Old Hwy 28 to Lemhi Pass in Salmon, ID

Old Hwy 28 to Lemhi Pass, Salmon, ID

Old Hwy 28 to Lemhi Pass is a 20.9-mile historic trail near Salmon, Idaho, climbing to an elevation of 4,754 feet along the Continental Divide. This significant route follows the footsteps of Lewis and Clark's expedition, offering visitors both scenic mountain vistas and a chance to experience an important piece of American frontier history firsthand.

33.61 km ID

Points of Interest

Back Country Byway Interactive Kiosk

Inscription: Lewis Learns from the Lemhi Shoshone Lewis and Clark in Lemhi County At the Lemhi Shoshone camp Lewis learned of the danger and hunger that threatened the tribe. He asked the chief about routes west, but Cameahwait's descriptions were discouraging: rocky rivers, deep canyons, terrible mountains. Lewis proposed an arrangement. If the Lemhis and their horses would help the Corps of Discovery cross the mountains, the explorers would complete their voyage to the Pacific and return home, and send traders with guns the Lemhis wanted for defense agains their enemies. But the Lemhi were suspicious of Lewis. Only a courageous few went east with Cameahwait to help the Expedition. "these people had been attacked by the Minetares of Fort de prarie (sic) this spring and about 20 of them killed and taken prisoners... to avoid their enemies they were obliged to remain in the interior of these mountains... sometimes living without meat and only a little fish roots and berries." - Meriwether Lewis, August 13, 1805 Inscription: Meriwether Lewis Makes Contact Lewis and Clark in Lemhi County Lewis's advance party entered the valley below in search of the Lemhi Shoshone, whose horses the Expedition would need to cross the mountains. The first Indians Lewis saw fled before he could reach them, but he soon came upon three women. When Lewis had won their confidence with gifts, they agreed to take the explorers to their camp. Alerted by the Lemhis who had seen Lewis earlier, sixty warriors galloped up, expecting to find enemy raiders. But when the women showed them the gifts they'd received, alarm turned to joy and the explorers were welcomed as honored guests. "I gave these women some beads a few mockerson awls some pewter looking-glasses and a little paint... I now painted their tawny cheeks with some vermillion, which with this nation is emblematic of peace." - Meriwether Lewis, August 13, 1805 Inscription: William Clark's Scouting Mission Lewis and Clark in Lemhi county Was the Salmon River as treacherous as Cameahwait, the Lemhi Shoshone chief, had said? Clark and eleven men had come to find out. Finding a navigable, westward-flowing river was the major objective of the Expedition at this time. Clark stayed in the Lemhi camp for several hours, smoking and talking with tribal leaders. He asked their help in portaging the Expedition's baggage across Lemhi Pass and left Sacajawea in the camp to help organize the effort. Then he set out down the river with "Toby," an older Lemhi man who had volunteered his services as guide. Toby would show the explorers just how bad it was downriver! "I informed the Indians (of)... our good intentions toward them (,) my concerns for their distressed situation... also... the object of my journey down the river and requested a guide to accompany me, all of which was repeited (sic) by the Chief to the whole village." - William Clark, August 20, 1805 Inscription: The Withington Caldera Lewis and Clark in Lemhi County About 50 million years ago, this was one of the most violent landscapes on Earth. A sub-surface mass of molten rock rose and subsided in cycles, spewing gas, mineral fragments and ash in explosions hundreds of times more powerful that an atomic bomb. When it was all over, igneous rock thousands of feet thick covered the land and there was a broad, shallow crater or caldera across the valley from this site. Geological forces that created the Beaverhead Mountains behind you the and Lemhi Range before you buckled the caldera beyond recognition but the rock it created is still visible. Inscription: Sacajawea Comes home Lewis and Clark gave Sacajawea a miracle: a return home for the first time since her kidnapping several years earlier. She gave them as much: a Lemhi Shoshone interpreter and an advocate for the Expedition in buying Lemhi horses. It was a bittersweet homecoming. Yes, she was reunited with her brother, Cameahwait. But she learned that of the rest of her family, all but one other brother and a nephew were dead. She helped lead the effort to portage the explorers' baggage across Lemhi Pass. When the path was decided, she followed it with her husband, son, and new friends. "I left our interpreter and his woman to accompany the Indians to Capt Lewis tomorrow, the Day they told me they would Set out." - William Clark, August 20, 1805 Credit to: <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109459">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109459</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=213343">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=213343</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=231270">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=231270</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109446">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109446</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109445">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109445</a>

Sharkey Hot Springs

Pioneer miner and rancher Frank B. Sharkey settled near this site in the 1870s and praised its soothing waters. Around 1890 Eleihu Barnes built a shanty over the springs to keep cows out; in the late 1920s Tom Benedict built a concrete pool known as the "plunge." Abandoned in the late 1960s, the site was burned and filled in by the BLM in 1973 for safety, though locals kept using it with homemade tubs. The BLM reopened Sharkey Hot Springs on August 20, 2002.

Lewis and Clark: Unfurling the Flag

The Corps of Discovery were the first U.S. citizens to reach the Northwest by land, reinforcing the American claim from Robert Gray's 1792 discovery of the Columbia River. When Lewis unfurled the flag before the Lemhi Shoshone on August 13, 1805, it introduced a new nation to the tribe while marking America's claim against rivals Spain, Russia, and Great Britain.

Lewis and Clark: Which Way Did They Go?

Lewis and Clark's overland route through Montana and Idaho remains debated where journals and maps are unclear, including the path across the Pattee Creek canyon. Lewis wrote on August 13, 1805: "the road after leading us down a long descending valley for 2 Ms. Brought us to a large creek about ten yards wide...had a view of a handsome little valley to our left of about a mile in width."

WestWard View

Two Lemhi Pass markers cover Lewis and Clark's search for a water route west. On Aug. 12, 1805, Lewis wrote of "Immence Ranges of High Mountains," and doubted a water passage was possible given the Columbia's steep drop. At 7,373 ft., the Divide sends water 600 mi. west and 2,400 mi. east.

Agency Creek / Lemhi Pass

Inscription First Taste of the Columbia "we proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow. I now decended the mountain about 3/4 of a mile which I found much steeper than on the opposite side, to a handsome bold running Creek of cold Clear water. here I first stated the water of the great Columbia river. First Camp on the Columbia "after a short halt of a few minutes we continued our march along the Indian road which lead us over steep hills and deep hollows to a spring on the side of a mountain where we found a sufficient quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, here we encamped for the night having traveled about 20 Miles." - Meriwether Lewis, August 12, 1805. Inscription Who passed this way? In August of 1805 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Shoshone Indians crossed Lemhi Pass six times in 15 days. • Monday, the 12th --- Lewis, McNeal, Drouillard & Shields --- headed west • Thursday, the 15th --- Lewis & 3 men with Cameahwait & 60 Shoshones --- headed east • Monday, the 19th --- Clark & 11 men, Charbonneau, Sacajawea, Pomp, Cameahwait & Shoshones --- headed west • Wednesday, the 21st --- Charbonneau, Sacajawea, Pomp, Cameahwait & Shoshones --- headed east • Sunday, the 25th --- Shoshone messengers sent by Cameahwait --- headed west • Monday, the 26th ---Lewis and the main Expedition aided by Shoshones --- headed west Credit to: <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109543">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=109543</a> , <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=110838">https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=110838</a>

Nearby

Old Highway 28 Tendoy to Lemhi Pass Tendoy Road Lemhi Pass to Clark Canyon Lewis and Clark Highway Lemhi Pass to Tendoy

Old Hwy 28 to Lemhi Pass

iNaturalist Observations