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Introduction
Essay on Earlier Explorations
Essay on American Indians
Essay on Preparing for the Journey
Essay on the Journey
Essay on Scientific Encounters
Essay on the Trail Today
List of Sites
Chronological List of Sites
Begin the Tour
Introduction
The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places,
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and Lewis and Clark National
Historic Trail, in conjunction with the National Conference
of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), proudly invite
you to discover the historic places of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. This expedition, which took place between 1804
and 1806, has been described as the greatest camping trip of
all time, a voyage of high adventure, an exercise in manifest
destiny which carried the American flag overland to the Pacific.
It was all of this and more. This travel itinerary highlights
41 historic places listed in the National Register of Historic
Places and associated with Lewis and Clark. Many of these places
are also part of the National Park Service's Lewis and Clark
National Historic Trail.
Lewis and Clark traveled more than 8,000 miles in less than
two and one-half years, losing only one member of their party,
at a total cost to the American taxpayer of $40,000. The significance
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was far reaching. It strengthened
the United State's position in the struggle for control of North
America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark's
trek also inspired explorers, trappers, traders, hunters, adventurers,
prospectors, homesteaders, ranchers, soldiers, businessman and
missionaries to move westward--spurring a century of rapid settlement
which peopled the West with European-Americans and disrupted
the cultures and lifestyles of countless American Indians. Lewis
and Clark contributed to geographical knowledge by determining
the true course of the Upper Missouri River and its major tributaries
while William Clark produced maps of tremendous value to later
explorers. They forever destroyed the dream of a Northwest Passage
(a water route across the continent), but proved the success
of overland travel to the Pacific. They made the first attempt
at a systematic record of the meteorology of the West, and less
successfully attempted to determine the latitude and longitude
of significant geographical points. Through the Expedition's
peaceful cooperation with the American Indian tribes they met,
they compiled the first general survey of life and material
culture of the tribes of the Missouri, Rocky Mountains and the
Northwest coast. Lewis and Clark also made significant additions
to the zoological and botanical knowledge of the continent,
describing at least 120 mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, as
well as almost 200 plant specimens. By any measure of scientific
exploration, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was phenomenally
successful in terms of accomplishing its stated goals, expanding
human knowledge and spurring further curiosity and wonder about
the vast American West.
The expedition began on May 21, 1804, when the Corps of Discovery
departed from St. Charles, Missouri, an event
now commemorated by the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial. The party crossed the Mississippi River, and headed
up the Missouri. The Corps tried to maintain a pace of 14 to
20 miles a day, resting at places such as Fort
Atkinson and Spirit Mound. They reached
what is now North Dakota by October of 1804, and set up a winter
camp, Fort Mandan, amidst the Knife River Indian
Villages. It was here that a young Shoshone woman named
Sacagawea, who proved to be an invaluable interpreter for the
explorers, joined the Expedition with her husband and infant
son. In the spring, the Corps of Discovery pushed westward through
Montana country until they encountered the Great
Falls of the Missouri, where they had to carry their boats
over land for almost 20 miles. By mid-September, they were climbing
the arduous Lolo Trail through the Bitterroot
Mountains to Weippe Prairie, where they arrived
exhausted, starving and much in need of the assistance offered
by the friendly Nez Perce Indians. The Corps
continued onward down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers
and finally reached the Pacific Ocean in mid-November 1805.
At the mouth of the Columbia, they built Fort
Clatsop, and settled into winter quarters. They began the
return trip March 23, 1806, and stayed again with the Nez Perce
waiting for the winter snows to melt on the Lolo Trail. After
stopping at Traveler's Rest, Lewis and Clark
split the men into two groups in order to explore more of the
territory. Lewis and three of the men headed north to explore
the Marias River, during which the expedition suffered its only
hostile encounter with American Indians at Two
Medicine Fight Site. Clark's group generally retraced the
outbound route to the Three Forks of the Missouri
and then overland to the Yellowstone River, which they followed
to its juncture with the Missouri River, where both groups reunited
on August 12th. The explorers finally returned to St. Charles
on September 23, 1806, and were greeted with much fanfare.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition offers several ways to
discover the places that tell the story of the Corps of Discovery.
Each highlighted site features a brief description of the place's
historic significance, color photographs, and public accessibility
information. At the bottom of each page the visitor will find
a navigation bar containing links to six essays that explain
more about Earlier Explorations,
Preparing for the Journey, The
Journey, American Indians, Scientific
Encounters and The Trail Today.
