CRAIG DONATION LAND CLAIM At a pullout on the west side of U.S. Highway 95, about 8 miles south of Lapwai, Idaho, interpretive signs identify the area of the Craig Donation Land Claim as the first place in Idaho where a white settler obtained title to a farm through the Oregon Donation Land Act. William Craig, a mountain man, interpreter, a friend of the Nez Perce and husband of a Nez Perce woman, was the only white person to have official permission from the Nez Perce to live on the reservation. "A bluff jolly good fellow," William Craig joined the Rocky Mountain fur trade in 1829, married a Nez Perce woman in 1838 and settled with the Lapwai band in 1840. In 1850, the Oregon Donation Land Act gave free farms to pioneers who had come to the Oregon Territory. Craig had the only eligible farm in Idaho (then part of Oregon) and filed a 640-acre claim here. When the Nez Perce reservation was set up, the Nez Perce trusted Craig and let him keep his farm.

	State: Idaho Unit: Spalding