Friends of the Clearwater Inc

“Should you awaken at dawn on the banks of the Lochsa River to watch the sun creeping up the backsides of the Bitterroots, you will have found your welcome to Clearwater Country. Or perhaps you’ll watch an osprey searching for rainbows in a riffle of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, or leave warm footprints to cool in shadows of evening drifting across a white sand beach, or suck deeply wafting scent of syringa blossoms that greet you along the roadside. With each experience you will find your welcome to Clearwater Country.

An unforgotten past also beckons – memories and imaginings of a land, people and passage of time rich in history. Along your route you may smell the smoke of an ancient Nez Perce village; squint at a September sun glistening off the faces of the Lewis and Clark expeditionists as they knee their horses, belly deep, across the river; point to General Howard’s cavalry on the crest of a ridge while watching Nez Perce families paddle their hastily constructed buffalo hide pull boats to the gravel shoreline at your feet. You may hear the whistle of a nineteenth century stern-wheeler or the distant gunshots of bandits relieving another miner of his hard-won gold dust. Throughout Clearwater Country you will travel midst the ghost of a true Western saga – Indians and explorers, missionaries and miners, outlaws and vigilantes, settlers and soldiers…and the many conflicts and triumphs of a young and growing America.”

--From Clearwater Country by Borg Hendrickson & Linwood Laughy