Snake River

The name is a borrowed mistake, by the usual account: the Shoshone identified themselves with an S-shaped sign for swimming salmon, the people of the river with many fish, and explorers read it as a snake. Lewis and Clark, the first outsiders to see the river in 1805, called it Lewis's River. The Shoshone name is given as Yampapah, the Nez Perce as Kimooenim. Hells Canyon took its name only in the 1950s, borrowed from Hells Canyon Creek near the dam. Measured end to end, the river runs about 1,080 miles.

What the plaque says

Snake River The valley of the Snake, historic passage from the Midwest to the Northwest, has been a primary route for travel since the days of Indians and fur traders. The Oregon Trail forded the river at Old Fort Boise, the Hudson's Bay Company post 12 miles upstream. Many a famous early westerner saw the valley you now see - though the look of the land has changed since white settlement brought irrigated farms. Today the river provides both irrigation and power along its thousand-mile course from the Yellowstone country to the Columbia. Highways, railroads, and airlines follow its open valley east of here; but to the north, Hell's Canyon of the Snake is still almost impassable to man. 263 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Weiser — 17 mi
  Every June the fiddlers come to a farm town on the Snake, and the campground plays all night.

More markers nearby

• Salmon Festival — steps away
• Francois Payette — 5.1 mi
• New Plymouth — 6.0 mi
• Marie Dorion — 15 mi