Survival

Patrick Gass counted the herd after the trading here: forty horses and three colts, most likely the young colts the panel names among the Salish gifts. None of the three came off the Lolo trail. On September 14, 1805, with nothing left but portable soup, the men killed a fat colt, and Clark named the stream Killed Colt Creek for it. On September 16, in snow so thick that Gass could not see two hundred yards, they killed and ate a second. On September 17 Joseph Whitehouse wrote that hunger obliged them to kill a sucking colt.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Hole National Battlefield — 21 mi
  The government marked this ground for its soldiers in 1883 and left the Nimiipuu camp outside the line until the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• First Impressions — steps away
• The Great Clearing — steps away
• Mountains on the Move — steps away
• Ross' Hole — steps away