Spalding's Mission

The sign's hostility had causes. Spalding was unbending on gambling, liquor and polygamy, reproved many, and had some Nimiipuu whipped or made them whip each other; his fellow missionaries complained too, and the American Board dismissed him in 1842 before reinstating him. After 1847 he blamed Catholics for the Whitman killings. His return was slow: Lapwai in 1862, then years of trouble with agents until he testified before the Senate in 1871. In his last three years he baptized 694 Nimiipuu. Eliza, buried in Oregon in 1851, was brought here sixty years later.

What the plaque says

Spalding's Mission Marcus Whitman and Henry Harmon Spalding led Presbyterian missionaries west in 1836 to answer a Nez Perce call for teachers. Spalding began his mission and school nearby, but moved here in 1838. Believing in secular as well as religious teaching, he taught the Indians irrigated farming, brought in the Northwest's first printing press, and built saw and flour mills. But hostility slowly developed, and Spalding left after the Whitman massacre at Walla Walla in 1847. He returned with the gold rush to labor among his converts until his death in 1874. His grave is nearby. 111 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 0.4 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

• Ant & Yellowjacket — 1.3 mi
• Lapwai Mission — 2.5 mi
• Coyote's Fishnet — 3.6 mi
• Nez Perce Village — 3.6 mi