Fort Lapwai

The word "Lapwai" means place of the butterflies, as the area had thousands in early summer in earlier years.

[1] Camp Lapwai was established by Major Jacob S. Rinearson, 1st Oregon Cavalry by order of Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord.

[3] Company E 1st Regiment Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry recently mustered in at Alcatraz, were ordered on October 19, 1862 to Camp Lapwai near the Nez Perce Agency, where they were to build the encampment.

It was briefly unoccupied in 1866 at the end of the Civil War, when the Volunteer regiments were disbanded and before sufficient Federal troops were available to garrison it.

[5] The Northern Idaho Indian Agency moved to the site in 1904 and several original structures remain.