Lewis and Clark Route

The Lolo Trail follows the ridges of the Bitterroot Mountains from Weippe Prairie in Idaho to the Bitterroot Valley at Lolo, Montana. An ancient travel route, it served as a land bridge in a continental trade system used by generations of early travelers. Known to the Nez Perce as Khusahna Ishkit, or Buffalo Trail, it linked Columbia River Basin tribes and Northern Indians for thousands of years. In 1805, Lewis and Clark nearly starved while crossing these mountains on the westward leg of their voyage of discovery. In 1877, about 750 people, or one-third of the Nez Perce tribe, left their cattle at their Joseph Plains homeland, loaded personal possessions onto 2,000 horses, and followed the Nee-Me-Poo Trail eastward in their flight from the U.S. Army.

Idaho · United States