Ponies and Passes: Lewis and Clark through the Bitterroot in Sept. 1805

Travelers’ Rest State Park interpreter Bruce Mihelish tells how, having left the headwaters of the Missouri River behind, the Corps of Discovery was in desperate need of mounts by early fall. The Shoshone and Salish came to the rescue with the Spanish Barb horses that enabled the corps to conquer three major mountain passes through the Bitterroot Valley and reach waters to the Pacific before the onset of winter and potential starvation.