Before we cross over the Beaverhead Mountains at Chief Joseph Pass, just north of where we’ve been at Lemhi Pass, I thought it might be interesting to see what Wikipedia has to say about this area. Question 1: is this mountain range part of the Rockies since that was what Lewis and Clark were looking for. Question 2: Was the name of the pass an Indian name, and if not, where did the name come from. Question 3: What was the history of the Shoshone before they met Lewis and Clark. I bet we’ll get our answers in this post.
Before we look at our drive over the pass, we’ll look at another resource for understanding the Lewis & Clark expedition, Undaunted Courage. I’ve read this book through this time that they spent the winter months at Fort Clatsop near the Pacific Ocean, and look forward to reading about their trip(s) home. You’ll see more about the expedition splitting and rejoining in a future post at Travelers’ Rest.
A Shoshone guide, Old Toby, left with the expedition to go over this pass and then help them navigate the pass that was ahead of them that was even more challenging to cross so they could get to the Nez Perce, who could help them on their way.
Wikipedia information
“Lemhi Pass is a high mountain pass in the Beaverhead Mountains, part of the Bitterroot Range in the Rocky Mountains and within Salmon-Challis National Forest. The pass lies on the Montana-Idaho border on the Continental Divide, at an elevation of 7,373 feet above sea level.” [answer to question 1]
“The pass gained importance in the 18th century, when the Lemhi Shoshone acquired horses and used the route to travel between the two main parts of their homeland. From the time of the Louisiana Purchase 1803 until the Oregon Treaty in 1846, the pass marked the western border of the United States. On August 12, 1805 Meriwether Lewis and three other members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass. Lewis found a “large and plain Indian road” over the pass. This was the first time that white men had seen present-day Idaho.”
[Lewis wrote] “We proceeded to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immense ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered in snow.”
“The next day Lewis met Cameahwait and his band of Shoshone, and returned with them across the pass to meet Clark. On August 26, 1805 the entire expedition crossed the pass.”
I found it interesting that the Rocky Mountains had a number of ranges, and the Bitterroot was only one of them.
various names for this pass from Wikipedia
“In the early 19th century the pass was regularly used by the Blackfoot people, so that in 1824 Alexander Ross [a Scots Canadian fur trader and author] referred to the route as the Blackfoot route. At that time the pass itself was known as North Pass, to distinguish it from South Pass [southwestern Wyoming today]. The pass derives its present name from [close by] Fort Lemhi, founded in 1855 by Mormon missionaries who were the first non-Indians to establish a sustained relationship with the Salmon River Indian people.” [answer to question 2]
“The pass was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.”
the Shoshone before they met Lewis and Clark [answer to question 3]
Chief Cameahwait’s band of Lemhi Shoshone were a division of the Northern Shoshone. In the early 1700s, this larger tribe had horses and ruled the northern plains, traveling and raiding into Canada and as far east as the Mandan village.
By 1805, the balance of power had shifted. When their enemies, the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, and Crow obtained both guns and horses, the Northern Shoshone were forced into the foothills of the mountains.
Quickly adapting, they combined the mountain and plains cultures, fishing for salmon in the Lemhi River, digging camas in the mountain valleys, and hunting buffalo on the plains.
riding over the pass
The top of the map shows where the expedition crossed the first pass and traveled north up the Bitterroot River in the Bitterroot Mountains to Travelers Rest.
The map also shows these important locations: Beaver’s Head Rock, Camp Fortunate, the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass, the spot where Lewis first encountered the Shoshone, and the place where Clark explores the Salmon River and turns around.
The trip over this first pass is detailed later in this post from quotes in Undaunted Courage.
August 30-September 9, 1085. “The Shoshone had told Lewis and Clark of a trail through the mountains used by the Nez Perce, and the captains decided that it would be the only feasible way west. So on August 30, with twenty-nine horses and one mule, the Corps, including Sacagawea and her family, headed north toward the trail.”
Lewis and Clark incorrectly called the Salish and Kalispel people “Flatheads.”
One theory is that it came from a sign language gesture for their tribe, a sign made by pressing both sides of the head with the hands in a flattening motion.
On September 4, 1805, Salish scouts spotted the Corps approaching their camp at Ross’s Hole. Seeing the party bedraggled and needing help, their chief, Three Eagles, instructed his warriors to bring the explorers to camp unharmed. Gracious hosts, the Salish sat them on fur robes and offered them food which, the Salish say, was declined. [In the next section we’ll explain why the Salish warmly welcomed the expedition.]
They traded 12 of their fine horses to the white men, whose own stock were exhausted. Private Whitehouse described these people as “. . . the likelyest and honestst Savages we have ever yet Seen.”
