In 1871, the first white settlers came to the area, crossing the mountains in search of livestock feed in the Wallowa Valley.
 The county was established on February 11, 1887, from the eastern portion of Union County. Boundary changes occurred
 with Union County in 1890, 1900, and 1915. Chief Joseph, 1877

 In 1877, the younger Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, incensed at the government's attempt to remove his people from the
 Wallowa Valley,  refused to relocate to the reservation in north central Idaho. Several regiments of U.S. Army cavalry troops
 were dispatched to force them onto the reservation. After numerous battles and a journey of almost two thousand miles
 (3,200 km), the Nez Perce fought their last battle at Bear Paw, just shy of the Canadian border, when Joseph and the other
 chiefs decided to stop fighting. He and some of the surviving Nez Perce were held in prison camps in Kansas and Oklahoma,
 and those who survived that were relocated to Colville Reservation in northeast Washington. Approximately half of the
 survivors moved to the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph last visited Wallowa County in 1902, and died two
 years later.