An Idaho road that’s steeped in history
Elk City Wagon Road has been part of state’s history since before it was founded; celebration of route is planned Saturday and Sunday
CLEARWATER — The Elk City Wagon Road, the historic freight and stage route between the community of Clearwater and Elk City, is the focus of a two-day celebration here this weekend.
With only 28 residents in the town proper, the event is a major fundraiser to help preserve the 52-mile wagon road used by miners, loggers, ranchers and other residents between 1895 and 1932.
“We raise money by selling raffle tickets (for guns such as a Ruger SR-22 and Smith & Wesson 380-EZ) and a general raffle table full of donated items from businesses and others,” said Susanne Smith, who, along with her husband, Lyle, are the grand marshals of the celebration.
Despite the small number of residents in the community, Smith said, everybody steps up to make the summer event a success.
“People are wonderful,” Smith said. “They really, really care. We don’t charge for vendors on our street; we just want people to come.”
Besides a parade, an old-time gospel hour and a variety show, the highlight of the weekend is an auto tour of the Elk City Wagon Road that commences at 8:15 a.m. Sunday and wraps up about eight hours later in Elk City.
Smith explained that the tour takes so long because there are 29 historic sites along the way where volunteers will talk about the significance of the place during the Wagon Road’s heyday.
“It’s a slow drive, anyway, because it’s dirt, it’s a dirty drive,” Smith said. “But it’s primitive and that’s what we’re trying so hard to keep. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places so nobody can touch it. The Forest Service can’t touch it.”
The road is maintained each year by the Friends of the Elk City Wagon Road who gather during the winter to remove fallen trees and clear brush from the roadway. This year, Smith said, there were 13 volunteers to help with the project, “and we were very, very grateful. Got it all done in one day.”
Construction on the Elk City Wagon Road began in 1894 and it was opened the following year. The route closely follows the Nez Perce Trail going into the Bitterroot Valley in Montana and intersects the trail in several places.
According to U.S. Forest Service historical records: “The first gold miners from Pierce used the (Nez Perce) trail on their way to explore the Elk City area in 1861. The trail became a thoroughfare and was modified for pack strings and wagons in the mining boom that followed.
“By 1890, several way stations had been built along the trail. ... By 1896 there were stations at Switchback, Mountain House, Corral Hill and Mud Springs providing room and food for travelers. These stations were some of the first homesteads in the area.
“A stage trip from Stites to Elk City took two days in the summer. ... In the winter the trip to Elk City took five days. The stage fare from Stites to Elk City was $6 in 1910.”
Some of the stops on the Wagon Road tour include:
The Initial Tree, a ponderosa pine several hundred years old, where travelers carved their initials, dates and brands in the tree. Some marks, barely visible, according to the historic records, may have been made by Indian tribes en route to Montana.
Switchback Station built in 1895 that provided a full-service overnight stopover for travelers en route to Elk City. The large barns could accommodate 100 head of stock. Although the barns are no longer there, patches of nettles grow over the manure-rich soil where the barns were located.
Corral Hill, built in 1896, was another lodging and livery stable stopover for travelers. A spring and a house platform remain.
Intersection of the Elk City Wagon Road and the southern Nez Perce Trail. The trail was used for centuries by the Nez Perce Indians journeying between the Camas Prairie and Montana. Lloyd Magruder, a well-known Elk City merchant, followed the trail to transport goods from Lewiston to his store in Elk City. In 1863, Magruder and his traveling companions were murdered by robbers who took the gold dust miners had paid Magruder for goods bought in his Elk City store.
Smith said all the sites along the route are signed. The Elk City Wagon Road Museum, located in the old Clearwater Grange building, has on display several artifacts, pictures, news articles, models and other items depicting life in the area in the late 19th century.
Activities begin at 9 a.m. Saturday with a quilt show and a parade at 10 a.m. The old-time gospel hour at this historic Clearwater Baptist Church begins at noon and the Wagon Road Variety Show follows at 1:30 p.m.
On Sunday, a breakfast will be served at the Grange hall from 6:30-10:30 a.m. and participants for the Elk City Wagon Road tour will gather in front of the former Clearwater Store at 8:15 a.m. Participants are asked to provide their own picnic lunch, drinking water, snacks, cameras and a full tank of gas. The trip is expected to conclude at about 4:30 p.m. in Elk City.
Anyone seeking more information may call (208) 926-4278 or (208) 791-4548.
Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.
