Book signing for Ted Hall’s new book – “Lost Pass 1805” – to be held March 1st
Ted Hall’s new book, Lost Trail 1805 is a detailed “groundtruth based” look at the September 3rd and 4th, 1805 days of travel of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, when the Corps of Discovery crossed arguably the hardest part of the Rocky Mountains over “the worst roads that ever horses passed,” according to an original journal entry.
The author, Darby resident Ted Hall, previously published “The Trail Between the Rivers” in 2003 which chronicles the 1805 westward travel of the Corps of Discovery over the 407 miles of land between Camp Fortunate (near Dillon, Montana) and Canoe Camp (in Orofino, Idaho) where they went back to using watercraft on their journey to the Pacific.
In this book, at the urging of his publisher, Dale Burk of Stoneydale Press in Stevensville, and others, Hall zooms in on a special couple of days on the journey across what is today called Lost Trail Pass. When his first book was published in 2003, there were differing professional opinions about the exact route used by the Expedition in this area. Being an engineer and surveyor he had his own idea about the route that was taken and threw it into the mix. Now, after about a dozen years spent looking into it a bit further, his new book offers us a very convincing step by step tour along the “Divideing ridge” were we can pretty much for certain be walking in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
Although Hall wrote the book, it is quite telling that the “Acknowledgements,” which comes first and foremost in the book, is five pages long. It is truly a book that could not have been written without the help of a huge number of people, some living and some dead. Groundtruthing over 407 miles of mountainous terrain is not easy. Groundtruthing old surveys across Lost Trail Pass is perhaps the most difficult part of that.
This book gives us a peek into the difficulties involved.
But the book is not just about the tracks of Lewis and Clark and a couple of days in 1805. It is, as Hall puts it in the preface, “the story of the life and times of the Lost Pass region, since those first American citizens travelled there.”
Hall was able to pull together a great amount of help over the years and form a sort of “Corps of Re-Discovery” which, in their historical explorations, made some significant ones. For instance, the “discovery” of a little-known work by James West Gallogly. It turns out that Gallogly had done the same sort of groundtruthing on the Lewis and Clark route over the Bitterroots between 1895 and 1933 and had come to the same conclusion Hall laid out.
Publisher Dale Burk stated in his forward to the new book, “Ted Hall was not only able to document what James West Gallogly had done, but you’ll find within these pages an even more amazing story. Hall was able to track down and acquire much of Gallogly’s work, and photographs, and many are included in these pages. Had he not rescued it from obscurity, it’s likely that Gallogly’s work would have remained hidden forever.”
Hall and his “Corps of Re-Discovery” troops have not only laid bare the most probable route that the Corps of Discovery likely took over Lost Trail Pass, the effort has resulted in the acceptance of the trail into the Bitterroot National Forest system with signage.
In August of 2016, five volunteers from the National Smokejumpers Association cleared 2.75 miles of the descent trail located on the Bitterroot National Forest to enable public use of the trail and, as Burk put it, “Thus, we can all hike – you and me – that descent trail and walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and realize that the mystery and aura of the ‘lost Pass-1805’ is still with us.”
A Reveal and Premiere Autograph Party for Ted Hall’s new book, “Lost Pass 1805” is scheduled for Thursday, March 1, at the Ravalli County Museum, 205 Bedford Street, Hamilton, starting at 6 p.m.