Editing Snake River (section)

===Exploration and fur trade===
The first Euro-Americans to reach the Snake River watershed were the Lewis and Clark Expedition, who in August 1805 crossed the Continental Divide at [[Lemhi Pass]] and descended to the Salmon River at what is now [[Salmon, Idaho]], naming the stream "Lewis's River". Thwarted by the river's rapids, they were forced to cross the Bitterroot Mountains via the Nez Perce trail at Lolo Pass. After paddling down the ''Kooskooskee'' (Clearwater River), they reached the junction with the Snake and camped there with the Nez Perces on October 10, 1805.<ref name="Lewis and Clark Journal">{{cite book|title=History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark To the Sources of the Missouri River, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, Performed During the Years 1804-5-6, by Order of the Government of the United States · Volume 2|publisher=F.P. Harper|year=1893|editor=Coues, Elliott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOATAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|620–622}} They correctly surmised that the river coming from the south was a continuation of "Lewis's" or Salmon River. The expedition journals note the Nez Perce called it ''Kimooenim'', although William Clark later erased mentions of the name to replace with "Lewis's".<ref name="Lewis and Clark Journal"/>{{rp|635}} Six days later they reached the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, after noting a number of dangerous rapids as well as many native fishing sites on the lower Snake.<ref name="Lewis and Clark Journal"/>{{rp|625–635}} The expedition established friendly relations with the Nez Perces, who they visited again on their return trip in 1806.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/lewis-and-clark.htm|title=Lewis and Clark and the Nez Perce|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|work=Nez Perce National Historic Park|date=|accessdate=December 11, 2023}}</ref>

Other explorers quickly followed, many of them fur trappers who began scouting the upper Snake River watershed for beaver. [[John Colter]], a former member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, explored the Jackson Hole area in 1808.<ref name="explorers">{{cite web
|url=http://www.history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0938.pdf
|title=Snake River Explorers
|publisher=Idaho State Historical Society
|work=Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series
|date=April 1992
|access-date=June 24, 2013
|archive-date=May 15, 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515011912/http://www.history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0938.pdf
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> In 1810, [[Andrew Henry (fur trader)|Andrew Henry]] explored and named the Henrys Fork of the Snake River. He established Fort Henry, the first American fur trading post west of the Rocky Mountains, but abandoned it after that year's harsh winter.<ref name="explorers"/> The 1811 [[Pacific Fur Company]] expedition led by [[Wilson Price Hunt]] attempted to find a route from Henrys Fork to the Columbia River. After suffering a wreck in the falls of the Snake River Canyon, they took an overland route through the Snake River Plain, through what is now the Boise Valley or Treasure Valley, then crossed the Blue Mountains to bypass Hells Canyon and reach the lower Snake River.<ref name="COTM"/> After the hazardous experience, Hunt gave it the name "Mad River".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://truewestmagazine.com/article/trailing-wilson-price-hunts-astorians-west/|title=Trailing Wilson Price Hunt's Astorians West|publisher=True West|author=Moulton, Candy|date=October 1, 2005|accessdate=February 1, 2023}}</ref> A group led by [[Robert Stuart (explorer)|Robert Stuart]], a member of the Hunt expedition, returned eastward across the plain the following year. The route they mapped would eventually become that section of the [[Oregon Trail]].<ref name="COTM">{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/crmo/hcs/chap3.htm|title=Close Encounters: The Fur Trade in the Craters of the Moon Region, 1820-1856|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|work=Historic Context Statements: Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho|author=Louter, David|year=1995|accessdate=December 11, 2023}}</ref>

