The Kooskia Crossing area reflects a long history along the Clearwater River, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s passage in September and October 1805 and again in the spring of 1806, when the Corps of Discovery, weakened by a brutal crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains, was aided by the Nez Perce near Weippe, left horses in their care, built canoes on the Clearwater River near present-day Orofino, reached the Pacific Ocean on November 7, 1805, and returned by May 8, 1806 before camping near Kamiah and crossing the Bitterroot Mountains again in June 1806. It is also tied to the Nez Perce Flight of 1877, which followed the 1863 treaty that reduced the reservation to one tenth its 1855 size, the movement of the non-treaty bands toward the new reservation, killings of white settlers along the Salmon River by several young warriors, the battle at White Bird, and a 1300 mile flight across Idaho and Montana that ended in surrender short of Canada. Near here, at the confluence of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater and Clear Creek, Captain Whipple attacked Looking Glass’s village on July 1, 1877, destroying it, after which Looking Glass joined the main force pursued by General Howard. The wider region is also part of Nez Perce National Historical Park, whose 38 sites across Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon include village sites, trails, cemeteries, battlefields, and traditional legend sites. In the fall of 1831, four Nez Perce warriors traveled to St. Louis to seek knowledge of white culture and the “Book of Heaven,” were baptized by the Catholic Church, and all died before returning home. A timeline of local history includes the 1812 Pacific Fur Trading Post at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers, the 1855 Nez Perce Reservation, gold discoveries in 1859-60, the establishment of Kooskia in 1895, railroad extension in 1898, a grain tram in 1903, national forests and ranger stations in 1905, sheep drives in the 1920s, the Lolo Motorway in 1932-1934, the 1934 Pete King Fire, flourishing sawmills in 1945, the 1948 flood, completion of Highway 12 in 1962, the 1964 Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, the last log drive in 1967, the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, completion of Dworshak Dam in 1972, timber harvest and whitewater recreation in the 1980's, designation of the Nez Perce National Historical Trail in 1982, discovery of a mammoth in 1994, and a significant salmon run in 2002.