Mackenzie's Post

The plan needed trappers, and the Nimiipuu declined to be them. They wanted Mackenzie's goods and would trade horses and food for them, but would not catch beaver, and relations soured further when he accused them of pilfering one of his caches. The National Park Service calls the driftwood post the first and last time a fur company tried to keep a post in Nez Perce country. When Mackenzie came back for the North West Company, he built on the Columbia instead, near the mouth of the Walla Walla, and named it Fort Nez Perces.

What the plaque says

Mackenzie's Post Early in September 1812, Donald Mackenzie set up a fur trade post near here for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company Disappointed to find that beaver were unavailable in this area, he built only a store and two houses out of driftwood. Then the War of 1812 and Indian trouble tangled his plans; in May 1813 he abandoned this site, since Astor's venture had failed and was about to be sold to the North West Company of Montreal. "Perpetual Motion" Mackenzie, who once had been a Nor'Wester, rejoined the Canadians in 1816 and finally organized the Snake country fur trade. 176 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 8.1 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

• Lewis Clark State College — steps away
• The First Capital — steps away
• Steamboats — 1.2 mi
• Lewiston Hill — 1.2 mi