Lolo Motorway

January 2003 
Issue #8

While those of you driving non-mountain vehicles and enjoying a visit to the Kamiah valley, Lewis and Clark’s “Long Camp” and the scenic Elk City and Buffalo Hump country, this writer will return to “Colt Killed Camp” and Powell Ranger Station to guide the vehicles equipped to travel the rough mountain track of the Lolo Motorway.

The Motorway offers views that are little changed from what the Corp of Discovery experienced two centuries ago. About four miles down river from Powell Ranger Station on Highway 12 is the U.S. Forest Service Wendover Staging Area. This is the only place along the Lochsa River that the actual trail and Highway 12 coincide. You can access the Motorway here by traveling 3500 feet in altitude up the mountain to the top of Wendover Ridge and Forest Service Road 500. William Clark wrote it was “winding in every direction to get up the Steep assents….” It is very little different today.

Lolo Motorway Continued

February 2003 
Issue #9

As heavy snow fell, the Corp. of Discovery dropped down into Hungry Creek but we are going to stay on the ridge top and the Lolo Motorway.

The Corp will struggle with steep canyons, heavy forest growth, cold and hunger. At what is now called Horsesteak Meadows, Clark and his troop came upon a lost Indian horse and had a portion of it for breakfast. They hung the remaining portion in a tree so Lewis and his men could have a meal.

William Clark wrote, on Sept. 16, 1805, “I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearfull my feet would freeze.”

March 2003
Issue #10

You’ve had a glimpse of what to expect along the Lolo Trail Motorway. Although you won’t have the snow to contend with, summer is travel time now, you will find some of the going a bit difficult.

The U.S. Forest Service has abandoned the lottery system for the summer of 2003 since applicants did not reach the anticipated number for this coming summer. The Motorway will remain open for visitors and many restrictions have been lifted. However, it is still necessary to obtain a free permit before entering the corridor. This can be obtained at any Clearwater National Forest office. The restriction for one-way travel has been lifted as well as limited group size.

Nez Perce Indians May and June 1806

April 2003
Issue #11

Captains Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery were guests of the Nez Perce Indians for three weeks in May and June 1806. They camped in the present Kamiah valley at a site now occupied by Three Rivers sawmill on the north side of the river. The explorers were waiting for the snow to melt along the trail through the Bitterroots before they could continue their homeward journey.

Members of the party were suffering from hunger and many ailments including very sore feet. When they arrived in the valley most of their trade goods were gone. Food was in short supply in the Nez Perce villages as well as the camp of the Corp.

First glimpse of Idaho

June 2003
Issue #12

On the morning of August 12, 1805, Captain Meriwether Lewis wrote, “We proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immense ranges of high mountains still to the west of us with their tops partially covered with snow.”

He was at Lemhi Pass and here members of the Corp of Discovery first glimpsed what is now Idaho and the Bitterroot and Beaverhead Mountains at the Continental Divide. From this vantage point Lewis and Clark and modern visitors have an unhampered view of the beautiful wilderness country of the Upper Columbia watershed, where snow-topped ranges of the Bitterroots succeed each other until lost in the western haze. Walking down the western slope to a “handsome bold creek of cold Clear water”, a tributary of the Lemhi River, Lewis wrote, “I first tasted the water of the great Columbia river”. The area around Lemhi pass, along with the Lolo Trail is the closest to being pristine as Captain Lewis saw it in 1805.

Salmon, Idaho  

July 2003
Issue #13

Looking for a great adventure during the middle of August. Consider traveling to Salmon, Idaho, the birthplace of Sacagawea and enjoy the festivities and historical information of Sacagawea Heritage Days August 15-17.

Sacagawea was abducted by an Assiniboine war party while her people, the Shoshone were camped near Three Forks, Montana, hunting buffalo. She was reunited with friends and her brother in August, 1805 when she returned to her homeland in the Lemhi Valley with a husband and child and as a valuable member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Captain Lewis and three of his men were the first white men to cross Lemhi Pass and the Continental Divide. They entered the Lemhi Valley on August 12, 1805.

Weippe and Watkuweis

September 2003
Issue #14

Captains Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery had crossed the Bitterroot Mountains in the fall of 1805 suffering from cold and hunger. In the February newsletter we were traveling on U.S. Forest Service Road 100 and had visited "Pheasant Camp", about a mile down stream from the junction of Eldorado Creek and Lolo Creek.

From Pheasant Camp, Clark, who with a small group of men, preceded the main party, had hiked up a steep canyon for seven miles to a level prairie. Here they chanced upon two young Indian lads who alerted a small nearby Nez Perce village (one of two) of their coming. The men of the village were seriously considering dispatching the strange white visitors but on the advice of an old woman named Watkuweis they welcomed the strangers with salmon and camas roots to assuage their hunger. Watkuweis had been captured by another Indian tribe but was treated well by white men she had encountered and prevailed on behalf of the exploring party.

Confluence of the Clearwater River

October 2003
Issue #15

When the Corp of Discovery reached the confluence of the Clearwater River and the Northfork Clearwater River the majority of the party was debilitated by illness. After many days of traveling the snowy Bitterroot Mountains and weakened by hunger, the men had accepted the hospitality of the Nez Perce Indians and gorged themselves on dried salmon and camas root. As a result most of the party was suffering from severe intestinal illness. Captain Lewis was exceptionally ill and on Sept. 29, 1805 Captain Clark wrote, “Capt. Lewis very Sick, and most of the men Complaining very much of their bowels & Stomach”.

To make matters worse there was still nothing to eat except the food which made them ill. The hunters were having no luck in their search for venison. Clark wrote in his journal, “Nothing to eate except dried fish & roots. Capt Lewis & myself eate a Supper of roots boiled, which Swelled us in Such a manner that we were Scercely able to breath for Several hours.” Under these circumstances, Clark established the canoe-making camp on the south bank of the Clearwater opposite the mouth of the Northfork.

December 2003
Issue #16

Christmas with Lewis & Clark

Although the Lewis and Clark Expedition was never in Idaho during the Christmas and New Year’s season they did observe those days wherever they were.

On the 25th of December, 1804 they were camped on the Missouri near the Mandan Indians in the vicinity of the Knife River. The expedition members had constructed a compound that they named Fort Mandan and where they would spend the winter.

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Along the Lewis & Clark Trail is brought to you each month by the staff at Clearwater Web Solutions with the assistance of Cheeta Brown, who each month provides us with an interesting feature article.