Lewis & Clark Trail State Park History

Lewis and Clark Trail State Park lies nestled in a grove of ponderosa pine trees in the valley of the Touchet River. The park is situated along a pathway used for thousands of years to connect the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with the salmon highway of the Columbia River.

Indigenous Lands

Lewis and Clark Trail State Park lies within the traditional territories of Sahaptian and Interior Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce Tribe, Spokane Tribe of Indians, Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation (Cayuse-Umatilla-Walla Walla).

The Touchet River Valley probably acquired its name from an Indigenous word meaning “roasting,” an allusion to an ancient Nez Perce story about how Coyote was able to bring salmon up the Columbia River to the people, preparing a feast near today’s Touchet River.

Salmon are at the center of local Indigenous cultures, augmented by seasonal rounds to collect foods and other resources from throughout the region.

Lewis and Clark

US President Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Corps of Discovery in 1803. The Corps, under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, was directed to “explore the Missouri River, & such principle stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean … may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce.” The Corps departed from Camp Dubois, MO, on May 14, 1804.

On their westward journey they paddled canoes down the Snake River about 18 miles north of today’s Lewis and Clark Trail State Park in mid-October 1805. After reaching the Pacific Ocean at Cape Disappointment in November, they spent the winter at Fort Clatsop near the Oregon coast. On their return journey, the decided not to try to paddle upstream against the strong spring current of the Snake River. They bartered with local Indigenous people, who were renowned for their horse riding and breeding, to purchase horses and engage two guides to assist them in route-finding from the Columbia River toward the Rocky Mountains.

On May 1, 1806, they ascended the Touchet River Valley. After stopping for their midday meal, their two guides disagreed about the proper way forward. One insisted on continuing up the valley while the other claimed that a better trail existed on the plateau above, although the plateau route lacked water sources for several miles.

Lewis and Clark chose to continue travelling up the Touchet River Valley, and Lewis remarked in his journal that “the timber on the creek becomes more abundant and it’s extensive bottoms affords a pleasant looking country.” Making camp near the site of today’s Lewis and Clark Trail State Park, the Corps was pleased to receive an evening visit from three young men from a village they had passed earlier. To their delight, the men returned a steel trap that the Corps had “neglegently left behind.”

Treaties and Conflict

Religious missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established their Waiilatpu Mission 22 miles southwest of today’s Lewis and Clark Trail State Park in 1836. The funding and mandate for their work was provided by the American Board of Foreign Missions. Though they engaged with many local Indigenous people, the Whitmans were unable to achieve the goals set by the Board, as Indigenous people continued their seasonal rounds. Increasingly, the mission served more as a rest and supply station for emigrants travelling the Oregon Trail from the United States.

Cayuse tribal members were alarmed by the large numbers of emigrants, foreseeing emerging conflicts over resources. A measles epidemic likely brought to the area by emigrants in the fall of 1847 caused the death of nearly half of the Cayuse people. Marcus Whitman, a trained physician, was unable to provide satisfactory health care to the Cayuse that sought help from him. Purportedly, Cayuse tradition required the execution of healers who could not demonstrate the abilities that they claimed.

On November 29, 1847, a group of Cayuse attacked the mission, killing Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, two of their adopted sons and nine others. 50 others were taken captive (three captive children died of measles) and ransomed one month later. Volunteer militias sought revenge, pursuing Cayuse warriors for years. In 1850, five Cayuse men were tried and convicted of murder, and hanged, despite a lack of evidence that they were involved.

The Oregon Treaty between the United State and Great Britain in 1846 established the border between the two countries’ colonial administration at the 49th parallel, putting the site of today’s Lewis and Clark Trail State Park under American jurisdiction.

Representatives of numerous Indigenous people with traditional territories in what is now eastern Washington negotiated and signed treaties under duress with Territorial Governor Isaac I. Stevens at Walla Walla on June 9, 1855. Reportedly, the delegation of Cayuse leaders at the treaty council declared that “We love our country—it is composed of the bones of our people and we will not part with it.” In the end, tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government, but reserved rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the lands in the Touchet River Valley.

Land Disposal

Government surveys of lands “suitable for cultivation” in the area were completed in 1861 and the land in today’s Lewis and Clark Trail State Park passed into private ownership as Military Scrip Warrants.

A veteran with service before 1855 (or his heirs) could obtain up to 160 acres of public domain land as a reward for military service. Such scrip warrants were transferrable, and many patents went to warrant brokers, who in turn sold them to bargain-conscious land buyers. In 1866, widow Eleanor Bumgarner received title to 120 acres including the north part of today’s park for her husband Reuben’s service in the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. The land was transferred to homesteader John Stewart. In 1869, Rowland Powell received 160 acres for his service in the New York Militia during the War of 1812, including the south part of today’s park, and transferred it to James E. Bennett.

Bennett traded his land to Harvey and Susan Bateman for some horses and a wagon, and the Batemans built a log cabin on the land which they used until a frame house was built in 1873. They raised 15 children of their own and also five of their oldest daughter’s children.

It was said that Mrs. Bateman “forbade the menfolk to cut the tall ponderosa pines on the property”, as she valued the shade and serenity of the forest. The property was sometimes used for community religious celebrations and became informally known as “Shiloh,” for an ancient Hebrew sanctuary. Harvey died in 1904 and Susan passed away in 1933.

Making a Park

After the Batemans’ passing, civic clubs in nearby Waitsburg and Dayton lobbied for the establishment of a state park on the property to continue the preservation of the ponderosa pine grove. On May 17, 1933, State Treasurer Otto A. Case and Secretary of State E. N. Hutchinson, two of the three members of the State Parks Committee, visited the proposed park site at the invitation of local supporters. The Committee members suggested that the two cities unite in raising funds for the purchase of the land.

On July 16, 1933, an “inter-county picnic” was held on the site to raise funds and build support for the park. The land was purchased from the Batemans’ estate and donated to the State Parks Committee on September 18, 1933.

Local residents favored two possible names for the park: “Shiloh State Park” and “Marcus Whitman State Park.” After some discussion, the park’s current name was chosen in recognition of the Corps of Discovery’s passage through the area. After the construction of facilities, the park was opened to the public in May 1935.

Triggered by drought conditions during the spring and summer of 1985, Western pine bark beetles weakened many ponderosa pine trees in the park; 77 were removed in November 1985 (mostly south of the highway). Saplings have begun to replace them.