Big Flat

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his view looks toward true north down the Salmon River from the upper end of the broad bottom now known as Big Flat. Beyond the mouth of Tower Creek the Salmon winds tortuously through a seven-mile-long canyon where the vertical walls at that time crowded the riverbanks so tightly in several places that Clark and his party were compelled to clamber over "four mountains verry Steap high & rockey" on the east side. Indeed, "the assent of three was So Steap that it is incrediable to describe."

When the entire Corps left camp at the mouth of Tower Creek on the 31st, they stopped for the night just four miles up the canyon, then went farther up Carmen Creek and turned north over terrain that was somewhat less rugged than what Clark had traversed.

--Joseph Mussulman, 06/04