Note 238 — LETTER XI

Clark's River (or more exactly, Clark's Fork of Columbia) was named by the explorers Lewis and Clark September 6, 1805, upon reaching the upper forks of its tributary the Bitterroot. It takes the name of Missoula from the junction of Bitterroot and Hell Gate rivers, but becomes distinctly Clark's Fork after receiving its great tributary from the northeast, the Flathead River. Its general course is north from the southern border of Montana, until turning slightly northwest it crosses into Idaho and broadens out into Pend d'Oreille Lake, running thence in a northwest course until it empties into the Columbia just on the boundary line between Washington and British Columbia. The bands referred to as "Clarke River" tribes are chiefly of Salishan stock—the Flatheads, Cœur d'Alène, and Pend d'Oreille.—Ed.