Lewiston’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Lewiston. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In August 1860, Elias D. Pierce snuck onto the Nez Perce reservation disguised as an itinerant trader and found gold there. Thousands trespassed into the reservation in search of the gold, and the illegal white encampment of Lewiston was founded in 1861 on the sovereign territory of the Nez Perce. The settlement is believed to have been named after Meriwether Lewis, who camped at the site in October 1805. In local lore, it is claimed that the Nez Pierce word for the area was "Tsceminicum." The Oregon Steam Navigation Company was founded to ferry gold prospectors to the squatter camp and blithely ignored orders from the Nez Perce and U.S. military authorities to cease operations.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Lewiston’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lewiston’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewOSN advertisement, c. 1878: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Lewiston
See all 25 →
Lewiston, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as OSN advertisement (c. 1878) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (4) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.