The Lolo Trail is an historic trail passing over
the Bitterroot Mountains between Lolo, Montana in the Bitterroot River valley
and Kamiah, Idaho in the Clearwater River valley. In actuality, the Lolo Trail
is three major, separately identifiable, historic trail treads that sometimes
join but are nearly always separate.
Between Lolo, Montana and Lolo Pass,
there is only a single historic trail tread. Between Lolo Pass and Green Saddle,
there are two separate historic trail treads. Between Green Saddle and the
Weippe Prairie, there are three separate historic trail treads. There is
also the tread of the fishing trail down the Lochsa River that was not a
part of the main trail but is also included in the landmark. Since 1992,
there has also been about thirty miles of recreation trail constructed in
the historic trail corridor.
Because of the multiple-tread nature of the
Lolo Trail National Historic Landmark, we sometimes use the term Lolo Trail System but in this document, the term Lolo Trail
will be used. The multiple treads have also been a source of confusion when
trying to describe and manage the trail. This document is written in an attempt
to minimize that confusion. Much of the landmark is on federal land managed
by the Forest Service. Other trail segments are on private land, timber company
land, and state land. Place names mentioned in this document can be found
on Clearwater National Forest visitor maps.
These trails were initially explored and developed by
the Nez Perce and Salish (Flathead) tribes and were used primarily to pass
between western Montana and north central Idaho. Travel was for business,
recreation, and adventure. The business use was primarily plant (berries,
roots and medicine) and fish (salmon) gathering. Recreation and adventure
use involved visiting high mountain meadows to enjoy the atmosphere and escape
the river valley heat in the summer. The friendly tribes also used the trail
to visit each other. Other tribes in the northwest United States occasionally
used the Lolo Trail but sometimes not for peaceful purposes.
As far as we know, the first written record of the Lolo Trail
was created when the Corps of Discovery under the command of Lewis and Clark
passed over it in the fall of 1805 (westward) and the spring of 1806 (eastward)
during their exploration of a route through the Louisiana Purchase. They
left us a record providing maps and geographic descriptions of the trail
and its surroundings.
The journal accounts and word-of-mouth reports of the Lolo Trail
quickly spread across the western plains and western mountains of the continent.
It was not long before mountain men and fur trappers from both the United
States and Canada started using the Lolo Trail. Not long after the fur trappers, came the gold miners and then the federal government. The Lolo Trail was well traveled during the 1800s.
The Lolo Trail National Historic Landmark, as designated in the National Register of Historic Places,
applies to the various trail treads (described previously) that pass between Lolo, Montana and Weippe,
Idaho (Weippe Prairie). These various trail treads can be classified (or summarized) as follows:
The Northern Nez Perces Trail 1730-1866
Hungery Creek Branch
Snowy Summit Branch
The Bird Truax Trail 1866
The Koos-Koos-Kee Salmon Fishing Trail 1805
Nee-Mee-Poo Adventure Trail 2009
The major types of historical use and associated dates of the treads of the Lolo Trail National Historic Landmark are:
Before circa 1730: foot traffic between the Salish and Nez Perce, access to mountain meadows and food sources.
Circa 1730-1877: The Lolo Trail was developed and used by native
people with horses. This use included a wide area of travel to the east and
south. One of the most often cited travel reasons was to hunt buffalo in central Montana.
1805-06: The trail followed by the Corps of Discovery under the
command of M. Lewis and W. Clark as they explored for a transportation route
through the Louisiana Purchase.
1832: John Work of the Hudson's Bay company led a fur trapping brigade
of over 200 people across the Lolo Trail. The party of men also included
their wives and children as well as many horses and dogs. They traveled eastbound
from the Weippe Prairie, over Lolo Pass, and on to Lolo, Montana.
1854: The route of a railroad survey conducted by John Mullan.
1866: The construction of a government trail (Bird-Truax Trail 1866)
between Weippe, Idaho and Lolo Pass on the Idaho-Montana border.
1877: The war between the US government and the non-treaty Nez Perce bands.
1907-1935: The main line trail used by the US Forest Service to
access the land between the Lochsa Fork and North Fork of the Clearwater
River.
1926-1935: Construction of a one-lane natural-surface road along the Lolo Trail route that we call the Lolo Motorway.
1935-Present: Major trail use was abandoned in 1935 in favor of using
the Lolo Motorway. Minor use of some segments by hunters continues to the
present time.
1992-Present: The construction of several miles of the Nee-Mee-Poo
Adventure Trail, a recreation trail created on, or near, the Bird-Truax Trail
1866.
