Colt Killed Camp

Powell Ranger Station, at the Expedition's Campsite on the "Koos koos ke" or "Flathead" River, now called the Lochsa View south

lark recorded that on the night of September 14, 1805, the Corps "Encamped opposit a Small Island at the mouth of a branch on the right side of the river which is at this place 80 yards wide, Swift and Stoney." That river's Indian name, which the journalists evidently never heard, is Lochsa, meaning swift water. The "branch"—a small stream—no longer flows; its bed was obliterated during the expansion of the ranger station. The men put their 40 horses on the island for the night, probably to discourage them from wandering away in search of food. The Corps bypassed this campsite by several miles on their return trip in June of 1806.

Powell Ranger Station of the Clearwater National Forest, which was built here about 1910, was named for the trapper and homesteader Charley Powell, who lived nearby at the time.

--09/04

Funded in part by a grant from the Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee.