Through the Valley: Stevensville to Skalkaho
Because the Nez Perce traveled slowly up the valley–12 to 14 miles a day–most settlers believed the Indians had no warlike ambitions. However, not all businessmen were willing to deal with the Nez Perce. A Corvallis merchant, P. R. Young, angrily ordered the Nez Perce out of his store and barred it shut. Later, Colonel Gibbon praised the merchant, while he chastised the Stevensville merchants.
Reports of incidents at the Corvallis (Fort “Skedaddle”) and Skalkaho sod forts suggest that the settlers would have been safer in their own homes. One historian reports, “The Nez Perce warriors rode up and examined the forts. Their friendliness and amusement reassured the settlers, some of whom were even said to have visited the Indian camp and sold bullets to the warriors.” Several warriors reportedly shot arrows at “Fort Run” (Skalkaho). The arrows fell far short of their mark.
The fort at Corvallis was built of green sods for a surrounding wall. This section of the valley was peopled largely by ‘Missourians’ who, during the Civil War, received warnings often to ‘get up and go’ to a safer place of refuge … hence the newly-coined word “Skedaddle” came into vogue and the stockade was thereupon christened ‘Fort Skedaddle.”
– Henry Buck, Stevensville shopkeeper and relative of Major Catlin