NORTHERN NEZ PERCES TRAIL 1730-1866
The Northern Nez Perces Trail 1730-1866 is the original
horse trail that developed between the lands of the Nez Perce and the lands
of the Salish. Near the western end of the trail, between the Weippe Prairie
and Green Saddle on the Clearwater National Forest, the trail was split into
two branches. One branch followed a northerly route over Snowy Summit, which we call the Snowy Summit Branch. The southerly branch went through Hungery Creek, which we call the Hungery Creek Branch. From Lolo, Montana to Kamiah, Idaho, the Northern Nez Perces Trail 1805 that was followed by Lewis & Clark (through Hungery Creek) is exactly 143 miles long.
Nez Perce and Salish (Flathead) circa 1730-1866
The route of the Lolo Trail was probably used for
foot traffic for hundreds of years before horse traffic started circa 1730.
Evidence of a foot trail has never been found, perhaps because the horse
traffic wore the trail so deeply that the foot trail was destroyed. The Nez
Perce and Salish (Flathead) would have initially determined the location
of the trail through experience and some minor trial-and-error. This approach
resulted in a very practical trail through the rugged mountains..
Food was not easy to come by on the high, dry ridges of
the trail so side trails led to meadows and down to the North Fork and Lochsa
Fork of the Clearwater River where fish and food plants could be obtained. Some
of these side trails became well worn and were later used by the Forest Service
for fire fighting access. Other side trails were little worn and have become
nearly untraceable.
We learn from the Lewis & Clark Journals that the Hungery Creek Branch of the Northern Nez Perces Trail
was being used in 1805-1806. Their Lemhi Shoshoni guide, Toby, took them
westward on that branch in 1805 and their Nez Perce guides took them eastward
on the same branch. The Journals are the only record of this branch being
used. Our next extant journal, from John Work in 1832, records his party's
passage along the Snowy Summit Branch. Every journal record afterwards never again mentions the Hungery Creek Branch, only the Snow Summit Branch.
I've speculated that, during the early 1800s, the Nez
Perce greatly expanded their system of horse trails and decided the Snowy Summit Branch was the best route for their travel. After the development of the Bird-Truax Trail 1866,
I believe the Nez Perce used both their traditional trail and the new trail.
In 1877, I believe they used both trails but primarily the Bird-Truax Trail 1866.
In all my years of hiking both of these trails, I prefer using the original
trail in many places because of its directness. It seems faster and easier
in many respects but the 1866 government trail would be easier on horses
and most hikers.
Lewis and Clark 1805-1806
The Corps of Discovery, under the command of Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark,
followed this trail (westward) in 1805 and (eastward) in 1806 between Lolo,
Montana and the Weippe Prairie. During their westward trip, they diverted from the main ridge and followed theKoos-Koos-Kee Salmon Fishing Trail
for several miles before climbing up Wendover Ridge and joining the main
trail at the top. They also followed the trail from Kamiah, Idaho to
the Weippe Prairie (eastward) in 1806.
On the west end of the Northern Nez Perces Trail, the Corps followed the Hungery Creek Branch of the Northern Nez Perces Trail.
This trail passes Bowl Butte, Hungery Creek, Fish Creek, Mex Mountain, Eldorado
Creek, Cedar Creek, Lolo Creek, Crane Meadows, Wilson Creek, and Jim Ford
Creek. The geographic notes, mileages, and maps in their journals are the
first written documentation we have of the location of the tread of the Northern Nez Perces Trail. In 1805, their trip westward was a cold, rainy, snowy, hungry one
that caused them to suffer from lack of food and the elements. Their trip
eastward in 1806 was over deep hard-packed snow which made the trail much
easier traveling.
John Work 1831
John Work lead a large party of Hudson's Bay fur trappers
over the Northern Nez Perces Trail in 1831. He reached the trail at the Weippe
Prairie and followed it eastward to Lolo, Montana. This party followed the
Snowy Summit Branch of the Northern Nez Perces Trail from Musselshell
Meadows to Green Saddle. This trail passes Lolo Forks, Camp Martin, Snowy
Summit, Beaver Dam Saddle, Rocky Ridge, and Weitas Meadows. From Green Saddle
eastward, there was a single trail, the one followed by Lewis & Clark,
all the way to Lolo, Montana.
