Fort Henry

Andrew Henry's men came here because the Blackfeet (Niitsitapi) were defending their hunting country at the Three Forks, which the sign calls hostility. The Missouri Fur Company party crossed the divide, wintered in a few cabins on this river in 1810, and left in spring. The name came after them. In October 1811 Wilson Price Hunt's overland Astorians found the empty cabins, called the post Fort Henry and the river Henry's Fork, left their horses here and built canoes. The river journey ended at Caldron Linn, far down the Snake, and they went on to Astoria on foot.

What the plaque says

Fort Henry In 1810, Andrew Henry and a party of trappers from Saint Louis established a winter outpost about 6 miles west of here. Driven from their upper Missouri beaver camp by hostile Blackfeet, they expanded their operation from United States territory into Oregon--a land with only a few British posts at that time. They built cabins and wintered here in deep snow. Game was scarce, and they had little to eat except horses. So they abandoned this area, and Henry took only 40 packs of beaver pelts--a thin catch--back to Saint Louis after a season's work. 135 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Anthony Sand Dunes — 4.9 mi
  Four hundred feet of white sand, open to machines most of the year and closed to people when the elk come down.
• Teton Dam Site — 12 mi
  Geologists warned that the canyon walls would leak. The warnings were softened, the dam was finished, and it never held a full reservoir.
• Menan Buttes — 13 mi
  Two volcanoes built where lava ran into the Snake River, and one of them open to walk around the rim.
• Mesa Falls — 29 mi
  The inn went up with a dam in mind. The dam never came, and the Henrys Fork still drops 114 feet untouched.

More markers nearby

• Brigham Young University-Idaho — 7.2 mi
• Beaver Dick — 9.4 mi
• Menan Buttes — 12 mi
• Teton Flood — 12 mi