Nez Perce National Historic Trail Interpretive Site, Wyoming
While General Howard and his men traveled the main access route used by prospectors, the Nez Perce, intent on evading the army, wound their way through the mountains to the south. Braving the cold and treacherous landscape, the Nez Perce left the Park and slipped past the military without being detected.
“The Indians camped here and it looks as though they had got brushed, or rather, lost; for the trail is new and they have had a most difficult matter to get out, but out they have got of course, and over a trail that beats anything we have yet found....”
- Member of scouting party as reported by the Boise, Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, September 29, 1877.
Many people have spent years studying historic documents and visiting the sites in an effort to understand the movement of people and the sequence of events in the Summer of 1877. Visitors who wish more detail may want to refer to some of those works: Stan Hoggatt’s work found on www.nezperce.com; Following the Nez Perce Trail, A guide to the Nee- Me-Poo National Historic Trail by Cheryl Wilfong; and Nez Perce Summer 1877, The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis by Jerome A. Greene.
