Fort Fizzle is a wooden barricade on the Lolo Trail erected by
Missoula volunteers led by Captain Rawn to stop the advance of Chief Joseph during the Nez Perce War. Captain Rawn had clear orders. He said the Nez Perce could not pass. Nevertheless, the barricade failed when the Nez Perce, with their horses and possesions, climbed a steep ravine behind the ridge to the north and bypassed the soldiers. The manuever earned White Bird nickname of the "Indian Hannibal," after the Carthiginian general who led his elephants through the mountains in the Punic Wars against Rome. The previously unnamed barricade became ridiculed as "Fort Fizzle."
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