Moscow: Living and Learning on the Palouse

By Julie R. Monroe

Centered in the glorious Palouse, a richly fertile area, the small Idaho town of Moscow was once home to the Nez Perce, who introduced the famous spotted Appaloosa horses. The intimate Moscow feel inspired by current residents has persisted since the original homesteaders settled here, a place they called "Paradise Valley." Resisting the anonymity of many rural agricultural towns, Moscow proudly claims an educational, civic, commercial, and cultural reputation far beyond a town of its size, a monument to the people who elevated the community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 29, 2003
• ISBN: 9781439630563

Julie R. Monroe

Author and historian Julie R. Monroe is a member of the Latah County Historical Society and produces the newsletter of the Moscow Historic Preservation Commission. She has collected vivid historic images and produced a lively narrative, offering readers an entertaining volume that commemorates the vigor and determination of this town.

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LCHS.)

INTRODUCTION

Moscow, Idaho is a community of surprising contrasts. It is a small town of less than 22,000 that offers cultural and educational opportunities found only in major metropolitan areas. It is the home of the University of Idaho, the state of Idaho’s land-grant institution that is one of the most connected universities in the nation. Yet many of its residents are as deeply connected to the land as they are to their personal computers. Moscow is located in the uniquely beautiful Palouse, one of the most productive agricultural areas not just in the nation, but also in the world. And its nickname (or epithet, depending upon your politics) Berkeley of Idaho speaks volumes in a state as conservative as Idaho.

Perhaps these contrasts are the result of Moscow’s history as a city of crossroads. Before history, in fact, two major Native American trails, the Greater Nez Perce Trail and the Red Wolf Trail, intersected in the northeastern part of Paradise Valley, the present-day name of the area in which Moscow is located. In succession, white men followed these same trails in search of fur, gold, souls, and finally land. In this regard, Moscow was established in much the same way as were other communities located in the Inland Northwest, the last American frontier. Initially, Americans moving westward to fulfill their manifest destiny ignored the interiors of what would become the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, preferring the golden opportunities to be found along the Pacific Ocean. Only after discovering that the opportunities were somewhat tarnished, or when they simply grew restless, did permanent white settlers begin moving into the Inland Northwest.

In 1871, one such American was Almon Lieuallen, who, with his brother Noah, left the area around Walla Walla, Washington, to homestead in a valley called Tatkinmah by the Nez Perce Indians. Each year, the Nez Perce, along with the Palouse and Coeur d’Alene Indians, temporarily camped in the valley where Moscow now stands to dig the root of the blue-flowered camas plant. That same year, other permanent settlers, including George Tomer, John Russell, James Deakin, William Taylor, and Henry McGregor, also homesteaded in the valley. In 1873, when the first post office was established, the settlement was called Paradise; by 1876, the name had been changed to Moscow. In 1888, Moscow became the seat of Latah County, the only county in the nation to have been formed by an act of the United States Congress.

Thirteen years later, in January 1889, the University of Idaho was created by an act of the legislature of the Territory of Idaho. The placement of the state’s university in Moscow was the single most significant event in the community’s history. Simply put, without the university, it is unlikely that the fledgling community would have had the means to grow beyond its original role as a retail center for the area’s farmers and ranchers. For this reason, the history of Moscow and the history of the university are closely linked, as are the histories of the Palouse and wheat farming.

From the day the University of Idaho opened its door on October 3, 1892, the destinies of thousands of people from throughout the state, the nation, and the world have crossed with that of Moscow. As these talented individuals with their diversity of cultural and personal experience pass through Moscow, they leave their mark. But the gesture is often reciprocated because it is difficult to forget a community where it is still possible to hear the cry of a hawk amid the clatter of contemporary life. Moscow is a place where many pause to learn how they can achieve the life they wish to lead.

Moscow’s 1934 American Legion parade was held on Main Street, and this drum and bugle corps pauses during the event to pose for their photograph. (Courtesy LCHS.)

1. THE BEGINNING

The community of Moscow is nestled within an area called the Palouse, a region of northern Idaho and eastern Washington that encompasses approximately 4,000 square miles. Within the expanse of the Palouse are several counties, including Latah County, in which Moscow is located. The topography of the Palouse, with its vast contour of low, rolling hills, is striking. It is a landscape that provides its residents with a living backdrop of colors, ranging from velvet brown to vibrant spring green to golden amber. The Palouse inspires deep affection in those who live within its borders, and much of what forms the identity of Moscow is its location within this unique landscape.

