Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Why Was This Route Named Dead Indian Pass?
The marker at the summit of the Chief Joseph Highway attributes the name Dead Indian
Pass to an incident in 1877 involving the Nez Perce tribe and the U.S. Army. Chief Joseph
led his people that year from their home in Idaho, across Yellowstone and the Absaroka
Range, then down through Clarks Fork Canyon, a route considered impassable by the pur-
suing army. One Nez Perce was killed in the area, but about seven hundred members of
the tribe successfully evaded the troops. The group attempted to flee to Canada but was
eventually forced to surrender to the army not far short of the Montana-Canada border.
Where their route is known, an occasional marker now points out the Nez Perce National
Historic Trail.
The Nez Perce story is commonly accepted as the source of the old name for this pass,
but another conflict occurred near here the following year. Col. Nelson A. Miles surprised
a camp of Bannock Indians, killing and capturing many of them. Also, one of the Bannocks
was killed and buried here by Crow scouts. 1878 was the last year of troubles between Nat-
ive American Indians and the U.S. government in and around the national park.
The Chief Joseph Highway begins at the intersection of Wyoming 296 with Wyoming 120,
signed Sunlight Basin Road. It's about 17 miles (27 km) north of Cody or about 32 miles (51
km) south of Belfry, Montana.
As you drive on Wyoming 120, you can see a distinctive mountain to the east, partly flat-
topped, partly craggy, and standing by itself. People of the Crow tribe called this mountain
Four Tops Father or sometimes Buffalo Heart Mountain. This is now called
Heart Mountain,
famous both for the shameful internment of Japanese-Americans at a camp at its base during
World War II and for the Heart Mountain fault or detachment (see “The Case of the Wander-
ing Mountains” on
page 198
). An excellent museum called the Heart Mountain Interpretive
Learning Center opened here in 2011.
The first 10 miles (16 km) of Wyoming 296 climb from the dry, wide Big Horn Basin to
viewpoints dominated on the northeast by a red rock butte and on the south by
Pat O'Hara
Mountain,
named for an old-timer who lived near here. To the right (northeast) of the road is
a bright-red hogback, a 200-million-year-old sedimentary rock ridge with one steep face and
one gentle one.
If you stop on the way up to enjoy the view or the wildflowers, don't be surprised if you
think you hear a trumpet or a saxophone! Northwest College of Powell, Wyoming, has a jazz
camp located on this side of the pass.
