These grounds have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Nez Perce people and are best known as the place where the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery worked with the Nez Perce to build the canoes that took them to the Pacific Ocean in 1805. Unable to find enough food along the Lolo Trail, the Corps reached Nez Perce country starving, and after their first meal with the Nez Perce on the Weippe Prairie, they ate so much camas and dried salmon that they were sick for days. Even in their weakened state and slowed by hot weather, they still built five canoes in twelve days. As they left for the Pacific, they cached their saddles and gear and left their horses here in the care of the Nez Perce until their return in the spring.