The singular topography of the region is the result of cataclysmic natural events that occurred millions of years ago. The Palouse is located on the eastern edge of the Columbia River Plateau, the area situated between the Cascade Mountains on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east. The plateau rests upon layers of basalt formed during a period from 6 million to 17 million years ago. Known as the Columbia River Basalts, a series of lava spills covered parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho at speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour. Latah County historian John B. Miller has compared the lava to melted wax that was slowly poured into a large, irregular mold.

Upon this layer of basalt sit the dune-like hills of the Palouse, which were formed over 100,000 years ago by fierce windstorms loaded with massive amounts of silt. Coming from the southwest, the winds deposited the silt, also known as loess, on the bedrock of basalt and molded it into a landscape of rolling, curving ridges and slopes. The source of the loess is a topic of debate among geologists; some theorize it is volcanic ash from the eruptions of the Cascade Mountains, while others say it is glacial flour from the regions once covered in glaciers to the north of the Palouse . The prevailing belief is that the loess came from the western side of the Columbia Plateau near the Cascade Mountains.

During the present epoch, the loess developed into an extremely fertile soil due in large part to its ability to retain moisture. This characteristic is the result of the high volume of volcanic ash in Palouse loess. Over the eons, the erupting volcanoes of the Cascade Mountains have repeatedly dusted the region. One such eruption occurred, not in the distant past, but only two decades ago. On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, and residents of the Palouse found themselves caught in a blizzard of ash that literally blocked out the sun. Contrary to fears that the ash would ruin crops, farmers harvested a bumper crop that year.

This amazing view reveals the unique beauty of a Moscow area wheat field during harvest. (Courtesy LCHS.)

In some places, the fertile Palouse topsoil is 250 feet deep, which partly explains why the Palouse is so well-suited to the production of grains and legumes. Because the soil retains moisture so well, Palouse farmers are able to practice dry land farming with much success; it is the most common method of crop cultivation used in the region. Wheat is the predominant Palouse crop, but other crops, especially dry edible peas and lentils, are grown as well. In fact, nearly all of the nation’s commercially-grown dry peas and lentils are raised in Moscow’s Latah County and its neighbor to the west, Washington’s Whitman County.

Just as there are multiple theories regarding the origin of Palouse loess, the source of the word Palouse is also a subject of debate. Some say French trappers used the word pelouse, or grassy spot, to describe the area; however, the more likely explanation is that the name comes from the Sehaptin word Palus, the name of a major village of the Palouse Indians. Sehaptin is a linguistic group to which the Palouse and their neighbors to the south, the Nez Perce, belong. The village of Palus was located at the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers in what is now Whitman County, Washington. At a spot near the village, a great rock extended from far below the surface of the water to far above it, and the word Palus is interpreted to mean something sticking down in the water. The Palouse Indians believed this rock was the solidified heart of Beaver, an important figure in their religious beliefs. The Nez Perce, on the other hand, believed the rock to be the canoe of Coyote, the trickster who outwitted the monster whose body filled the homeland of the Nez Perce.

According to legend, Coyote created the Nez Perce people when he outwitted Its-welks, the monster who had swallowed all the other Animal Persons, including Grizzly Bear, Fox, Rattlesnake, and Muskrat. Although Coyote tricked Its-welks into swallowing him, Coyote had a plan and vanquished the monster by cutting out its heart. Coyote then cut Its-welks into pieces and threw them in each of the four directions. From the many parts of the monster’s body came the human people who would be neighbors of the Nez Perce, such as the Blackfoot, Shoshone, and Flatheads. And from the blood of the heart of the monster came a good, strong, and brave people who would lead good lives, and they were the Nez Perce.

When Coyote created the Nez Perce, he placed them in a large country. The original territory of the Nez Perce has been estimated at nearly 27,000 square miles, and it extended into parts of northern Idaho, eastern Montana, and western Oregon. Theirs was a territory marked by a diverse natural environment, with steep river canyons in the south, vast grasslands in the middle, and mountains to the north and east. Included within this territory was a valley the Nez Perce called Tatkinmah, place of the spotted deer. This is the valley of the south fork of the Palouse River, and it is the valley in which Moscow is situated.

The Nez Perce were not the only Native Americans to visit Tatkinmah, but before the coming of the white man, they were its primary inhabitants. The Coeur d’Alenes, whose territory was and remains centered near present-day Lake Coeur d’Alene north of Moscow, ventured into the valley but generally went no farther south. The Palouse Indians also visited the valley, but their original territory lay to the west. Although none of the tribes who inhabited the Palouse River Valley established permanent settlements there, it was nonetheless an important place for several reasons.

