THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

THE TRAIL BETWEEN THE RIVERS AND THE MYSTERY OF LOST PASS 

BY TED HALL

Most of the historic Lewis and Clark Trail followed rivers from Washington D.C. to the Pacific Ocean but there is one stretch of the trail where they had no rivers or boats. This is the only sustained overland segment of their journey, from the headwaters of the Missouri to the Columbia River. It called the “trail between the rivers,” the 407 mile hike across the Rockies from Camp Fortunate to the Clearwater. Ted Hall, a retired Professional Engineer and native of Montana, has been a dedicated student of Lewis and Clark and their historic journey through “Our Backyard.” He has spent thousands of hours carefully researching these 407 miles by studying and “correlating Captain Clark’s hand drawn maps to USGS map segments that cover the same terrain and has corroborated the trail location by systematic ground field verification of recorded compass readings at key geographic formations identified on Clark’s maps.” 

Ted has written two Lewis and Clark land route books. His first book, The Trail Between the Rivers,can actually be used like a travel guide for anyone interested in retracing most of the footsteps of the Corps of Discovery although much of the trail has changed due to development, fires, privatization, etc. In fact Memories Café in Corvallis, MT. is located close to where the Corps ate lunch September 8, 1805. There are several examples of close encounters to locations familiar to many of us.

His second book, Lost Pass 1805, is even more impressive in that it is a detailed groundtruth (field review) based look at the September 3^rd& 4^th, 1805 days of travel of the Expedition, when the Corps crossed the hardest part of the Rocky Mountains, the ascent on the current Idaho/Montana border (currently known as Lost Trail Pass), their campsite area and September 4^thDescent Route into the Sula Valley from the “Divideing Ridge.” Ted utilized the extensive groundtruthing work by James West Gallogly, from Sula, MT, an early Sula District Forest Ranger for the US Forest Service in determining the location of the trail. 

With all of this research available to Ted and many of his followers it was decided to actually map out the Descent Trail from the Ridge on Lost Pass. John Sprout was especially instrumental in initiating this effort and became the first project manager for a future “Descent Route” down the Camp Creek Ridge. The goal was to allow people to actually “touch our history and the sacrifices so many have made for the United States.” Many individuals and groups became involved in recreating the original trail utilizing journals, hand drawn maps and pictures and modern technology and common mountain sense. The Bitterroot National Forest Darby/Sula District helped with the mapping and signage for 2.75 miles of the trail. The National Smoke Jumpers Association assisted with some of the clearing. Blaine Furniss, a retired Botany professor, has aged many of the trees and determined that several could have been standing in the exact spot passed by Sacajawea. These trees are being called “Witness Trees.” Now it is possible to hike the Lewis and Clark Trail and to hug a “Witness Tree!” Ted might even agree to take a group in the Spring. (see reprint of Field Trip Report by Ginny Deck October, 2018 BAS newsletter)

Come join Bitterroot Audubon for this tour of history in our own backyard, Monday, March 18^th,  7:00 P.M at the Forest Service/Natural Resources Building, 1801 North 1^st(north end of Hamilton, west side of HWY 93) Enter the building on the west side. THE PUBLIC IS INVITED. Contact Kay Fulton for additional information (360-8664)