Lewiston, 1875

Notes on roads in and out of Lewiston

Lewiston is not at the present time a very thriving place.  Business is very dull.  During the great excitement existing in the years after the first discovery of gold in the mountains to the east, and from the washing of the sands along the river banks, the place grew to be of very considerable importance.  Since, however, the mining operations have not proved to be remunerative, it has become simply a shipping point for the country surrounding it.  The town was established in 1861 and 1862; the first trip to reach the place was made in July, 1860, by the steamboat Tenino, Captain White.  Considerable up-river freight is delivered during the few months of the navigable season, but there appears to be but a limited amount of tonnage shipped from there.  Two main roads depart for the interior; one toward the east, to Campbell's Prarie, from sixty to seventy miles, and thence by pack-mules to the gold-mining regions, Elk City, Oro Fino, and Mount Idaho, lying in the west basin of the Bitter Root Mountain range; the other in a northerly direction, to the Spokane and Cour d' Alene regions, a distance of eighty miles.  Two roads leave for Walla-Walla, a distance of eighty miles, both passing through Dayton and Wakesburg; one crosses the Clearwater just above its mouth, and then passes over the Snake at Selkirk's Ferry; the other uses the ferry over the Snake, immediately at the town.  During extremely high water, once in eight or nine years, the plateau upon which the site of the town is located is slightly submerged, but at a low stage the river becomes very narrow, and a large sand-bar extends out, and almost entirely across it.

There is a good road for fifteen miles to the military post of Fort Lapwai, situated on Lapwai Creek, three miles from its junction with the Clearwater; the latter, which is but a mountain stream, is only navigable for steamboats as high up as that point, and then only during a very favorable contition of the water, when raised by the melting of the snow in the spring of the year.

N. Michler, Corps of Engineers, Messages and Documents of the War Department, 1875-1876, Volume two, Page 778-779

The Snake River below Lewiston, 1875

From the annual report of N. Michler, Corps of Engineers, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, in a section entitled "Improvement of the Upper Columbia and Snake Rivers, Oregon, and the Territories of Washington and Idaho"

I skipped a couple of pages where he details rocks that he removed from rapids in the Lower Snake

After leaving Texas Creek, and before arriving at Lewiston, some interesting settlements and Indian villages are observable from the boat, and worthy of notice.  Penawa, about fifty miles below the town, is the best improved place on the river since entering it; there are men, women, and children.  The fields are fenced in and cultivated; extensive flats and a beautiful grazing country exist, but there is no timber.  A large number of horses and cattle are seen upon the hillsides.  At the mouth of Penawa Creek is an Indian village, only temporarily occupied, however, as the occupants are migrating, existing on fish and such game as they can procure; they raise large herds of ponies.  At Alenota Creek is another small settlement, containing some few buildings, and is a landing for a very considerable section of country.  Alpoway is an Indian village, twelve miles below Lewiston; it was established by the missionaries a great many years ago.  An old orchard, the trees regularly set out, still flourishes at the mouth of the creek.  The Indians of the Nez Perces and Coeur d' Alene tribes, have some fine farms on the Clearwater, extending for thirty miles above its mouth.  Some fields are planted with corn.  Owing to the close proximity of this section to the Blue Mountains, more rain falls, averaging about two inches per month, and the vegetation appears more fresh and green than on the lower portions of the river.  In winter, scarcely a foot of snow covers the earth at any time and then very seldom; it rapidly disappears under the mild influence of the prevailing northerly winter winds, called by the natives, "chinook."  A short distance below Alpoway is Granite Point; this is the only spot where that rock is known to appear at the surface along this lower section of the river.  The country is of volcanic formation, with terraces of basaltic trap cropping out.

N. Michler, Corps of Engineers, Messages and Documents of the War Department, 1875-1876, Volume two, Page 778