What is the Nez Perce National Historic Trail Auto Route?
Travel back in time to 1877, as five Nez Perce bands, nearly 800 men, women, and children, struggle across 1200 miles of rugged country in an effort to avoid a war they never wanted. The course they chose on their epic journey has been memorialized in the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail (NPNHT). Today, roads and highways roughly parallel to the 1877 Nez Perce flight have been designated as the official NPNHT Auto Route. Through the cooperative efforts of the U. S. Forest Service and the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and Montana, 1500 miles of selected roadway now display the NPNHT Auto Route sign. Stretching from Oregon’s Wallowa Valley to the plains of northcentral Montana, the NPNHT Auto Route follows three season, all weather roads ranging from high standard gravel to portions of Interstates 15 and 90. State and county highway departments installed the signs in partnership with the NPNHT. The NPNHT Auto Route consists of the following roadways • Joseph,