These essays provide historic background, or "contexts," for
the places included in the itinerary. In the Learn
More section, the itinerary links to regional and local
web sites that provide visitors with information regarding special
activities and cultural events taking place during the bicentennial
celebration of the Expedition, as well as lodging and dining
possibilities. The itinerary can be viewed online, or printed
out if you plan to visit any of the places in this Lewis and
Clark travel itinerary in person.
Created through a partnership between the National Park Service's
National Register of Historic Places, Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and NCSHPO,
the Lewis and Clark Expedition is the latest example
of a new and exciting cooperative project. As part of the Department
of the Interior's strategy to promote public awareness of history
and encourage tourists to visit historic places throughout the
nation, the National Register of Historic Places is cooperating
with communities, regions, and Heritage Areas throughout the
United States to create online travel itineraries. Using places
nominated by State, Federal and Tribal Historic Preservation
Offices and listed in the National Register of Historic Places,
the itineraries help potential visitors plan their next trip
by highlighting the amazing diversity of this country's historic
places and supplying accessibility information for each featured
site. The Lewis and Clark Expedition is the 26th National
Register travel itinerary successfully created through such
partnerships. Additional itineraries will debut online in the
future. The National Register of Historic Places hopes you enjoy
this virtual travel itinerary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
If you have any comments or questions, please just click on
the provided e-mail address, "comments or questions" located
at the bottom of each page.
A Special Note about the Journal
Citations:
Excerpts from the original journals of Lewis and Clark are included
throughout the text of this itinerary. Sources for these journal
excerpts are noted in parantheses directly after the citations.
The full citation for these sources are found in the Bibliography
on our Learn More page. Visitors may
be interested in Historic
Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, located near the places featured in this itinerary.
Earlier
Explorations
Lewis and Clark followed in the spirit, if not the footsteps,
of earlier European explorers. The expeditions of Coronado,
La Salle, Lewis and Clark, and John C. Frémont brought back
invaluable knowledge of North America's geographic features,
flora and fauna, and inhabitants--the American Indians who were
the continent's first discoverers and explorers. The Coronado
and De Soto expeditions of the Spanish and the French explorations
under La Salle, as well as the voyages and expeditions of other
European explorers across North America, set the precedent for
Lewis and Clark.
First Discoverers: The American Indians were the first
discoverers and explorers of the North American continent. Although
the most recent evidence points to an American Indian presence
more than 13,000 years ago, the date of their initial exploration
of North America remains unknown. Crossing a land bridge, which
linked Alaska to Siberia during the Ice Age, they spread out
from northern Alaska, settled across the North American landmass,
and eventually made their way to the furthermost tip of South
America. The original inhabitants of North America were familiar
with the great rivers and trade routes later used by the European
colonists. Often acting as guides to the European explorers,
the American Indians taught the newcomers how to cultivate native
crops, find hunting grounds and water sources, and explore lands
beyond the European colonial horizon. Spain, following Columbus's
1492 discoveries in the Caribbean, was the first European nation
to establish permanent colonies in North America. The journeys
of Juan Ponce de Leon, the first Spaniard to reach the shores
of Florida in 1513 and again in 1521, and the disastrous 1528
Florida expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, were important in
expanding Spanish knowledge of the North American continent
above Mexico. It was the discoveries of the Coronado and De
Soto expeditions, however, which first mapped most of the present
southwestern and southeastern United States.
The Coronado Expedition: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
(1510-1554) remains the most famous Spanish explorer of the
American Southwest. Born in Salamanca, Spain, the second son
of an aristocrat, Coronado arrived in Mexico in 1535 seeking
his fortune. By 1538 he was appointed governor of the frontier
province of Nuevo Galicia. On orders from the Spanish Viceroy
in Mexico City, Coronado outfitted an elaborate expedition. Coronado's
force consisted of 225 mounted cavaliers, 62 foot soldiers, 800
American Indian allies and 1,000 African and American Indian slaves.
Their goal was to find the rumored riches of the "Seven Cities
of Cíbola". Fray Marcos, a Spanish friar, had visited just south
of the pueblo region in 1539 and declared that Cíbola was "a land
rich in gold, silver and other wealth." On February 23, 1540,
the Coronado party left Compostela in western Mexico and moved
north, roughly following the Pacific Coast before exploring the
modern day Mexican regions of Sinaloa and Sonora. Part of Coronado's
expedition, under Hernando de Alarcón, ascended the Gulf of California
in three ships and explored the regions of the lower Colorado
River, reaching the modern-day border of southern California and
Arizona.
