Travelers' Rest State Park

Travelers' Rest was a stopping point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, located about one mile south of Lolo, Montana. The expedition stopped from September 9 to September 11, 1805, before crossing the Bitterroot Mountains, and again on the return trip from June 30 to July 3, 1806. Travelers' Rest is at the eastern end of the Lolo Trail. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. It is the only National Historic Landmark to have been declared without a precise location. The boundaries were revised following the submission of a detailed site nomination in 1978 by Blanche Higgins Schroer of the National Park Service, assisted by the Montana State Historic Preservation Office. The submission nominated 700 acres, of which all was east of Hwy 93. Today, the historical landmark is located on the by the 51-acre (21 ha) Travelers' Rest State Park, which is operated by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Significant archeological findings unearthed in 2002 make this the only site on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail that has yielded physical proof of the explorers' presence. Records made by Lewis and Clark often spell "Traveler's" as "Traveller's". After departing here in 1806, Lewis and Clark split up. Lewis' part of the expedition traveled through what is now the Alice Creek Historic District before rejoining the Missouri River in what is now Great Falls.