[[Image:Twin Falls Snake River Idaho, O.S.L.R.R. C.R. Savage, Salt Lake. (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|280px|The cataracts of the Snake River forced early explorers and settlers to travel overland. This is Twin Falls, upstream of Shoshone Falls, as it appeared c. 1871.|alt=Black and white photograph of two parallel waterfalls, dropping over a dark cliff face into a turbulent pool.]]
In 1818 [[Donald Mackenzie (explorer)|Donald Mackenzie]] and [[Alexander Ross (fur trader)|Alexander Ross]] established [[Fort Nez Percés]] for the [[North West Company]] near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest|author=Josephy, Alvin M.|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=9780395850114|year=1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1Ffhzz0UOkC}}</ref>{{rp|53–58}} The following year, Mackenzie traveled up the Snake River and reached Boise Valley by making the first recorded river ascent of Hells Canyon.<ref name="explorers"/> Mackenzie's goal was to bypass the arduous trek over the Blue Mountains. He wrote that "the passage by water is now proved to be safe and practicable for loaded boats, without one single carrying place or portage; therefore, the doubtful question is set at rest forever. Yet from the force of the current and the frequency of rapids, it may still be advisable, and perhaps preferable, to continue the land transport."<ref name="Williamson 1997"/>{{rp|19}}

Canadian fur trappers with the British [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) reached the Snake River watershed in 1819.<ref name="EOI">{{cite web
|url=http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2411.htm
|title=Hudson's Bay Company
|publisher=University of Houston
|work=Engines of our Ingenuity
|last=Kaza
|first=Roger
|access-date=October 5, 2009
|archive-date=September 28, 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928053341/http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2411.htm
|url-status=live
}}</ref> As American fur trappers kept coming to the region, the HBC ordered the Canadians to kill as many beavers as they could, under the rationale that "if there are no beavers, there will be no reason for the Yanks to come," and even if the Americans did ultimately gain control, the HBC would already have taken all the profit.<ref name="EOI"/> Focused primarily on the upper Snake River region, the "fur desert" policy was carried out in nine expeditions from about 1824–1831 and aimed to decrease the Americans' economic interest in the [[Oregon Country]], the vast region of the Pacific Northwest centering on modern-day British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. By the time the Americans annexed [[Oregon Territory]] in 1848, beaver were nearly extirpated across much of the Rocky Mountains.<ref name="EOI"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2828&context=etd|title=Clearing the Country: A History of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fur Desert Policy|author=Ott, Jennifer Susan|publisher=University of Montana|year=1997|accessdate=January 6, 2024}}</ref>

Starting in the 1840s, the Oregon Trail became well established, and thousands of settlers passed through the Snake River Plain on their way to the [[Willamette Valley]]. Coming from Wyoming, the Oregon Trail reached the Snake River at [[Fort Hall, Idaho]], and stayed south of the river until [[Three Island Crossing State Park|Three Island Crossing]] near modern-day [[Glenns Ferry, Idaho|Glenns Ferry]].<ref name="Idaho Parks Three Island Crossing">{{cite web|url=https://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/three-island-crossing/history/|title=History of Three Island Crossing State Park|publisher=Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation|date=|accessdate=February 4, 2024}}</ref> Here the trail diverged, with the northern route fording the river to reach the HBC trading post at [[Fort Boise]] while the southern route continued into what is now the eastern Oregon desert. While the northern route passed through more favorable country, the Snake River posed a formidable barrier; during high water, many travelers were forced to take the hot, dry southern route, or risk drowning.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/oreg/planyourvisit/three-island-crossing.htm|title=Three Island Crossing State Park|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|work=Oregon National Historic Trail|accessdate=December 11, 2023}}</ref> Travelers going via Fort Boise had to cross the river one more time to rejoin the trail heading west. A ferry existed at Fort Boise since at least 1843;<ref name="Snake River ferries">{{cite web|url=https://apps.itd.idaho.gov/apps/env/cultural/ENV_SnakeRiverFerries2017.pdf|title=Research Guide on Snake River Ferries|publisher=Idaho Transportation Department|date=Jan 2017|accessdate=January 6, 2024}}</ref> the Three Island crossing was also replaced by a ferry in 1869.<ref name="Idaho Parks Three Island Crossing"/> A new wave of travelers came in the 1860s with the [[Montana Trail]] providing access to gold strikes in Montana Territory. This crossed the Snake River by the Eagle Rock Ferry and later a bridge which the city of Idaho Falls would soon grow around.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/0033.pdf|title=Eagle Rock|publisher=Idaho State Historical Society|work=Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series|date=Jan 1993|accessdate=December 11, 2023}}</ref>