Since time immemorial, the area surrounding Celilo Falls was the hub of a vast American Indian trade network that stretched from California to Alaska and from the Missouri Plains to the Pacific Ocean. Native people established this trading center, along with a system of well-traveled roads and trails, long before Euro-Americans explored the region. Some native people call this area Wyam, Sahaptin for the sound of water upon the rocks. Wyam was a bountiful salmon fishery, and tribes gathered here to fish, trade, socialize, and celebrate. Dried salmon was one of the most popular trade goods, and people came from all over the West to trade for it. In exchange, they brought obsidian from the south; dried buffalo meat, furs, hides, and beargrass from the east; copper and dentalium shells from the north; and wapato, dried clams, and other seashells from the west. On April 16, 1806, William Clark called it the Great Mart of all this County and wrote that visitors exchanged goods for the pounded fish prepared there in great quantities. In the early 1800s, Lewis and Clark brought hundreds of items for gifts and trade, including beads, thimbles, ribbons, mirrors, buttons, and many other goods.