Howard Camp

Howard Camp. "...none of us will ever forget... the Lolo Trail...". "Our American horses were not used to the fodder of the native cayuse. We carried no forage. If we should chance upon one of the little mountain valleys where there should be grass, we found it either trampled down by Joseph's ponies or destroyed in some other way. Many is the time we have cut bark from the trees for our horses. Colonel Sanford, in charge of the cavalry arm of the service reported that there were not more than 20 or 25 horses in the entire command fit for a run of 70 or 80 miles." -- Private William Connolly - Company B, First U.S. Cavalry , (side bar on left) , On July 30, 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard began pursuing five Nímíípuu (Nez Perce) bands over the Lolo Trail. Under his command were 730 officers and enlisted men and a 350-mule supply train. , Delayed to await supplies and reinforcements, General Howard resolved to make up lost time. The densely forested Bitterroot Mountains made the 100-mile trek a slow, arduous ordeal. , The Nímíípuu knew this trail well. Accustomed to mountain travel, they reached the eastern slope on July 25 - five days before Howard set out. They did so with more than 2,000 horses and 750 of their people, mostly women, children, and elders. , General Howard's exhausted troops arrived on August 4 at this campsite. By that time the Nímíípuu were enroute to a familiar Montana refuge they were confident would be safe. , Little did they know that a second column of soldiers was on the march, and that a devastating dawn attack awaited them August 9 - the Battle of the Big Hole. , Along the trail, evidence of the Army's passing can still be found today. Older trees along the route have scars where the bark was peeled off. The Nímíípuu also peeled back for a variety of uses. , Authorized by Congress in 1986, the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail commemorates the 1877 war and flight. To learn more, go to www.fs.usda.gov/npnht.