Lewis and Clark

The campsite sixteen miles on became Canoe Camp, at the forks of the Clearwater, and the men who reached it on September 26 were mostly too sick to work. Clark judged their axes too small for the big pines, so the crews used the Nimiipuu method, burning fires along the tops of the logs and scraping out the char. With provisions gone, they killed a horse to feed the workers. On October 5 they branded their 38 horses and left them in Nimiipuu care, and on October 7 they pushed off downstream in five dugouts.

What the plaque says

Lewis and Clark On their way West, in 1805, Lewis and Clark descended into Clearwater Canyon on an old Indian trail across from here. After more than a month's search, they finally had reached a westward river where they could use canoes. From here they continued another 16 miles with their pack horses before they found a campsite with trees suitable for making canoes. But at this point, they had finished their difficult mountain passage to navigable Columbia water. 249 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Weippe Prairie — 15 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 — 19 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

• Gold Rush Ferry — 4.8 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 13 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 15 mi
• Lenore Tram — 17 mi