Gold Rush Ferry

The gold fields the ferry served lay inside the Nimiipuu reservation. The strike at Pierce, on September 30, 1860, was on land the 1855 treaty had reserved to the Nimiipuu, and within two years more than 15,000 miners had crossed onto it without the consent of either the people or their agent. The trail up from this canyon was one of their roads in. The answer, when it came, was not to remove the miners but to shrink the reservation: the treaty of June 1863 cut it by about 90 percent and left the gold fields outside.

What the plaque says

Gold Rush Ferry An old ferry near here took thousands of eager fortune hunters to a trail that climbed out of this canyon to rich gold fields discovered at Pierce in 1860. You still can follow their spectacular route to Weippe Prairie, where in 1805 Lewis and Clark met a Nez Perce band that helped save their expedition. Continuing on, you can reach Idaho's oldest public building - Pierce Courthouse, built in 1862. Take State Highway 11. 466 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Weippe Prairie — 12 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 — 14 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

• Lewis and Clark — 4.8 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 11 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 11 mi
• Asa Smith Mission — 14 mi