John Silcott

The sign gives the ferryman's wife one clause. Jane Silcott was the daughter of Tamootsin, Chief Timothy of the Alpowa band, and a widely told account has her guiding Elias Pierce's prospectors past watchful Nimiipuu to Oro Fino Creek in 1860, the strike that began Idaho's gold rush. Steven Branting, Lewis-Clark State College's institutional historian, says her part in it is a divisive subject among the Nimiipuu. She died in 1895 and was buried near the couple's Lewiston home; when historians inspected the grave in 1962, her bones and nearly all of the coffin were gone.

What the plaque says

John Silcott Pioneer businessman and politician. He owned and operated ferries in the Lewiston and Spokane areas. Early in the 1860s, John Silcott ran a ferryboat across the Snake River at Lewiston. He soon put in a ferry across the Clearwater River and initiated operations on the Snake at Alpowa and on the Spokane River. His wife Jane was the daughter of Nez Perce leader Chief Timothy. A Silcott ferry tie post is still visible at the north end of 5th Street. 502 Text prepared by the Nez Perce County Historical Society and the Idaho State Historical Society. Marker made and installed by Idaho Transportation Dept.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 9.8 mi
  The Nimiipuu went to St. Louis asking about a book. What came back was a mission, a printing press and a museum.

More markers nearby

• 18th St. Bridge — steps away
• Tsceminicum — 0.3 mi
• Lewiston's Chinese Community — 0.4 mi
• Steamboats — 2.5 mi