On September 9, 1805, Lewis wrote, “The country in the valley of this river is generally a prairie and from five to six miles wide. . . . The [river] banks are low and its bed entirely gravel.”
another look at this period of time
When I read that the expedition declined the food the Salish offered, I couldn’t understand why, so I decided to look at another resource, Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose. I also wondered why the Salish were so free to trade their horses with Lewis and Clark. With this book I could look up the date I was interested in and see what the author had to say, along with journal entries from different members of the expedition.
crossing the Lemhi Pass area
“The party set out early on September 1, traveling cross-country over high, rugged hills, to today’s North Fork of the Salmon River (Fish Creek to Lewis and Clark), following the Shoshone guide, whom the captains called Old Toby. They were headed almost due north and climbing toward the Continental Divide (on their right, to the east) in rough, seldom-traveled mountainous country, with no Indian trail or any other sign of human presence.”
“They were entering mountains far more difficult to pass than any American had ever attempted. The country is so remote and rugged that nearly two full centuries later it remains basically uninhabited. The confusion of creeks and ravines cutting through the steep mountainside has made the route the expedition used one of the most disputed of the entire journey. One expert, Harry Majors, calls the route ‘the single most obscure and enigmatic of the entire Lewis and Clark expedition.'”
“Clark described the route: ‘thro’ thickets in which we were obliged to Cut a road, over rockey hill Sides where our horses were in [perpetual] danger of Slipping to Ther certain distruction & up & Down Steel hills . . . with the greatest dificuelty risque &tc. we made 7 1/2 miles.'”
“As the party ascended toward the Divide, the going grew worse. On September 3, it snowed. The last thermometer broke. Clark summed up the misery of the day: “We passed over emence hils and Some of the worst roade that ever horses passed, our horses frequently fell.” There was no game in the mountains, save grouse. The expedition consumed the last of its salt pork. At least they got to the Divide (whether at Lost Trail Pass or Chief Joseph Pass is disputed), which they followed for some miles, along the present Idaho-Montana boarder, before beginning their descent to the Bitterroot Valley, west of the Divide.”
down to the Bitterroot River and the Salish people
“There was a hard freeze that night. On September 4, the party fell down a very steep descent to a north-flowing river that Lewis named “Clark’s River” (today’s Bitterroot River). There, at today’s Ross’s Hole, the captains encountered a band of the Salish Indians some four hundred people strong, with at least five hundred horses.” [Now we can understand why the Salish were so free to trade some of their horses, they had at least 500!]
“The Salish, whom the captains called Flatheads (a generic term with them, loosely used to signify all Northwest Indians, even though they did not deform their heads as Indians on the Columbia did), were friendly. The presence of Old Toby undoubtedly helped ease the way for the Americans, for the Salish were allies of the Shoshone; indeed, this band was on its way to join Cameahwait’s people at the Three Forks.”
“Communication was possible if cumbersome. A Shoshone boy lived with the Flatheads; he could speak with the captains through the usual translation channels.” [Remember what we saw in our last look at the Great Falls Interpretive Center about how the captains had to communicate with the tribes they found? This explains how hard it was.]
“Although their stock of provisions was as low as that of the expedition, they shared their berries and roots. [Now we know why Lewis and Clark didn’t accept their food!] And they traded for horses at much better prices than the Shoshone demanded, perhaps not aware of how desperate Lewis and Clark were. The captains bought thirteen horses for “a fiew articles of merchendize,” and the Salish were kind enough to exchange seven of the run-down Shoshone ponies for what Clark called “ellegant horses.” The expedition now had approximately thirty-nine horses, three colts, and one mule—for packing, riding, or food in the last extreme.”
leaving the Salish for Travelers’ Rest
“On the morning of September 6, the captains directed the men to lighten the loads on the Shoshone horses and pack the excess on the Salish horses. By midafternoon, that task was completed and the party set off down the Bitterroot River (north) while the Salish galloped out for Three Forks and the buffalo hunt. The expedition made ten miles and camped, with nothing to eat but two grouse and some berries. The captains were out of flour and had in the larder only a little corn and the portable soup Lewis and purchased in Philadelphia.”
traveling north along the Bitterroot River to Lolo Creek
“For the next three days, the descent of the wide and beautiful Bitterroot Valley was relatively easy. The expedition made twenty-two miles on the 7th, twenty-three on the 8th, and twenty-one on the 9th. But as they marched, the captains and their men kept looking to their left (west) at the snow-covered Bitterroot Mountains, described by Sergeant Patrick Gass as ‘the most terrible mountains I ever beheld.’ The barrier would have to be crossed; how, they could hardly imagine.”
