Lemhi Pass : A Well-worn Travel Way
This marker is made up of two panels.
Moving over the Mountains
The Shoshone Indians call this pass
" Wee-yah-vee." For thousands of years, the
Aqui-dika, 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.
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."
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.
Wheeling to the Top
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.
The Red Rock-Salmon City Stage Company
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.
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.
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