Trail History of Seeley Lake - First Generation Trails

SEELEY LAKE - This spot in God’s Country has always been a cross roads of trails. The Ancient Indian trail up the Blackfoot River (known as Cokahlarishkit, as Lewis rendered it, or “the River of the Road to Buffaloe,” better transcribed as Qoq’áax ‘í skit and translated as “buffalo road”) was the “Interstate Highway” serving travelers from today’s Idaho and Bitterroot/Clark Fork valleys. “Business” loops went to various hunting-gathering sites along the way.

Here in what is now Seeley Lake, ancient trails went four directions before being “discovered” by explorers. The Jocko Trail came from th...