spalding's mission

Location of Idaho historical marker:  U.S. 12 – Milepost 12.2

 

Marcus Whitman and Henry Harmon Spalding led Presbyterian missionaries west in 1836 to answer a Nez Perce call for teachers.

 


 

 

remains of spalding's missionSpalding began his mission and school nearby, but moved here in 1838.  Believing in secular as well as religious teaching, he taught the Indians farming, brought in the Northwest's first printing press, and built flour and sawmills.  But hostility slowly developed, and Spalding left after the Whitman massacre at Walla Walla in 1847.  He returned with the gold rush to labor among his converts until his death in 1874.  His grave is nearby.