Mullan Road was the first

wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

to cross the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

to the Inland of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. It was built by

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

troops under the command of Lt. John Mullan, between the spring of 1859 and summer 1860. It led from Fort Benton, which at the time was in the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of ...

, then

Idaho Territory The Territory of Idaho was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1863, until July 3, 1890, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as Idaho. History 1860s The territory ...

from July 1863, and into

Montana Territory The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana. Original boundaries ...

beginning in May 1864. The road eventually stretched all the way from

Fort Walla Walla Fort Walla Walla is a United States Army fort located in Walla Walla, Washington. The first Fort Walla Walla was established July 1856, by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe, 9th Infantry Regiment. A second Fort Walla Walla was occupied Septe ...

Washington Territory The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

, near the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

to the navigational head of the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

, which at the time was the farthest inland port in the world). The road previewed the route approximately followed by modern-day

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway in the Western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexican border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Ca ...

and

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

through present-day Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Parts of the Mullan Road can still be traveled; one such section is near Washtucna, Washington. A segment of the Mullan Road in the vicinity of Benton Lake was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975, and the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

designated it a

National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United Stat ...

in 1977. Three segments of the road in Idaho were also listed on the National Register in 1990. In 2009, the Point of Rocks segment in Montana was also listed on the National Register as part of the

Point of Rocks Historic Transportation Corridor The Point of Rocks Historic Transportation Corridor in Mineral County, Montana is a historic district including portions of the historic Mullan Road and the Milwaukee Road Railroad. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Histo ...

History

As early as 1852 the US government began to think about building an overland route to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to help settle the area with pioneers and eliminate any claims that

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

had on the disputed territories. Despite the

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

expedition, little detail was known about the country. Isaac Ingalls Stevens, a

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

graduate appointed the first governor of the

, was ordered to survey a route from the

to the

suitable for building a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. Stevens assumed the task, but also kept in mind that the route should be suitable for a wagon road. In the spring of 1853, Congress authorized a U.S. Army expedition, led by Stevens. It was made up of

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

and

explorers Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some expectation of discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organisms capable of directed locomotion and the abilit ...

; they organized near

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

. They were to detail the

geographical Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

and

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

character of the country. Among them was a small, dark-haired young man, Lieutenant John Mullan; just a year out of West Point, he was anxious to prove his mettle as an engineer. Mullan was placed in charge of surveying, and later improving, a wagon route (now commonly called the Mullan Road) between Fort Benton (

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

) and

(

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

). Lieutenant Mullan, a topographical engineer, began gathering information in 1854. Delayed by the

Yakima War The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Plateau War or Yakima Indian War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people of the Northwest Plateau, then part of Washington Territory, and the tr ...

which ended in 1858, construction began in 1859 from

in what was then

. Lieutenant Mullan commanded a workforce of more than 200, including civilian workers,

surveyors Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

, and

soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word ...

who carved a road across the region. HistoryLink.org Essay 5225
/ref> After the difficult project was completed in 1860,

floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

wiped out substantial stretches of the road. It was re-routed in 1861. Floods again damaged the road, and ultimately, no provision for maintenance was provided. Although the road was never heavily used by the military, it was an important conduit for civilian passage, which hastened settling of the northwestern United States. In the first year after completion, it was used by an estimated 20,000 people, 6,000 horses and mules, 5,000 cattle and 83 wagons. The discovery of gold in North Central Idaho in 1860 by Capt. E.D. Pierce contributed to this usage, making Lewiston, Washington Territory, the largest town in the Pacific Northwest and the capital of the new Idaho Territory beginning July 4, 1863. The Mullan Road helped Walla Walla become the largest

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

by 1870, with a population of 1,394. The road continued to serve as an important route until the completion of the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

in 1883 provided faster and more convenient access to the region.

Route of the Mullan Road

Mullan Road 2 - Fourth of July Pass Idaho

From the origin at

Fort Benton, Montana Fort Benton is a city in and the county seat of Chouteau County, Montana, United States. Established in 1846, Fort Benton is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in Montana. Fort Benton was the most upstream navigable port on the Miss ...

