Inscription (first marker) Crossing the Great Divide Corps of Discovery<br><br>High Point of the Journey<br><i>"thus far I had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind has been unalterably fixed for many years.,"</i><span> wrote Meriwether Lewis, 456 days after setting out from St. Louis.</span><br><br>Lewis, George Drouillard, Hugh McNeal, and John Shields crossed the Continental Divide here on August 12, 1805, in advance of the main expedition. They left the headwaters of the Missouri and entered the upper Columbia River Basin.<br><span>At 7,373 ft. (2,247 m.) Lemhi Pass is the highest elevation on the westward route of Lewis and Clark.<br></span><br>"Portage Hill"<br><span>Lewis and Clark hoped to find a practical land route - a </span><i>portage</i><span> - between the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. Optimistically, they called this place "Portage Hill." Later, after five weeks of arduous travel through the rugged Rocky Mountains they learned this was not the Northwest Passage they sought.<br></span><br>At the Edge of an Empire The Louisiana Purchase<br>Today you stand at the border of two states. In 1805, it was the boundary <span>between two nations.<br></span>Purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 strengthened the United States' drive to span the North American continent. British and U.S. interests were racing to occupy the Pacific Northwest, wanting control of the valuable trade routes and commerce in the region. Both countries failed to fully acknowledge the sovereignty of resident Indian nations.<br><br>Inscription (Second marker) From Route...To Road Lemhi Pass: A Well-worn Travel way<br><br>Moving over the Mountains<br><span>The Shoshone Indians call this pass </span><i>" Wee-yah-vee."</i><span> For thousands of years, the </span><i>Aqui-dika,</i><span> or Salmoneater people of the Shoshone, and other tribes, crossed the Continental Divide here. Their moccasins and horses' hooves created a plain trail for Lewis and Clark to follow in 1805. </span>People use this place as a natural doorway through the rugged wall of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is a passageway between the valley of the Salmon River to the west, and Horse Prairie Creek to the east. In the years after Lewis and Clark, mountain men and fur traders called it "North Pass."<br><span>The name Lemhi Pass dates to 1855, when Mormon pioneers established Fort Limhi in the valley west of here. The name "Limhi" came from a king in the Book of Mormon. Later the spelling was changed to "Lemhi." The fort was abandoned in 1858, but the name remained with the land and its people, the Lemhi Shoshone.<br></span><br>Wheeling to the Top<br>Idaho's gold rush in the Leesburg district near Salmon City created the need for a road over Lemhi Pass. Freight wagons and stagecoaches traveled this new road by the early 1880s. The route remained busy until 1910, when the Gilmore & Pittsburgh Railroad opened over Bannock Pass. Since the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps, U.S. Forest Service, and local governments have relocated and improved sections of the old stage road. Today, vegetation and newer roads obscure the Indian trail followed by Lewis and Clark, but portions of the old stage road can still be traced on either side of the pass.<br><br>The Red Rock-Salmon City Stage Company<br>This stage line was on of several that covered the 68-miles between the Utah & Northern Railroad at Red Rock, Montana and Salmon City, Idaho. The company ran eight stagecoaches daily. $8.00 bought a one-way fare.<br><span>They employed 14 Concord coaches, 12 freight wagons, 80 horses and 35-40 people. In one banner year, the stage line carried 3,000 passengers and 1,000,000 pounds of freight and U.S. mail over Lemhi Pass.<br></span><br>Credit to: <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109504" target="" rel="">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109504</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109503">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109503</a>
iNaturalist Observations
