The river terrace below offered the ingredients for a thriving village site: fresh water, a river full of fish, and a stream corridor filled with wildlife. For thousands of years the Nez Perce lived a life of bounty here. Then within a 50-year span their culture changed forever with the arrival of missionaries, gold seekers, and soldiers. Layers of history remain here, from timeless moments beside the river to 19th-century buildings in the historic village of Spalding, where past and present are mingled in the shade of the cottonwoods and the historic church and cemetery are still in use.