, the Mullan Road proceeded: * West from Fort Benton, it passed north of Great Falls * Dropping south to cross the

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

west of

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...

(following a path through

Mullan Pass Mullan Pass is a mountain pass in the western United States, in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. It sits on the Continental Divide on the border between Powell and Lewis and Clark counties at above sea level. Located in the Helena National Fores ...

at , immediately north of that now traveled by

US 12 U.S. Route 12 or U.S. Highway 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90) ...

) * Just west of

Garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

, it joined the route used by the future US 10 (present-day

) (similar to the US 12 transition to join Interstate 90 today) * Along the

Clark Fork River The Clark Fork, or the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho, approximately long. It is named after William Clark of the 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. The largest river by volume in Montana, it ...

near the

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

of Bearmouth, also along the future US 10 * It remained with the future US 10 route as it passed through

Missoula Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

, proceeding west through Montana. The Mullan Road through the Missoula Valley, slightly south of the former US 10 and still in use today as S-263, fostered rapid growth for the burgeoning city, and allowed the U.S. Army to establish

Fort Missoula Fort Missoula was established by the United States Army in 1877 on land that is now part of the city of Missoula, Montana, to protect settlers in Western Montana from possible threats from the Native American Indians, such as the Nez Perce. Begi ...

in 1877. One stretch from St. Regis to Henderson north of today's Interstate 90 is still in use as Old Mullan Road and Mullan Gulch Road. * From the Taft area, it crossed the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

into

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

over St. Regis Pass (named Sohon Pass by John Mullan) () at , about west-southwest of

Lookout Pass Lookout Pass is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of the northwestern United States. In the Coeur d'Alene Mountains of the Bitterroot Range, the pass is on the border between Idaho and Montana, traversed by Interstate 90 (formerly U.S. Ro ...

, where

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

crosses the state line. * From the middle of the Idaho crossing, the road deviates from present-day major roads. The Mullan Road went southwesterly in Idaho to pass south of

Lake Coeur d'Alene Coeur d'Alene Lake ( ), is a natural dam-controlled lake in North Idaho, located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. At its northern end is the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans in length and ranges from 1 to wide with over ...

Mullan Military Road Monument Spokane WA 20230921

* The road then passed into

some distance south of

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

* From there, the Mullan Road passed through the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

country and then the

scablands The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...

eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

Washington. * It passed through Benge, that section of the road was completed May 22, 1861; the wagon ruts were still visible in 2008, just northeast of town at the site of the First Benge School. * South of Benge, there is a stretch of the former road still labeled 'Mullan Road.' This gravel section travels southwesterly until it meets State Route 26 near Washtucna. * The portion of Mullan Road south of SR 26 in Washington, which follows the course of the

Palouse River The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River in Washington and Idaho, in the northwest United States. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 3, 2011 south ...

as it descends to the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Begin ...

, has been reverted to grazing and is not accessible to the public. * After crossing the Snake River near the confluence with the Palouse River, the Mullan Road continues south along the

Fort Walla Walla Fort Colville Military Road A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

to its terminus at

near Walla Walla.

References

External links

Letter from the Secretary of War
transmitting Lieut. Mullan's report, 1861
Essay on Mullan Road
at historylink.org, by Priscilla Long, February 16, 2003

by Mineral County, Montana
Jon Axline, "Mullan's Point of Rocks"
''Montana: The Magazine of Western History'' (Montana Historical Society), Winter 1999
"Who was Mullan? Answers are many"
ruralnorthwest.com, originally in ''Coeur d'Alene Press'', 1963 * *

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...

(HAER) documentation: ** ** {{Coord, 46, 46, 8.3, N, 118, 12, 22.6, W, display=title Historic trails and roads in Washington (state) Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Historic American Engineering Record in Montana Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks History of Missoula, Montana National Register of Historic Places in Kootenai County, Idaho Roads on the National Register of Historic Places Military roads National Register of Historic Places in Cascade County, Montana National Register of Historic Places in Benewah County, Idaho 1860 establishments in Washington Territory

History

Route of the Mullan Road

References

Further reading

External links