The Clearwater Story: A History of the Clearwater National Forest

In 1954, I was at a logging operation in the Musselshell area when Axeb Kludt, a logging contractor, asked me if I had ever seen the tree in that locality that had Lewis and Clark's names carved on it. At first I thought he was kidding, but he said no, that he had seen the tree when he was a teenaged youth in a hunting party. I asked him for more particulars as to where it was, the kind of tree, etc., but he could give no details.

This story seemed so unlikely that I passed if off as a wild dream and all but forgot it. I went to Browns Creek Lookout a month or so later. The lookout that year was a lady from Weippe who taught school in the winter and served as a lookout during the summer. She had been doing this since the war when a shortage of men made it necessary for the Forest Service to hire women as lookouts. (Today, most Forest Service lookouts are female.) While there, much to my surprise, she mentioned the tree with Lewis and Clark's names on it. One person knowing about such a tree could be disregarded, but when two people seemed to know about it there must, I concluded, be something to the report. She had not seen the tree, nor could she recall who told her about it, but she understood it was on the ridge between Eldorado and Lolo Creeks.

Since Lewis and Clark camped on Lolo Creek and went up this ridge a few miles, I decided I would search this area for the tree. Accordingly, my teenaged son, Jim, and I went to the forks of Lolo and Eldorado Creeks one Saturday and by a slow process of careful observation found pieces of the old trail. We would follow each part as far as I could identify it and when it became too dim to follow Jim would stand at the last point found while I would look ahead for further clues. When I located another section of the trail we would move ahead again. When we came near a large tree we would examine it. There were a number of large pine trees on this ridge, but no Lewis and Clark tree.

Slowly we worked our way up this ridge and then down to where the old trail crossed Cedar Creek, which is where Captain Clark camped. There was a grove of large trees here, but again, no luck. We gave up the search.

I told the ranger at Pierce about looking for the Lewis and Clark tree. A few days later he sent me a note saying that he had talked with Bob Richel of Pierce who told him Blayne Snyder knew where the tree was. Now, Blayne Snyder was a retired Forest Service employee and had spent many years in the Musselshell country, so my hopes were revived. I wrote to Blayne asking him about this tree. He didn't answer my letter but came to my office. He said that he was ashamed that he had been a party to such a deception and regretted that he had caused me so much trouble for he had carved the names of Lewis and Clark on a tree as a joke. He told me where the tree was, but I have never looked for it.

Two years later a timber sale and a road were planned for the Cedar Creek drainage. I went with the ranger and a staff man to look it over before it was finally advertised for sale. We walked up the road location and I found that the proposed road was well above the grove of trees where Clark camped. We stopped to look at it and I explained to them what had happened there and stated that I felt that this area should be reserved from any cutting. Jack Alley, the ranger, said, "OK, you walk around the area you want excluded from the sale. I have a paint gun and I will follow you and mark the area to be reserved" While marking the boundary we referred to the area as "Clark's Camp". We also came upon a huge white pine tree which we called "Clark's Tree". When the boundary was marked I got to thinking and told the ranger that Lewis did not camp here, but since Lewis and Clark did everything as partners it would be better to call the area the "Lewis and Clark Grove". This name was adopted for the grove, but Clark's name is still applied to the big pine tree.

A few years after this grove was established a young forester (not in the Forest Service) examined it and wrote a memorandum criticizing the action taken as wasteful and costly. He pointed out that the huge pine trees are overmature and will die from one cause or another in the not too distant future. He estimated the volume of white pine at about sixty thousand board feet, which appears to be about right. The Clark tree alone is estimated to have a volume of about thirteen thousand board feet. No doubt he is right about the pine trees. They are very old and one by one they will die. They may live longer than we think. Twenty years have already passed and they are still there. Before they die they will give many people the opportunity to look at a small spot of virgin timber when such areas are all but gone forever. Furthermore, I can think of no finer tribute to pay to the great explorers than having a grove of trees set aside in their honor.

My designation of the Lewis and Clark Grove was an administrative action within the authority of the Forest Supervisor. It could have been revoked by the same action. However, the area was soon withdrawn from mineral entry. Then when the Nez Perce National Historical Park came into being this grove became one of the units to be administered jointly by the National Park and Forest Services. It then became a National Historical Site and so it will remain.