Fort Lapwai
{{Short description|Historic fortification of the American Civil War in Idaho}}
File:Fort-lapwai-lapwai-idaho-april-2011-roger-peterson (5688477278).jpg
{{Location map|Idaho|label=Fort Lapwai|marksize=7|mark=Red_pog.svg|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=46|lat_min=27|lat_sec=00|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=116|lon_min=49|lon_sec=03|position=right|width=225|float=right|caption=Fort Lapwai in north central Idaho}}
Fort Lapwai (1862–1884) was a federal fort in present-day Lapwai in north central Idaho, United States. On the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Nez Perce County, it was originally called Camp Lapwai until 1863. East of Lewiston, it was located on the west bank of Lapwai Creek, three miles (5 km) above where it joins the Clearwater River at the state's first settlement, Lapwai Mission Station (now Spalding), built in 1836 by Henry Spalding.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V_tLAAAAIBAJ&pg=6659,2923869|newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle|title=Once early-day fort, Lapwai Indians' home |last=Ruark |first=Janice|date=November 25, 1977|page=3}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=R7JfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4865,5285065|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|last=Wilson|first=Darol|title=Lapwai became village -- 60 years ago today|date=January 30, 1971|page=6}} It is part of the multi-site Nez Perce National Historical Park. The word "Lapwai" means place of the butterflies, as the area had thousands in early summer in earlier years.
History
Camp Lapwai was established by Major Jacob S. Rinearson, 1st Oregon Cavalry by order of Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord. The post was established to prevent both the increasing numbers of white settlers from attempting to encroach on Nez Perce lands and the Nez Perce from retaliating.{{cite news|url=http://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0063.pdf|publisher=Idaho State Historical Society, Reference Series #63|title=Idaho military posts and camps|date=May 1971|accessdate=December 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203140616/http://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0063.pdf|archive-date=February 3, 2013|url-status=dead}} Company E 1st Regiment Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry recently mustered in at Alcatraz, were ordered on October 19, 1862, to Camp Lapwai near the Nez Perce Agency, where they were to build the encampment.[https://books.google.com/books?id=dQEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_0#PPA186,M1 District of Oregon, Special Order No 76] Company "F", 1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment joined them at the post in November 1862. It was renamed Fort Lapwai in 1863, in what would become bounds of the Idaho Territory when it was created in March.
It was briefly unoccupied in 1866 at the end of the Civil War, when the Volunteer regiments were disbanded and before sufficient Federal troops were available to garrison it. Reoccupied again that November it was only unoccupied again between July and November 1867. It was finally decommissioned on June 5, 1884, and turned over to the Indian Service.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GNSjwUnkmoC&q=%22Camp+Lapwai%22&pg=PA45|first=Robert W.|last=Frazer|title=Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios and Posts Commonly Called Forts West of the Mississippi River to 1898|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1975|page=45|isbn=9780806112503}}
The Northern Idaho Indian Agency moved to the site in 1904 and several original structures remain.[http://www.fs.fed.us/npnht/tour/lapwai.shtml Fort Lapwai 1862-1885, photos] A tuberculosis sanatorium (and preventorium) was established at the fort site in 1907{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZJdfAAAAIBAJ&pg=1929,2393916|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|title=Indian children find health and happiness at old Fort Lapwai tuberculosis sanatorium|date=February 7, 1937|page=1}} and operated until 1944.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kShmAAAAIBAJ&pg=1391,6842862|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|title=Indian office rejects Lapwai school project|date= December 24, 1946|page=3 }} The village of Lapwai was incorporated in 1911,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F5JfAAAAIBAJ&pg=3900,1935481|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|title=Lapwai growing|date=October 29, 1911|page=10}} with a model rural school.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aZJfAAAAIBAJ&pg=6202,2416968|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|title=Historic Fort Lapwai now site of model rural school|date=April 21, 1912|page=9}}
Garrisons
- Company E, 1st Regiment Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry October, 1862 - October, 1864
- Company "F", 1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, November, 1862 - May, 1865.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Fort Lapwai}}
- [https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/fort-lapwai.htm National Park Service] - Fort Lapwai
- [http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/geog/forts/text/lapwai.htm Idaho Museum of Natural History] - Fort Lapwai
- [http://cityoflapwai.com/history/ City of Lapwai] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713105227/http://cityoflapwai.com/history/ |date=2011-07-13 }} - history
- [http://lewis-clark-trail.us/179/Fort+Lapwai.html Lewis Clark Trail] - Fort Lapwai
- [http://sfcompanion.blogspot.com/2012/07/army-establishes-fort-lapwai-on-nez.html South Fork Companion] - Army establishes Fort Lapwai on the Nez Percé Indian Reservation
- [https://archive.today/20130106122150/http://contentdm.lib.uidaho.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/cities&CISOBOX1=Lapwai University of Idaho Library] - digital archives - Lapwai
- [http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOFIELD1=title&CISOROOT=all&CISOBOX1=Lapwai University of Washington Libraries] - digital archives - Lapwai
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Category:Washington (state) in the American Civil War
Category:Idaho in the American Civil War
Category:Former installations of the United States Army
Category:Buildings and structures in Nez Perce County, Idaho
Category:Nez Perce National Historical Park