“The Bitterroot was wide enough to be floated in canoes, but the captains never thought of stopping to make the craft and becoming waterborne again. When they asked Old Toby about its course, he could only inform them that it continued to flow north as far as he knew it and he did not know whether it joined the Columbia River or not (it did, but far to the north). In any case, the absence of salmon on the river told the captains that there had to be a great falls downstream.”
“Making further geographical inquiries of Old Toby, Lewis learned that a few miles downstream (just west of today’s Missoula, Montana) the Bitterroot was joined by another river (today’s Clark Fork) that flowed from the Continental Divide through an extensive valley. If a party went up the Clark Fork to its source, it could cross the Divide over a low pass and would then descend down a gentle road to the Missouri River near the Gates of the Rocky Mountains. According to Old Toby, ‘a man might pass to the missouri from hence by that rout in four days.'”
“Four days! It had taken the expedition fifty-three days to travel from the Gates of the Rocky Mountains to its present location. Whatever emotions Lewis felt when he learned that the party might have saved seven weeks he kept to himself.”
“The party camped the night of September 9 at the junction of a stream coming in from the west (today’s Lolo Creek, some ten miles south-southwest of Missoula). Old Toby informed Lewis that at this place the part would leave the Bitterroot River and head almost straight west, up Lolo Creek, and then over the mountains. The ordeal that every man had dreaded every time he looked left was about to begin. Lewis wrote of ‘those unknown formidable snow cold Mountains,’ which the party was about to attempt ‘on the bare word of a Savage [Old Toby], while 99/100th of his Countrymen assured us that a passage was impracticable.'”
“The weather appearing settled and fair,” Lewis wrote, ‘I determined to halt the next day rest our horses and take some scelestial Observations.’ He called the campground ‘Travellers rest.'”
“On the morning of September 10, Lewis sent out all the hunters. They returned with four deer, a beaver, and three grouse. Even more welcome, if possible, Private John Colter brought in three Indians from a tribe that lived across the mountains. The captains called them Flatheads, but they were almost surely Nez Perce. They were in pursuit of a band of Shoshone that had stolen twenty-one horses—proof that the mountains could be crossed. One of the three agreed to remain with the Americans ‘to introduce us to his relations whom he informed us were numerous and resided in the plain below the mountains on the columbia river, from whence he said the water was good and capable of being navigated to the sea.’ He also told Lewis that ‘some of his relation were at the sea last fall and saw an old whiteman who resided there by himself.’ The best news of all, Lewis recorded, was that the Indian said ‘it would require five sleeps wich is six days travel, to reach his relations.'”
our drive over the Chief Joseph mountain pass
Our drive took us a different way to get to the pass than the expedition chose to take. We started in Dillon (right side of the map) and drove north through Jackson and Wisdom before turning west toward Chief Joseph Pass.
The red arrows going north on the map is how the expedition rode their horses over the first pass. The red arrows going south is the direction they went home after they were told of a shortcut so they could pass Lemhi Pass.
Chief Joseph pass has nearly 20 miles of multi-use trails. The multi-use trails are appropriate for skate and classic skiing, dog sledding, snow shoeing, fat-tire biking, and snowmobiling. The multi-use trails are generally wider than the ski trails, and do not have tracks set for classic skiing. The multi-use trails can be accessed from the parking area just east of Lost Trail Pass [where we’ve been].
rest area information
Experts disagree on the exact route Lewis and Clark took over this divide. No one knows where they camped on the cold snowy night of September 3, 1805, after struggling up the trackless North Fork of the Salmon River.
Pushed by early fall weather the captains may have not wanted to back track. Was Clark determined to continue in the most direct route? Or did they ignore the advice of the Shoshone Indians and their guide “Old Toby”? The mystery remains today.
We’re standing on the edge of millions of acres of the wildest, most rugged land in the lower 48 states. Even so, people have lived and traveled here for 10,000 years.
For centuries the pass over the continental divide, now known as Gibbons Pass [that’s north of here], was the primary travel route for both Indians and settlers. Gibbons Pass lost its importance in the 1930s when US Highway 93 was carved out of the mountains over Lost Trail Pass.
At the end of that day, September 9, 1805, after riding along the river that cut through the mountains, Lewis again wrote, “I determined to halt the next day, rest our horses and take some celestial observations. We called this creek Travelers’ Rest.”
In the next post (part 50) we’ll give you some more information about the expedition from the Travelers’ Rest State Park museum. In the post after that (part 51), we’ll walk around where they stayed going to the Pacific Ocean and coming back.
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