Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road

The Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road was built in June 1859 to connect the Walla Walla area with its fairly easy access to the Columbia River to the mountainous area of the Huckleberry and Selkirk Mountains of current Northeast Washington and the Inland Northwest. Brigadier General William S. Harney, commander of the Department of Oregon, opened up the district north of the Snake River to settlers in 1858 and ordered Brevet Major Pinkney Lugenbeel, 9th Infantry Regiment (United States) to establish a U.S. Army post to restrain the Indians lately hostile to the U.S. Army's Northwest Division and to protect miners who flooded into the area after first reports of gold in the area appeared in Western Washington newspapers in July 1855. It was common practice to use existing Indian trails to develop military roads, and only make necessary improvements for the movement of artillery or supply trains. Brevet Major Lugenbeel followed the long established Indian trail, then Hudson Bay Company brigade trail from the U.S. Fort Walla Walla area to Hudson Bay Company Fort Colvile, but had to leave the trail at current Orin-Rice Road, two miles south of Colville, where the southernmost land claims of the Hudson Bay Company fort began. Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens and the U.S. Army were ordered by the United States Department of State to honor land ownership claims by the Hudson Bay Company. Lugenbeel's command arrived from Fort Walla Walla on June 20, 1859; Pinkney Lugenbeel was later credited with improving and building up the Military Road.

The start point was Fort Walla Walla, a U.S. Army post established in 1858 with both infantry and cavalry. It closed September 28, 1910. The end point was Fort Colville, a U.S. Army post located three miles north of current Colville, Washington. Fort Colville closed in 1882. The road became the Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road.

Prior to Fort Colville
Various Indian tribes used the trail to travel to Kettle Falls for salmon and for trade between peoples. David Thompson, fur trader, traveled the middle section of the road in 1811. In June 1811, after traveling down the Columbia River from the Kettle Falls area to Astoria in a canoe, he returned in August 1811 up the Columbia and Snake River to where the Palouse River joins the Snake River. This was an established camping place for the Nez Perce people, and later Lyons Ferry, and the Snake River Bridge. River levels were still very high and the currents fast, so they took the land route twenty-eight miles northeast through basalt formations and then forty miles through fine light loam with brooks and ponds, grass, and trees to Spokan House. He also traveled the northern section of the road in June and then again in August 1811. Soon after in 1812 or 1813, a fur trader competitor, Pacific Fur Company's Alexander Ross described travelling from Walla Walla to Colville crossing at the Palouse River and arriving at the Spokane River, where the Pacific Fur Company had a fur trading post called Fort Spokane, across from the North West Company's Spokan House. A decade later in 1825, under Hudson Bay Company Governor George Simpson's orders, construction of Fort Colvile began and in April 1826, Spokan House was abandoned. In May 1835, Reverend Samuel Parker described in detail his travel up the trail from Hudson Bay Company's Fort Walla Walla, as called Fort Nez Percés, to Fort Colvile. He was tasked by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to search out locations for Protestant missions. Following in September 1838, Reverend Cushing Eells and Reverend Elkanah Walker, American Protestant missionaries, took the trail from the Whitman Mission to Hudson Bay Company Fort Colvile to choose a location for their mission. Three years prior, Rev. Samuel Parker wrote that the Tshimakain area, right along the trail, would be a good location for a mission. Additionally, Chief Factor Archibald McDonald reportedly recommended Tshimakain, at the site of current Ford, Washington, as a good location for their mission. The pastors returned to the Whitman Mission, and in March, 1839, they brought their wives, Mary Richardson Walker and Myra Eells to what became Tshimakain Mission. On the trail north, they took a side trip to the Palouse Falls.

In June 1841, the party of Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson, United States Navy, of the United States Exploring Expedition took several routes through current Eastern Washington. He described the Walla Walla Colville fur trade route taken by Horatio Hale, as the most direct route from north to south in Eastern Washington. In 1847, Paul Kane traveled the trail in the summer of 1847. He visited Palouse Falls July 14 and 15, 1847 and drew the first drawing of the falls. His trip is detailed in "Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America : from Canada to Vancouver's Island and Oregon through the Hudson's Bay Company's territory and back again" In 1853, Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens mentioned the Walla Walla Colville trail in this report to U.S. Congress regarding viable railroad routes in the Washington Territory. In 1858, Joseph S. Harris with the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission described the road between Walla Walla and Colville as an excellent wagon road.

As a military road
In 1859, Captain John Mullan came to Fort Colville to ascertain improvement to the Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road in preparation for building the Mullan Road. In spring 1860, R. V. Peabody, Quartermaster of the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission, made improvements on the wagon road from Fort Colville to the Spokane River to allow survey teams to travel to the international border along the 49th parallel between the Selkirk Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. On September 28, 1860, First lieutenant August Kautz, 4th Infantry, arrived at Fort Colville with 150 recruits from Fort Benton, Montana via Lake Coeur d'Alene along the Mullan Road. His journal recorded the route from Coeur d'Alene to the fort along the road built by the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission above the Spokane River and then along the Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road. The original Spokane County, and then after merger with Stevens County Board of County Commissioners often referenced the military road particularly regarding repair of bridges and maintenance of the road.

