Mussellshell Meadow has been a place the Nez Perce Tribe members have gone to gather camas for centuries. The area is important to their culture both historically and as a place to get the camas root that was an important part of their diet.

The meadow, nestled at the edge of the Bitterroot Mountains, is also where the Nez Perce went during the War of 1877 before crossing the mountains as they fled from the troops of General O.O. Howard. The Nez Perce National Historic Trail begins there and people still hike it.

In later years it was part of the Bitterroot Forest Preserve and then the Clearwater National Forest. It also, at different points in time had a trapper's homestead, gold mining and a lumber mill.

Today, it is SIte #22 of the Nez Perce National Historical Park and offers hiking, wildlife viewing, an all-terrain-vehicle or motorcycle loop that begins there. One of the important ways people can help to preserve the native plants of the area is to use the boot brush at the beginning of the trail to make sure that invasive seeds do not travel with them.

The wet meadow habitat is surrounded by forest and Musselshell Creek which runs through it is bordered by willows. There is a wide variety of wildlife such as deer, moose, elk, wolf, geese, ducks and etc. that frequent the area.

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