Nez Perce Trail

The early missionary was Samuel Parker, sent west in 1835 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to learn whether the Nez Perce and Flathead peoples wanted missions among them. At that summer's rendezvous his companion, Marcus Whitman, cut a three-inch iron arrowhead out of Jim Bridger's back before a watching crowd, then turned east to recruit. Parker went on alone with a Nez Perce party, over this trail by the sign's account, and reached the Columbia that fall. Whitman came back the next year, and Henry Spalding founded the Nez Perce mission at Lapwai.

What the plaque says

Nez Perce Trail Following high ridges, buffalo hunters cut an old Indian trail along a direct route from Lewiston past here to Lemhi Valley. This trail was not available to Lewis and Clark in 1805, but an early missionary--Samuel Parker--crossed it with a Nez Perce trading party 30 years later. During an 1862 Montana gold rush, eager miners joined Lewiston merchants who sent pack trains over it with supplies for new gold camps. But bandits and robbers made wilderness travel unsafe along it. 448 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural and Educational Center — 23 mi
  In the valley where she was born, a center that spells her name the way many of her people say it.

More markers nearby

• Gibbonsville — 4.7 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 5.5 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 12 mi
• Fort Bonneville — 17 mi