The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed this site in late September 1805 and, on its return journey in June 1806, camped on the open hillside after traveling across several feet of snow in most areas, finding the spring grass here a welcome change. William Clark wrote on June 26, 1806, that after ascending and descending several steep lofty heights along the divide ridge of the Chopunnish and Kooskooske rivers and passing no stream of water, the party reached the desired spot late in the evening and encamped on the steep side of a mountain near a good spring, where an abundance of fine, young, tender grass covered the side of an untimbered mountain with a fair southern aspect. Seventy years later, the Lolo Trail became the route used by the Nimiipuu to cross the Bitterroot Mountains in an effort to escape the U.S. Army, and on August 3, 1877, the military under General Oliver O. Howard camped on this steep hillside, where one soldier recalled that the tents and beds were pitched so sharply that they slept almost erect or standing on their heads.