CONFLUENCE OVERLOOK (Formerly known as DONALD MACKENZIE'S PACIFIC FUR COMPANY TRADING POST) The site now known as the Confluence Overlook is interpreted at a highway pullout over looking the confluence and valleys of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The pullout is about 8 miles north of Lewiston, Idaho, on the Lewiston Grade of U.S. Highway 95. The scene is dominated by a rolling grassy foreground that slopes steeply down to the Clearwater River, more than a thousand feet below. A sense of the confluence area and the scale of the surrounding uplands -- part of the Nez Perce homeland -- can be gained from this vantage point. The actual site of MacKenzie's post is on the Clearwater River, about 5 miles above Lewiston, but is not visible from here. The fur trading post proved unsuccessful because the Nez Perce wanted to trade food and horses but were unwilling to engage in trapping beaver. Early in September 1812, Donald Mackenzie set up a fur trade post near here for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. Disappointed to find that beaver were unavailable in this area, he built only a store and two houses out of driftwood. Then, the War of 1812 and Indian trouble tangled his plans. In May 1813, he abandoned this site, since Astor's venture had failed and was about to be sold to the North West Company of Montreal. "Perpetual Motion" Mackenzie, who once had been a "Nor'Wester," rejoined the Canadians in 1816 and finally organized the Snake country fur trade.

	State: Idaho Unit: Spalding