Bannock Pass

Nothing stands here now. The posts were empty by 2017, and the sign's text survives from a 2010 photograph. The railroad it mentions was an invasion: the Gilmore and Pittsburgh, built in 1910 by Pennsylvania mine owners with money the Northern Pacific quietly lent them, pushing into Union Pacific country from Armstead, Montana, over this pass to Salmon. The climb was steep enough that it was nicknamed the Get Off and Push. It never paid, ran its last train in 1939 and was pulled up the next year.

What the plaque says

Bannock Pass This traditional Indian route provided access from Montana's buffalo country to Snake and Salmon River fishing streams. Hudson's Bay Company trapping expeditions came this way after 1822, and prospectors followed searching for mines. Then in 1877, Nez Perce war combatants returned from Montana to Idaho through Bannock Pass on their way from Big Hole battleground to Yellowstone Park and Canada. From 1910 to 1939, railroad trains from Dillon to Salmon steamed through here. Old Gilmore and Pittsburgh railroad tunnels and grades still can be seen from this highway. 238

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lemhi Pass — 14 mi
  Lewis walked up a Shoshone road looking for the Pacific and saw only more mountains.

More markers nearby

• Lewis and Clark — 21 mi
• Fort Lemhi — 22 mi
• MacDonald's Battle — 24 mi
• Gilmore — 25 mi