Lemhi Pass

National Historic Landmark

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, MT

Salmon-Challis National Forest, ID

In August 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Lemhi Pass, the western edge of the Louisiana Territory and the United States. For months, they had fought their way up the Missouri river to reach its headwaters. Now, climbing to the Continental Divide, the men must have shuddered at the sight of "immence ranges of mountains still to the west of us, with their tops partially covered with snow." The Expedition knew they would have to push over those mountains before winter set in. There would be no easy portage to the Columbia River after all.

Today

Lemhi Pass National Historic Landmark is a remote, primitive site at 7,323 feet elevation, accessible only by steep, winding backcountry roads. Visitors have the opportunity to follow the route Lewis and Clark took up to the Continental Divide and see the rough peaks and rolling foothills of the Rocky Mountains much as they were 200 years ago.

Location

On the border between Montana and Idaho, 52 miles southwest of Dillon, Montana and, depending on the route you take, 32-45 miles southeast from Samon, Idaho.

Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery. In a letter dated June 20, 1803, Jefferson wrote to Lewis

The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce.[4]

Lewis selected William Clark as his partner. Because of bureaucratic delays in the U.S. Army, Clark officially only held the rank of Second Lieutenant at the time, but Lewis concealed this from the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring to Clark as "Captain".[5]