Located at the confluence of the Snake and Palouse rivers, Lyons Ferry was the dividing point for the Ice Age floods after they carved the Palouse River canyons more than 13,000 years ago.

 

From the confluence, the flood waters then went west into the Pasco Basin and east (upriver) to Lewiston, Idaho. The Lyons Ferry area was home to a Palouse (Palus) Indian village.

 

First written accounts of this village were documented by Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery while passing through the area in October of 1805.

 

Lyons Ferry was named for the ferry crossing that operated across the Snake River from 1860 until the late-1960s, when it was replaced by the existing bridge.

 

In the fall of 1914, near present day Lyons Ferry State Park, the first Union Pacific Railroad locomotive crossed the Snake River on one of the largest bridges along the entire transcontinental route.