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Spalding

Spalding

Spalding, Idaho
Region: Lewis Clark Valley in North Central Idaho
County: Nez Perce
Location: Near the junction of Hwy 95 & Hwy 12 - Northwest Passage Scenic Byway

Spalding is an unincorporated village in Nez Perce County ten miles east of Lewiston, on the Clearwater River close to the intersection of U.S. Routes 95 and 12. The village was named after Reverend Henry Harmon Spalding, a missionary who taught the Nez Perce Tribe. Henry Harmon Spalding (1803–1874), and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) were prominent Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow missionaries were among the earliest Americans to travel across the western plains, through the Rocky Mountains and into the lands of the Pacific Northwest to their religious missions in what would become the states of Idaho and Washington. Their missionary party of five, including Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa and William H. Gray, joined with a group of fur traders to create the first wagon train along the Oregon Trail.

Today Spalding is the headquarters and Visitor's Center for the Nez Perce National Historical Park.

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