SNAKE RIVER IN HISTORY
9
the lost, as far as Caldron Linn, now the site of to determined three hunters the where Milner again dam, great
accountably
breast the tide of fortune.
Milner, Idaho, probably stands on the ground where Hunt cached his goods after a vain attempt to negotiate the river in boats. The two rocks which swamped the boat and caused the first
death of a white
man on
the Snake river, and
upon which
the Stuart party found the boat still clinging, now support the dam which diverts water sufficient to create a veritable irri-
gated empire, covering as it does 1,300,000 acres of land reclaimed at a cost of nearly $50,000,000.
Following the arrival at Astoria of the Hunt party, Donald McKenzie, who, with Reed and McClellan, had been detached from the main party at Caldron Linn, and who preceded Hunt to Astoria
set out to establish a post among conclude that he traveled the same
by nearly a month,
Nez Perces Indians. trail from the mouth of the
I
the Walla Walla to the forks of the
Clearwater that Lewis and Clark followed on their return trip six years before and that McKenzie established his post near the
and
mouth of
the
North Fork.
his party after leaving
The movements
Caldron Linn
is
of
McKenzie
involved in
much
mystery but from the nature of the man, his subsequent acts and a knowledge of the country through which he passed, I have no hesitancy in adopting the view that he left the Snake river at the mouth of the Weiser and followed a well known Indian trail up Monroe's creek, thence over to Mann creek, thence over to the Weiser, which he followed to its source. From here he descended the Little Salmon to its junction with the Salmon river proper, which he followed to the mouth of
From here the trail led over the divide somewhat west of old Mount Idaho and down to the Clearwater above the present town of Stites, thence down the Clearwater to the North Fork.
the Whitebird.
I
think, too, that his success in
making
his
way through
the mountains, the knowledge he acquired of the trails and of the country through which they passed, determined Mr. Hunt in
designating McKenzie as the one to operate in the
Nez
