For thousands of years, Tmsmli, the Salish place of no salmon, stood at the heart of a well-used campsite and gathering place on the plains at the base of the Bitterroot Mountains. Families, hunters, and explorers traveled there along time-worn trails from four directions to rest, camp, trade, and strengthen alliances with other tribes. Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Nez Perce people valued Tmsmli for its plentiful game, edible and medicinal plants, and as a place of sanctuary and friendship. From there, westbound travelers followed tree blazes and rock piles called cairns along the well-worn trail the Salish called Naptnsisa, or the Road to the Nez Perce, now known as the Nez Perce or Lolo Trail. Rock cairns also continued east of there, marking the route the Nez Perce called K’useyneisskit, or the Road to the Buffalo. Led by a Shoshone guide, the Expedition rested there on September 9, 1805, and as they prepared to cross the Bitterroot Mountains, Meriwether Lewis named the place "Travellers (sic) rest." The Corps of Discovery returned to this important campsite on June 30, 1806, and the captains separated there on July 3rd.