Lenore is an unincorporated community in Nez Perce County on the north bank of the Clearwater River about 12 miles west of Orofino. It is at elevation 932 feet.

The three major buildings are a grain elevator, community center and a post office. The bridge that goes across the Clearwater River from U.S. Highway 12 to most of the community was built in 1935 and rehabilitated in 1965, It us described as a Warren pony truss and deck plate.

Nearby is the Lenore Rest Area that is sometimes called "Big Eddy" because of a large eddy (backwater swirl) in Clearwater River. Archeological digs due to the highway construction have shown that Lenore was continuously inhabited by the Nez Perce Indians for 8,300 years (www.nps.gov/nepe)

Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery made one of their camps at what is now Lenore and decided to lighten their load by caching some of their gunpowder which was buried a short distance from the Clearwater River.

During the early 1900s, it was the terminus for the terminus for the largest grain tramway on the river, according to Clearwater Country: A Traveler's Historical and Recreational Guide. Sixty-five steel buckets traveled from Summit on the southern rim of the canyon to the railroad tracks across the river. The buckets were hooked together by moving cable strung between more than a dozen wooden towers down the ridge.

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