Gold Rush Historic Byway

The Gold Rush Historic Byway runs along Idaho Highway 11 from Greer to Headquarters, a 42.5-mile paved route. After turning at Greer and heading east up the steep, switchbacked Greer Grade from the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway, you'll emerge on the Weippe Prairie. It was on the Weippe Prairie (near what is now the town of Weippe) that Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery were found in 1805 and fed by members of the Nez Perce tribe. The Lewis & Clark group had had a bad winter trying to get across Idaho and were essentially starving by the time they were found (and saved) by the Nez Perce. Today, this is a big wheat, grain and hay growing area, but just past Weippe the scenery changes to lush forest and you enter into the original Gold Rush area of Idaho.

The very first gold strike in the state was along Orofino Creek near the town of Pierce (named for Captain E.D. Pierce, leader of the gold prospectors). In Pierce is what remains of Idaho's inaugural government building: the former Shoshone County Courthouse. There's also a logging museum in Pierce and the Pierce town library has several artifacts and exhibits about the Chinese who used to live here (from 1865 to 1870, Chinese miners and businessmen made up almost 80% of the population in Pierce but the 1887 Idaho Supreme Court ruling that stated Chinese could not own or lease mining claims caused most of them to leave Idaho). The end of the byway is another 12 miles north of Pierce at Headquarters, gateway to the hinterlands of the Clearwater National Forest. Headquarters was the end of the railway line that ran through Pierce. It was that railway line that allowed the Potlatch Lumber Corporation to bring in a community of loggers (and their families) to work the vast timber resources of the North Fork of the Clearwater River.

Idaho 11 is well maintained but can be snowy in the winter. Winter also brings access to more than 350 miles of groomed and open snowmobile trails. Between Pierce and Headquarters is the Bald Mountain Ski Area, a family-oriented, weekends-only, T-Bar and rope tow set-up on 140 acres that was originally built by Potlatch but is now operated by the Clearwater Ski Club. There's good fishing in most streams out here but a lot of folks head for the stocked waters of Deer Creek Reservoir (south of Headquarters) and Campbell's Pond (just beyond Headquarters).