Fort Walla Walla–Fort Colville Military Road
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 perceived as hostile to the U.S. Army's Northwest Division and to protect miners who traveled to the area after first reports of gold in the area appeared in Western Washington newspapers in July 1855.
[1][2] 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.
[3] 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.
This was an established camping place for the Nez Perce people, and later Lyons Ferry, and the Snake River Bridge.
[11] 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.
[14] Additionally, Chief Factor Archibald McDonald reportedly recommended Tshimakain, at the site of current Ford, Washington, as a good location for their mission.
[20] 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.
The road then crosses the Snake River at the Josso High Bridge on SR 261 and passes by Lyons Ferry Park in Franklin County.
The town has a historical marker for the Mullan Road and the Stone Corral, as well as a trailhead for the Columbia Plateau Trail.
[24] Wagons on the military road descended into Curby Canyon to initially ford the Spokane River and later to cross on LaPray Bridge into Stevens County.
SR 231 goes west of Long Lake Dam, and reconnects with the military road near the town of Ford.
About two miles south of what is now Colville, the military road turned northeast from the established trail to avoid Hudson Bay Company lands.
