Signs mark area's historical trail

Linda Haywood broke ground on her Road to the Buffalo sign project with two out of the three locations getting their signs installed August 3. A double-sign was installed at the pull-off right before you cross the bridge to enter Noxon. There were some minor complications at the Noxon site coming from large rocks getting in the way of the post-hole auger. The sign at the Weeksville pull-off had a much smoother installation drilling into the softer dirt, which was good news with the rising temperatures of the sunny day.

Haywood said she felt a sense of "relief" after the two signs were installed, "knowing that the project is nearing an end." The Road to the Buffalo project has been in the works for a little over eight years, starting with the application to the Montana Department of Transportation for a CTEP (Community Transportation Enhancement Program) in 2010 to acquire grant funds for the instillation of interoperative signs to mark the route through Sanders County.

Haywood believes that "there is an amazing history in this county and it is not taught in the textbooks. For example, how many know that this part of Montana was once under claim by the British. Or that groups of Indians once travelled through here in the hundreds on their way to and from to the buffalo hunting grounds near the headwaters of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers."

There have been numerous people who have helped on the Road to the Buffalo project beginning with the Sanders County Commissioners and the Kootenai Culture Committee who were initially involved with getting the highway marked.

Later the Women for a Better Sanders County (WBSC) and the Noxon Senior Citizens (NCSI) conducted a fund raiser to generate funds and applied for and received a grant from the Montana Office of Tourism for the interpretive signs. The NSCI are the grant-fund managers and the WBSC have been responsible for obtaining the necessary permits from MDT to install the signs.  There was also a sign committee responsible for each sign's content, design, and layout. Ed Moreth, of Plains, lent his artistic talents, offering original artwork to accompany the information on the Weeksville sign.

When asked what the most rewarding aspect of the project has been, Haywood answered, "finding the original trail, those u-shape ruts, and knowing who some of the individuals were who walked over that ground.  Men like David Thompson, perhaps the world's greatest cartographer, and the Jesuit missionary Farther De Smet to name a couple. Learning about the hardships faced by those early travelers from their journals, in which they often described conditions of near starvation, or at others being in peril of their lives."

Casey Steinke, who owns and operates Top Sign & Graphics in Helena, installed the signs with his brother Chase. The Thompson Falls sign is expected to be installed later this month at the pull-off next to the David Thompson monument sign, located along Highway 200, east of Thompson Falls. There will also be a small commencement ceremony to close the project after the final sign is installed.