Packer Meadows
1.5 Miles east of Lolo Pass Visitor Center on Forest Road 373
These meadows, as well as other favored gathering sites including the Weippe Prairie, Musselshell Meadows, the Camas Prairie, and the Big Hole Valley, were prime sources for one of the Nez Perce food staples, the Q_emes (camas) root. Families dug roots between July and September using a tukus (traditional digging stick) fashioned from mountain mahogany with a deer antler handle. The bulbs were placed in pits, layered with grasses and leaves and topped with a fire that was kept burning for about 48 hours. After bulbs turned a dark brown or black, they were pressed into loaves and dried.
On August 6 General Howard established a ve-hour breakfast camp with his cavalry and infantry. It was in an area of lush grass with beautiful meadows.
“Here was the place where mule and man enjoyed a rest and a breakfast far more satisfying than inhabited regions which are replete with abundance.”
– General Oliver Otis Howard
