The Clearwater River runs deep through northern Idaho's history. The Nez Perce tribe made its home along the river. Lewis and Clark's journey west took them through the Clearwater. In fact, the Nez Perce made the expedition's voyage from the Clearwater River to the Pacific Ocean possible by teaching them how to make dugout canoes from ponderosa pine logs. Fur traders like John Jacob Astor and William Ashley financed the first American commercial activity on the river, bringing trappers to the area and paving the way for the Oregon Trail. Later came the first gold rush, the Nez Perce war, statehood, homesteaders and the beginning of the logging industry. Join author John Bradbury as he recounts a time when native tribes, explorers, trappers, preachers, miners and lumberjacks made a life along the Clearwater, establishing the area for future generations.

Biographies, Clearwater River Valley (Idaho) Biography, Clearwater River Valley (Idaho) History, Clearwater River Valley (Idaho) Race relations, Frontier and pioneer life, Frontier and pioneer life Idaho Clearwater River Valley, History, Idaho Clearwater River Valley, Pioneers, Pioneers Idaho Clearwater River Valley Biography, Race relations

The gold rush The trespasser The discovery Getting to Lewiston On to Pierce City Mining the gold The miners The boom towns The good times A new territory The robbers and their shebangs Law and order come to town The quest for a new territory The Chinese arrive The Chinese community The plight of the Chinese A new Nez Perce treaty Clouds of war War Crime and punishment The fight for statehood A false start Those Mormon Democrats The homesteaders The pioneer towns The new bonanza The timber barons The race to the land office Here come the lumberjacks The battle for the Palouse Green gold