Lost Trail Pass, Montana

Lost Trail Pass, less than a mile from the Continental Divide, marks the state Line between Idaho and Montana, and is traversed by US Highway 93, a major north/south two-lane highway, running from the Canadian border to southern Arizona. There is also a ski resort at the pass, the Lost Trail Ski Area, where the state line heads northward, following a ridgeline in the Bitterroot Mountains, and the route of a chairlift. Trails at the resort are in both states. As its name suggests, Lost Trail Pass is a complicated and even contradictory place. Signage at the wayside describes some of the history of the region, which includes confusion about where the legendary pathfinders Lewis and Clark were, exactly, when they came through here in 1805. Prior to the highway coming through in the 1930s, the main pass used by travelers in the region was Gibbons Pass, a few miles north, now on a rarely used dirt road. A bit south on the Divide is Big Hole Pass, which was also used by early travelers, and near that is Chief Joseph Pass, which is also on the Divide, less then a mile from Lost Trail Pass, on Highway 43.These names reflect a famous conflict involving the Nez Perce Indians here, in 1877, known as the Battle of the Big Hole, with Captain Gibbons leading the forces of the US Army, and Chief Joseph, a leader of the Nez Perce. The battle was among the worst in the months-long Nez Perce War, where US forces fought with Indians trying to escape to safety in Canada. Some of the story is told at a National Historic Park at the base of the mountains, 12 miles east, where much of the battle took place, a few miles west of the town of Wisdom.