Canal Gulch

Getting here had taken a lie. Earlier in 1860 Lawyer and his headmen had questioned Pierce and, satisfied his men were not after land, let them prospect; the Indian agent's men turned them back anyway. So in August Pierce told the agent, Cain, that he would prospect beyond the reservation's eastern edge and reach it by a northern route that avoided the reservation, then led his party onto its northern part. Canal Gulch, a headwater of Oro Fino Creek, lay inside it. Bassett's first pan, taken at sunset, held about three cents' worth of gold.

What the plaque says

Canal Gulch The fabulous gold rush days of Idaho began on September 30, 1860, when W. F. Bassett struck gold just about here. E.D. Pierce, who knew the country, had led twelve prospectors, including Bassett, out from Walla Walla in August. After news of the strike spread, about sixty men came in and wintered nearby in spite of snow and Indians. Next spring the stampede was on, and by that July this six-month-old county cast the largest vote in Washington territory. 153 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Weippe Prairie — 11 mi
  Where the Nimiipuu decided what to do with Clark's starving men, and fed them camas until they were sick.
• Heart of the Monster — 22 mi
  Where the Nimiipuu say their story begins: Coyote, a monster, and the heart he tore loose, still on the Clearwater's bank.

More markers nearby

• Pierce Courthouse — steps away
• Oro Fino City — 1.0 mi
• Chinese Hanging — 1.7 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 11 mi