Fort Lemhi

Fort Lemhi was a Mormon settlement from 1855 to 1858 located approximately two miles (3 km) north of present-day Tendoy, Idaho and served as the base of operations for the Salmon River Mission. The mission was initially created as part of a larger effort to proselyte to Native Americans throughout western North America, however the fort eventually became a critical piece of Brigham Young's strategy in the Utah War. The surprise attack on Fort Lemhi in 1858 was the catalyst for bringing the Utah War to a resolution.

Formation
Approximately twenty-seven Mormon men left the Salt Lake Valley on May 18, 1855 to form the Salmon River Mission as instructed by Brigham Young. Thomas S. Smith led the group and George Washington Hill served as their main Shoshonean language interpreter. The party reached the Salmon River valley (then in Oregon Territory) on May 27 and selected a permanent site for its mission on June 15, 1855 on land used by Bannock, Shoshone, Nez Perce and Flathead peoples.

The community grew to over 200 people. The settlers brought stock raising and irrigated farming to the region, and dug ditches which are still in use. At least three of the Mormon missionaries at Fort Lemhi married Shoshone women.

Name
The the mission was named Fort Limhi for King Limhi, a king in the Book of Mormon. In Mormon scripture, King Limhi organized an expedition that lasted 22 days, the same duration it required the Mormon missionaries to reach the Salmon River. Consequently, they named their mission after King Limhi, and Limhi eventually became "Lemhi." Over time the surrounding valley, mountains, pass, a branch of the river, county, and Native Americans took on the name "Lemhi."

Significance during the Utah War
Gaining Native American allies was a key part of Brigham Young's strategy to maintain independence from the United States. Brigham Young and other church leaders taught that by accepting baptism and intermarriage with Mormons, Native Americans would fulfill a Book of Mormon prophecy that Lamanites would return to the House of Israel. While it is no longer a core tenant of the Latter-day faith, at the time leaders taught that "the time had arrived when all the wicked should be destroyed from the face of the earth, and that the Indians would be the principal means by which this object should be accomplished." Fort Lemhi was particularly significant to Brigham Young's war strategy, as it would be a waystation in case of a northern evacuation from Utah.

Visit from Brigham Young
Brigham Young visited Fort Lemhi in spring of 1857. He was pleased with the growth of the mission and friendly relations he felt the colonizers had with the local Native American tribes. As tensions between the US government and the Utah territory increased, Young made a contingency plan to evacuate his followers north via Fort Lemhi.

Attack on Fort Lemhi
Native tribes became less friendly with the settlers as they awaited the outcome of the impending Utah War and more colonists arrived to the fort and competed for resources. The settlers also interfered in a Bannock, Shoshone, and Nez Perce tribal dispute over horses, though they were largely ignorant of their complex relationships.

On February 25, 1858, Bannock Chief Le Grand Coquin and mountaineer John W. Powell led 250 Bannock and Shoshone warriors in a surprise attack on Fort Lemhi. They killed two Mormon settlers, wounded five, and forced the remaining 69 colonists to retreat to the log fort. They also captured over 200 cattle and 30 horses. In March, after a rescue effort made by Lehi militia members, the colonizers abandoned the fort and returned to Utah.

This attack took Brigham Young by surprise and frustrated his plans to evacuate his followers north. With nowhere to go, he began peacemaking efforts with the U.S. government.

Reoccupation
Fort Lemhi was reoccupied in 1862 by miners, who grew vegetables there for sale.

The name Lemhi became applied to the Lemhi River and valley surrounding the mission site, as well as to the Lemhi Shoshone whom the mission served, the Lemhi Pass and eventually Lemhi County.

The site is on the National Register of Historic Places.