John Mullan was the Army officer who from 1859 to 1862 surveyed and built the Mullan Road from Walla Walla, Washington, to Fort Benton, Montana. The road was intended to connect the Missouri and the Columbia, and Congress approved it in 1855. Indian troubles and lack of funds delayed the work, but the road was completed in 1862. The first route in 1859 had passed about 6 miles west of here, but floods forced a change, and the final road passed north of Coeur d’Alene Lake. Modern Interstate 90 follows Mullan’s final route.