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.