(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.