clark negotiated for horses and a guide - critical for the expedition's journey across the mountains to the Columbia River drainage. In exchange, the Shoshoni were promised that future trade would include guns and ammunition - critical for their defense against enemy tribes.

In July 1806, Clark and his party returned here to retrieve canoes and supplies they had cached the previous year in preparation for the return trip down the Missouri River to St. Louis.

"...it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render us such aids as they had in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home. that such were their horses to transport our baggage without which we could not subsist and that a pilot to conduct us through the mountains was also necessary if we could not decend the river by water." -- Captain M. Lewis, August 17, 1805

Where is "Fortunate Camp"?

"immediately in the level plain between the forks and about 1/2 a mile distance from them stands a high rocky mountain, the base of which is surrounded by the level plain; it has a singular appearance." -- Captain M. Lewis, August 18, 1805

Today, this "singular mountain" forms the large island you see in front of you, marked on their map between the forks. The actual site of Camp Fortunate is now under water, half-way between this island and the dam. Look at the map for its symbol δ just before the forks to the left.

"We now found our camp just below the junction of the forks on the Lard. side in a level smooth bottom covered with fine terf of green-swoard." Captain M. Lewis, August 17, 1805

Erected by Montana Bureau of Reclamation.