Two ancient north-south trails, which came to be known as the Greater Nez Perce Trail or Lapwai Trail and the Red Wolf Trail or Stevens Trail, passed through Tatkinmah, intersecting at a point 2.5 miles northeast of present-day Moscow. The Greater Nez Perce Trail, used most frequently, began near the Clearwater River and branched west to Spokane Falls and north to Lake Coeur d’Alene. The Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alenes, and Palouse Indians followed these trails in their seasonal searches for food, moving north to the mountains in the summer to fish, hunt, and pick berries, especially huckleberries. In the fall, they again passed through Tatkinmah on their return trip to the region’s warm river canyons. And during the spring, the valley became the site of a large temporary campground because it was itself a significant source of food.

The root of the camas plant, a blue-flowered wild lily, grew in such abundance that members of many tribes camped in Tatkinmah annually in late spring to harvest it. Joseph M. Cataldo was one of several Jesuit missionaries to the Northwest during the middle part of the nineteenth century. Sometime around 1924, in a letter written to Father Nicholas F. Wirtzberger, pastor of Moscow’s Catholic church, Father Cataldo recalled seeing the camas harvest on one of his journeys from the Jesuit missions in northern Idaho to the Catholic mission in present-day Lewiston, Idaho: The root of the camas was an essential food source for the native people, and it was versatile. The roots were eaten fresh, dried in the sun, cooked into mush in underground pits, or ground into flour to make biscuits or loaves of bread. Moscow and Latah County pioneer Clara Ransom Davis recalled seeing Indian women make flour from the roots. In a note written for the records of the Latah County Pioneer Association, Davis wrote, After the drying and curing was completed, the squaws rubbed off the husks of the camas and pounded the roots to a flour in stone jars. They could turn out a surprising amount of flour in a day. The flour was baked into flat pancakes and sometimes a bit of fine ashes was added by way of soda or baking powder.

More than the harvest of camas took place at Tatkinmah; it was also important as a location where the Native Americans traded goods and supplies and, after the introduction of the horse, formed intertribal groups to hunt buffalo on the Great Plains during the late summer. Long before the introduction of the horse, however, Tatkinmah was a significant site within the Nez Perce culture, an ancient culture that is over 10,000 years old. In fact, Nez Perce villages discovered along Idaho’s Snake River have been dated to 11,000 years ago. Besides the Snake River, the Nez Perce also lived in the canyons of the Clearwater and Salmon Rivers. The term Nez Perce is French in derivation. According to tribal accounts, a French-Canadian interpreter with the Lewis and Clark expedition named the tribe Nez Perce, or pierced nose, in 1805, even though nose piercing was not common among the tribe. The Nez Perce people call themselves Nimi’ipuu (noo-me-poo), which means the real people or we the people.

A Nez Perce woman pounds camas roots after they have been baking in the sun on a tule mat. This photo was taken either at the upper Clearwater River or at the South Fork of the Clearwater, c. 1890. (#ID 38-1062, Historical Photograph Collection, University of Idaho Library.)

A member of the Nez Perce tribe posed for this postcard wearing the full regalia representative of his tribe around 1900. (Courtesy LCHS.)

It is believed the horse reached the Nez Perce sometime between 1690 and the early 1700s, and the tribe soon became the most renowned horsemen among the native peoples of Idaho. One reason for their success as horsemen was the nature of their homeland. Its plateaus of grasslands and deep, protected valleys proved to be perfect country for raising horses, and the Nez Perce produced large numbers of fast horses with much endurance. By the nineteenth century, Nez Perce horses were famous throughout the western part of the nation and as far east as the Dakotas. The Nez Perce used selective breeding techniques to raise superior horses and were especially fond of spotted horses, which early fur traders called Nez Perce horses. We now call these spotted horses Appaloosas, an ancient breed that may have had its origins in the plains of eastern Asia.

The superiority of Nez Perce horses, which Meriwether Lewis once described in his journals as fat as seals, was due also to the high nutritional value of the grass upon which they fed. Before widespread farming of the Palouse, it was covered in vast grasslands, consisting mainly of a family of grasses we now call bunchgrass. Growing out of the fertile loessal soil, bunchgrass more than adequately met the nutritional requirements of horses and helps explain the large herds the Nez Perce were able to maintain.

Two of the first white men in the area, fur traders David Thompson and Alexander Ross, both commented on the great quantity of horses on the Palouse. In 1811, Thompson wrote, The country was literally covered with horses, of which there could not have been less than four thousand in sight of camp. In 1814, Alexander Ross described a gathering of Palouse Indians as having three thousand people and treble that number of horses.

In less than a century, the immense herds of horses were gone from the Palouse. Thomas B. Keith writes in his history of the use of horses on the Palouse, The Horse