Tsceminicum

The dam is Lower Granite, finished in 1975, and its slack water reached the confluence that February. Getting ready took more than two years: the graves of some two hundred Nimiipuu were moved out of the Snake River canyon between Wilma and Wawawai to Spalding, the old Lewiston Dam on the Clearwater was torn out, and levees were built around the town. The reservoir made Lewiston a seaport, 465 river miles from the Pacific. It also drops about three million cubic yards of sediment a year, most of it here, where the two rivers meet and slow.

What the plaque says

Tsceminicum "Meeting of the waters" When the Nez Perce named this site, they viewed a desolate yet beautiful landscape. Near a large island at the confluence, crystal waters from the Clearwater joined the murky flow of the Snake. Scattered willows grew along the broad river banks. Grass-covered, treeless hills defined the perimeter. Today, a dam to the west elevates the rivers forty feet above their natural beds. 495 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 10 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

• Lewiston's Chinese Community — steps away
• John Silcott — 0.3 mi
• 18th St. Bridge — 0.3 mi
• Steamboats — 2.7 mi