John Mullan 1854
Captain John Mullan was twenty-three and a West Point graduate when he came
west in 1853 to serve in the Pacific Rail Road Survey expeditions under the
command of Issac I. Stevens, Gov. of Washington Territory. Mullan did
many surveys including his trip over the Lolo Trail, done in the fall of
1854. His survey followed the Snowy Summit Branch of the Northern Nez Perces Trail. His journals concluded that the Lolo Trail route was unsuitable for
a railroad.
I've concluded from reading his journal accounts that
Mullan never really took the Lolo Trail seriously as a railroad route over
the Bitterroot Mountains and probably knew ahead of time it was impractical
but still needed to do the survey for completeness. I am puzzled by his lack
of quality in the survey. His distance estimates are among the poorest of
all the journals about the Lolo Trail and his published map of the trail
is much more inaccurate than the maps of Lewis & Clark. His journal comments,
however, give us some insight into the nature of the trail.
George Nicholson 1866
In 1866, Nicholson joined the expedition of the Virginia
City and Lewiston Wagon Road (Bird-Truax Trail 1866) as its surveyor. He
was a young man, eager to experience the adventures of the west. It was Nicholson,
more than any other person, who was responsible for the documentation we
now have of both the Northern Nez Perces Trail and the Bird-Truax Trail 1866.
Nicholson was also very interested in the Lewis & Clark adventure over
the Lolo Trail because he speculated on their route and corresponded with
Reuben G. Thwaites, the editor of the centennial version of the Lewis &
Clark journals. Although intensely interested in the route of Lewis & Clark, Nicholson never followed the Hungery Creek Branch. All his travel was on the Snowy Summit Branch. It is unknown whether Nicholson ever again visited the Lolo
Trail after he returned east in the fall of 1866.
BIRD-TRUAX TRAIL 1866
In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, the federal
government decided that it would be in the best interests of the nation
to speed up westward expansion by building a series of wagon roads west of
the Mississippi. One of the wagon road projects chosen for funding was the
Virginia City and Lewiston Wagon Road that was being strongly promoted by
the merchants of Lewiston, Idaho and the new Idaho Territorial Government.
This road would be built to link Lewiston with the gold fields of Montana,
especially Virginia City. The main idea was that goods that were sent by
ship to Lewiston could then be freighted to the Montana gold fields and
thus create economic prosperity for the people of Idaho, especially the merchants
of Lewiston.
In 1865 and early 1866, the organization and planning
was done for the wagon road and a Supervisor and Dispersing Agent was chosen
to head the project; Wellington Bird of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Bird selected
George Nicholson, a young civil engineer, to do the civil survey of the wagon
road and Oliver Marcy to document the earth science along its traverse of
the Bitterroot Mountains. Bird chose Sewell Truax of Lewiston to locate the
wagon road grade that would be followed. He also asked William Craig to help
him select the best route over the mountains between Lewiston and the Bitterroot
Valley. Craig was a well known and respected pioneer in Idaho Territory
and a good friend of the Nez Perce people inhabiting the Clearwater River
area. Craig also knew the country very well.
In the late spring of 1866, Nicholson, a Nez Perce guide
named Tah-Tu-Tash (Kamiah) and Craig did a quick survey of the Northern Nez
Perces Trail (Lolo Trail) and the Southern Nez Perces Trail (Magruder or
Darby Trail) and decided on the Lolo Trail as the general route of the wagon
road. Using the Snowy Summit Branch of the Northern Nez Perces Trail
as a guide, Truax located a wagon road route between the Weippe Prairie and
Lolo Pass on the Montana-Idaho border. There were several criteria for selecting
a wagon road route that were important in order to have the lowest cost and
most practical route. In general, the road location had to: 1) minimize the
distance traveled, 2) minimize excavation, 3) minimize bridge building, 4)
be of a practical grade, and 5) stay to the sunny slopes as much as possible
to maximize snow melting in the spring and fall. The wagon road laid out by
Truax closely followed the original Indian trail but incorporated hardly
any of its tread because the old trail did not meet all of the practical
criteria needed for wagon travel.
During the summer and fall of 1866, surveying, clearing, and construction
of the road was attempted. However, Bird quickly realized that the money
and time allocated to the project fell far short of that needed to complete
a wagon road so he decided it would be better to develop a well constructed
pack trail to serve the need for transportation of goods. The trail workers
cleared the timber and brush from a path several feet wide and did minimum
grading to provide for a pack trail. They started in the west and worked
eastward. Several miles short of Lolo Pass, the trail evidence indicates
that a bare minimum of work was done on the pack trail, thus causing most
of the pack train traffic to still use large segments of the original Northern
Nez Perces Trail.
Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail 1877
In 1877, a war broke out between the US government and
several non-treaty Nez Perce bands. The Nez Perce decided to leave the Clearwater
and Joseph Country of Oregon and go to their friends, the Crow, in
central Montana. They traveled across the Lolo Trail route using, primarily,
the Bird-Truax Trail 1866. There are many books published about this war
and several of them describe the travel across the Lolo Trail.
US Forest Service 1907-1935
Around 1907, the US Forest Service began incorporating
the Bird-Truax Trail 1866
into their system of trails needed for fire suppression and fire lookout
access and supply. By 1910, forest management was definitely progressing
with the construction of a ranger cabin next to the Lolo Trail at Bald Mountain. A large trail system came into being in the next twenty years and the Lolo Trail was the main line trail for a large area of the national forest. In a few places, the Forest Service abandoned
the long switchbacks of the Bird-Truax Trail 1866
in favor of the more direct original Indian trail. Forest Service use and
stock driveway use of the trail wore the tread deeply and widely in some
segments. In other segments, we can still see the trail in almost its original
1866 condition.
KOOS-KOOS-KEE SALMON FISHING TRAIL 1805
The Salish from the Bitterroot Valley and the Nez
Perce from the Clearwater Valley had Salmon fishing weirs on the upper Lochsa
River above Weir Creek. Lewis and Clark, in 1805, reported seeing some of
these fishing weirs. This trail was not as frequently used as the main Northern
Nez Perces Trail so much of its tread can no longer be found. Several Indian
trails dropped off the main ridge of the Lolo Trail to access various parts
of the upper Lochsa River. These trails were located at Ashpile Peak, Jerry
Johnson Lookout, Wendover Ridge, Parachute Hill, and other places. The fishing
trail followed by Lewis & Clark went from the mouth of Brushy Fork, over
Beaver Ridge, and down to the confluence of Crooked Fork and White Sand Creek.
It then went along the north side of the Lochsa River, passing through Powell
Ranger Station and Lochsa Lodge, and on to Wendover Ridge where it went back
up to join the main Lolo Trail
at the top. Parts of this trail were incorporated into the Forest Service
trail system starting about 1910. Some historic literature refers to it as
the "down river trail."
Lewis and Clark 1805
Traveling westward on September 14, 1805, the expedition
came to a fork in the Lolo Trail. The right hand fork was the main trail
that went west, crossed Crooked Fork, and climbed to the top of Rocky Point.
The left hand fork going south was the salmon fishing trail to the Lochsa
River. Toby, their Shoshoni guide, led them down the fishing trail and to
Powell Ranger Station for their evening camp. This diversion from the main
trail was unfortunate but understandable. The main trail went sharply down
a broad ridge and was not easy to see. The fishing trail had been recently
used and was well worn. When they got to the Lochsa River, their journals
reported seeing some of the fishing weirs.
NEE-MEE-POO ADVENTURE TRAIL 2009
In the early 1990s, the US Forest Service began opening
the western segments of the Bird-Truax Trail 1866
to provide hiking and horseback riding recreation to hunters, outfitters,
and summer hikers. Most of this work occurred between Musselshell Meadows
and Sherman Peak. The opening of the tread was done by volunteers under a
Federal Government program called Take Pride in America (TPIA). This program offered volunteers the
opportunity to do various public works projects with federal land managers
and/or archeologists. When the TPIA program was discontinued, the Clearwater
National Forest continued with the volunteers under a local program called
Take Pride in the Clearwater (TPIC).
Many segments of the original 1866 tread are being used as the tread of the
adventure trail but, in some places, a rerouted trail has been constructed
to lessen the steepness and erosion of the original trail. Some segments
of the original trail tread have been filled in with dead brush and logs.
The Nee-Mee-Poo Adventure Trail
is appropriately signed in keeping with its intertwining with the historic
trail and can be accessed, using the 500 Road (Lolo Motorway) between the
months of July and October. At other times of the year, the access road may
be closed with snow. The Adventure Trail is being maintained by the Forst
Service with the use of volunteers and contract workers.
PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I welcome any feedback from visitors to this site. Please
email me if you have any comments or suggestions about how this web page
can be improved or questions about historical accuracy. All information has
been based on: 1) my personal observations and experience hiking the trail.
or 2) original journal sources. Thank you. Steve F. Russell, SFR@IASTATE.EDU
Copyright (c) 1999-2005 Steve F. Russell All
Rights Reserved
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