Traveling the road now


The historic road and current driving route begins at Historic Fort Walla Walla, Walla Walla County 46.04806°N, -118.36583°W on Myra Street. The fort is part of the Fort Walla Walla Park with picnic shelter and designated picnic areas available for reservation; outdoor amphitheater and site of the Walla Walla Community College Summer Musical;; play equipment, horseshoe pits, sand volleyball court; 70 acre wildlife preserve with streams and a hiking trail; remote control car and airplane facilities; BMX track; skateboard park; disc golf course; off leash dog park; Vietnam War Memorial; historic military cemetery; and Fort Walla Walla Museum. Along Poplar Street, the route passes the Fort Walla Walla Park and Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center. Head north on Avery Street, then east onto West Rose Street. Turn north onto North 13th Avenue and for a quarter mile pass through an industrial area. After North 13th Avenue passes under US Route 12, it becomes State Route 125 (SR 125). The historic Washington State Penitentiary, first used in 1886. Dry land farming starts at the penitentiary walls and continues for much of the route. Cross the Touchet River, then turn east towards Prescott on SR 124. Follow Smith Springs Road then turn north.

The military road went into current Columbia County, but private property impedes following this route. For the driving route stay in Walla Walla County. Until just before crossing the Lyons Ferry Bridge where the Palouse River flows south into the Snake River, where it crosses Columbia County in its northwest corner.

Cross the Snake River at the Josso High Bridge on SR 261 and pass by the Lyons Ferry Park, Franklin County. Take a short side trip to Palouse Falls State Park by turning right at Palouse Falls Road. In 1839, when the missionaries Walker, Eells, and their families traveled from the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu to Tshimakain Mission, they detoured to visit these falls. Paul Kane, artist came a decade later, and became the first to draw an image of the falls on July 14 and 15, 1847. Continue on SR 261, turn north at Nunamaker Road, and go until it reconnects with SR 261, where it becomes SR 260, proceed towards Washtucna, Adams County.

In Washtucna, Basset Park is a well-known bird viewing location. Two miles north of Washtucna, turn right onto Benge-Washtucna Road. Proceed 14 miles to Benge. Most of the way through the town of Benge on the south side of the road will be a historical marker for the Mullan Road and the Stone Corral. One of the access points for the Columbia Plateau Trail is at Benge. Turn north onto Benge-Ritzville Road. Turn west (left) onto Harder Road. Cross the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, proceed northwesterly along Harder Road. The road turns into East Urquhart Road, which becomes Hills Road. Turn east onto East Wellsandt Road, and then turn east onto to Danekas Road.

On the east side of Sprague Lake as you enter into Lincoln County, Danekas Road turns into Max Harder Road. Sprague Lake was originally called Colville Lake, because it was on the road to Colville. The lake is well known for its fishing. At Sprague, follow SR 23, then SR 231 north nine miles to Waukon Road, then to Hallett road.

The road passes through the western portion of Spokane County, a bit to the east of SR 231 along numerous county roads. A monument erected by the Eastern Washington Historical Society to the "Explorers Fur Traders Missionaries Soldiers and Pioneers who made an Indian Trail The Colville Walla Walla Road" is on Highway 2, at 47.64361°N, -117.77333°W. Nearby is the site of Camp Washington, where on October 29, 1853, Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens met both his eastern and western divisions of the Northern Pacific Railroad Exploration and Survey exploring routes from the Rockies to the coast of the Washington territory for railway development. A monument to Camp Washington is at 47.745°N, -117.74083°W. West Long Lake Road travels down to Long Lake, just behind where Long Lake Dam backs up the Spokane River. Wagons on the military road descended into Curby Canyon to initially ford the river and later to cross on LaPray Bridge into Stevens County. The ferry was submerged under Long Lake in 1915. To return to the route north, return to SR 231.

SR 231 goes west of Long Lake Dam, and reconnects with the military road near the town of Ford, Washington. Continue north a short distance along the road and the Tshimakain Mission monument is visible on the east side of the road. Follow SR 231 to the town of Springdale, Washington, shortly thereafter the military road moved to the west side of the Colville River Valley on Long Prairie Road. Follow the route along the west side of the valley until a couple of miles south of Chewelah. Early maps like the 1859 route of Archibald Campbell and the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission and field notes from Lieutenant August Kautz indicated that the route crossed northeast to Fool's Prairie, now called Chewelah, crossing the Colville River near Indian Ridge. In May 1835, Reverend Samuel Parker followed this route to current Chewelah with assistance from Spokane and Nez Perce Indians. The still standing historic Colville Indian Agency at Chewelah, 48.27889°N, -117.71389°W, built in 1868, was on the military road. Leaving Chewelah to the north, the road passed the St. Francis Regis Mission, a Catholic mission from 1845 to 1869. The military road mostly followed current U.S. Route 395, passing near Addy, Washington, home to a couple of retired Hudson Bay Company fur traders. Then it passed near the vanished Oppenheimer gristmill near the current community of Arden. About two miles south of what is now Colville, the military road turned northeast from the established trail to avoid Hudson Bay Company lands. As this portion of the road no longer exists, proceed to Colville and head east on State Route 20. Turn north onto the Aladdin Road, where the military road passed east of the original site of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and the Calvary cemetery. The Evergreen Cemetery on the west side of Aladdin Road is just before where the fort was located. All that remains of Fort Colville is a monument at 48.57194°N, -117.87889°W.