Wendover - Idaho - Lewis and Clark Trail on Waymarking.com

Three Forest Service history signs about 15 miles southwest of Lolo Pass along U.S. Hwy. 12 near Wendover Campground. Two of the signs deal with Lewis and Clark.

Text of Sign: “. . . Across the Endless Sea of Mountains . . .”
Enduring Hardships on the Lolo Trail
Look north to the ridgeline behind you and see what Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery faced on the morning of September 15, 1805. At 7 a.m. the Corps left their Colt Killed Camp near what is now the Powell Ranger Station.
Hoping for a short portage from the headwaters of the Missouri to the headwaters of the Columbia, the expedition had no idea of the hardships that lay ahead. The starving, cold and wet explorers spent grueling days and bone-chilling nights traversing the seemingly endless sea of mountains.
The party followed the Indian “road” downstream to a traditional fishing place near present-day Wendover Campground. They they began a treacherous climb up the mountain “winding in every direction to get up the steep assents.”
“. . . Several horses Sliped and roled down Steep Hills which hurt them verry much. The one which Carried my desk & Small trunk Turned over & roled down a mountain for 40 yards & lodged against a tree, broke the Desk and horse escaped and appeared but little hurt Some other verry much hurt, from this point I observed a range of high mountains Covered with Snow from SE. to SW with Their top bald or void of timber.” -- Captain William Clark, September 15, 1805.
Once they reached the top they spent the night at Snowbank Camp. They were now on the main Indian trail.
“we travvelled untill after dark in hopes to find water. but could not find any. we found Some Spots of Snow so we Camped on the top of the Mountain . . . we drank a little portable Soup and lay down without any thing else to Satisfy our hunger. cloudy and cold this mountain and all these Mountains are covered thick with different kinds of pine timber . . .” -- Sergeant John Ordway, September 15, 1805
“. . . I have been wet and as Cold in every part as I ever was in m life, indeed I was at one time fearfull my feet would freeze in the thin Mockirsons which I wore, . . .” -- Captain William Clark, September 16, 1805
With the men starving and spirits waning, Clark moved ahead with an advance pary to scout a way out of the mountains and to hunt for game.
“The want of provisions together with the dificuely of passing those emence mountains dampened the Spirits of the party which induced us to resort to Some plan of reviving their Sperits. I deturmined to take a party of the hunters and proceed on in advance to Some leavel Country, where there was game kill Some meat & Send it back . . .” -- Captain William Clark, September 18, 1805.
End of the Trail
On September 20, Clark and his hunting party met the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people on what is today called the Weippe Prairie. The remainder of the party joined them on September 22nd.
“. . . proceeded on through a butifull Countrey for three miles to a Small Plain in which I found maney Indian lodges . . .” -- Captain William Clark, September 20, 1805
September 24 through October 7
The Expedition descended into the Clearwater Valley. For ten days they built canoes near the present-day town of Orofino. During their stay at Canoe Camp, the Corps nourished their starving bodies, cached supplies and left horses with the Nimiipuu before completing the westward leg of their journey in dugout canoes.

Text of Sign: “. . . Observe the face of the country . . .”
Lewis and Clark as Naturalists
President Thomas Jefferson, driven by a life-long passion for scientific exploration and study, instructed Meriwether Lewis to record details about the flora, fauna, geology and people of the land between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. As the expedition’s naturalist, Lewis described and collected specimens of numerous plants and animals yet unknown in the existing 17 states.
For the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) this land is more than a place to be studied. It is a place where the body and soul are nourished.
The land gives to us berries, foods and medicines. There is a connection because our grandparents and great-grandparents and so on, lived here. It gives the understanding that we are just the next spoke in the wheel. We know where we belong and where we came from.
That’s called Soka in Nez Perce. It has to do with the shoots that start from the original tree. When the tree is mature or begins to die, the little shoots begin from that tree sprout. We don’t own it no one owns it. It’s not to be owned. We are just the ones using it right now.
Flora
“. . . observe . . . it’s growth & vegetable productions . . .” -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Merimether Lewis, Jun 20, 1803
Instructed to observe, describe, collect, and preserve plant specimens, Lewis prepared an impressive herbarium. Although no specimens were recorded at this location, nearly one-third of the 178 species of plants preserved by Lewis were found in the Clearwater River region. Following Lewis’ untimely death in 1809, William Clark accepted the task of assembling the Expedition’s literary and scientific materials for publication.
“. . . The Mountains which we passed to day much worst than yesterday the last excessively bad & Thickly Strowed with falling timber & Pine Spurc fur Hachmatak & Tamerack, Steep & Stoney our men and horses much fatigued . . .” -- WIlliam Clark, September 14, 1805
“. . . we descended the mountain in a lonesome cove on a creek where we Camped in a thicket of Spruce pine & Bolsom fir timber.” -- Joseph Whitehouse, September 16, 1805
“. . . Saw the hucklebury, honeysuckle, and alder common to the Atlantic states, also a kind of honeysuckle which bears a white bury and rises about 4 feet high not common but to the western side of the rockey mountains. a growth which resembles the choke cherry bears a black bury with a single stone of a sweetish taste, it rises to the high of 8 to 10 feet and grows in thick clumps. the Arborvita is also common and grows to an immence size, being from 2 to 6 feet in diameter.” -- Meriwether Lewis, September 20, 1805
“Cruzatte brought me several large morels which I roasted and eat without salt pepper or grease in the way I had for the first time the true taist of the morell which is truly an insipid taistless food . . .” -- Meriwether Lewis, June 19, 1806
Fauna
“. . . observe the animals of the country generally, . . . the remains and accounts of any which may deemed rare or extinct . . .” -- Thomas Jerrerson, letter to Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1803
Along the Lolo Trail and in the Clearwater River region, Lewis and others recorded ten animal species not previously observed. Animals recorded included the Northern Flicker, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Black-headed or Stellar Jay, Canadian Gray Jay, Franklin’s Grouse, Oregon Ruffed Grouse, Columbia Ground Squirrel, Columbia Toad, Pacific Tree Frog, Pigmy Horned Toad and the Wester Tanger.
“Our hunters set out early this morning; most of them returned before noon. R. Feilds killed a brown bear the tallons of which were remarkably short broad at their base and Sharply pointed this was of the speceis which the Chopunnish call Yah-kar.” -- Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1806
“Three species of Pheasants, a large black species, with some white feathers irregularly scattered on the brest neck and belley a smaller kind of a dark uniform colour with a red stripe above the eye, and a brown and yellow species that a good deel resembles the phesant common to the Atlantic States.” -- Meriwether Lewis, September 20, 1805
“. . . we arrived at Collin’s Creek where we found our hunters; they had killed another deer, and had seen two large bear together the one black and the other white . . . Saw the speckled woodpecker, bee martin and log cock or large woodpecker. found the nest of a humming bird, it had just began to lay its eggs” -- Meriwether Lewis, June 15, 1806

"Must Sees"at this location": Interpretive signs Date Waymark Created: 10/25/2012 Do they allow dogs at this location?: Don't Know Rate this waymark as to importance:

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/09/2010 Volcanoguy visited it