Twenty-one miles south of Sierra Vista, in the San Pedro Valley,
historians believe Coronado entered the present United States,
where the Coronado
National Memorial, administered by the National Park Service,
stands today. Entering the Zuni territory of western Arizona
and eastern New Mexico, Coronado's party entered the fabled
country of Cíbola on July 7, 1540. The pueblos, while impressive,
were not the golden cities of Friar Marcos's account.
Coronado occupied the pueblo of Háwiku, making it his headquarters
until November 1540, from which he sent out smaller exploring
parties. He sent Don Pedro de Tovar to northeastern Arizona, to
explore the Hopi villages. In August 1540, García López de Cárdenes,
Coronado's right hand man, was sent to investigate reports of
a river in the West. Cárdenes and 25 Spanish horsemen arrived
after 80 days at the Grand
Canyon in northern Arizona, becoming the first Europeans to
view one of the most spectacular scenes of natural beauty in the
American West. Cárdenes and his company were also the first Europeans
to attempt to descend the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River,
but they were unsuccessful.
American Indian visitors from the pueblo of Cicuye (Pecos
Pueblo in Eastern New Mexico) presented Coronado with hides
of a strange "humpbacked cow," which were buffalo hides from
the plains. Coronado in turn sent Hernando de Alvarado with
20 men to explore the new region about Cicuye and the upper
Río Grande. Near the modern town of Pecos, Texas, at
the American Indian settlement of Cicúique, Alvarado's party
was presented with two captive American Indians. One, whom the
Spanish named "the Turk," convinced the explorers to turn northeast
towards a region named Quivira, which he claimed was rich in
gold and silver. On April 23, 1541, Coronado left Tiguex on
the Río Grande with a force totaling 1,500, including
Indian allies and servants. Reaching the plains, they encountered
great herds of buffalo and made peaceful contact with the Apache
nation. Crossing the Canadian River west of the modern New Mexico-Texas
line, the party traversed the Texas Panhandle.
On June 29, 1541, they found the Quivira country, occupied by
a native people--probably Wichita Indians. The Quivira villages
were composed of scattered round grass lodges, and were not the
golden cities the Spanish came searching for. The explorers became
exasperated, and in a Quivira village in the vicinity of modern
day Lyons, Kansas, the Turk was ordered hung. Although Kansas,
abundant in wildlife, reminded the men of Spain, the disappointed
Spanish turned back, returning by a new route through the Oklahoma
and Texas Panhandles.
The majority of his men desired to return to Mexico and in
1542 the Coronado expedition headed home. Coronado returned
to Mexico City with about a hundred men of his mostly disbanded
expedition. Coronado and his party were the first Europeans
and Africans to observe the Zuni and Hopi pueblos, Colorado
River, Grand Canyon, and the Gila River. This expedition was
also the first to establish a winter camp on the banks of the
Río Grande, hunt buffalo on the plains, and explore the
North American interior as far as modern day Kansas.
The De Soto Expedition: Hernando De Soto (1500-1542)
was a captain under Francisco Pizarro, and made a fortune during
the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. De Soto's expedition
into the Southeastern United States began from Cuba. The site
of De Soto's landing in Florida in May 1539 is disputed between
Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and San Carlos Bay. De Soto, leading
600 men, marched north up the Florida peninsula, finding winter
quarters at the American Indian town of Apalache, near the modern
city of Tallahassee, Florida. In March 1540 De Soto headed north
across Georgia, before going up the Savannah River. Here De
Soto encountered the Cherokees, visiting their town Xualla in
the region of the North Carolina-South Carolina border before
crossing the mountains into eastern Tennessee. Turning south
into Alabama, by October 1540, De Soto reached Mavila (today
Mobile, Alabama), where the ancestors of the Creek Nation resisted
the Spanish. In the encounter De Soto's force took the town
of Mavila, but the Spanish lost 18 men and 12 horses, while
150 of the Spanish force received wounds, among them De Soto
himself. Hearing of riches, on November 17 he turned north,
and set up winter quarters at a Chickasaw settlement in northern
Mississippi. By March, the Chickasaw were at war with De Soto's
party, and destroyed most of the expedition's supplies.
In April 1541, on the move again, De Soto and his company stood
on the east bank of the Mississippi, becoming the first Europeans
to encounter the great river. It was in June when he and his men
crossed the Mississippi and passed through central and south Arkansas,
searching for gold. They reached as far north as the village of
Coluca, in northeastern Arkansas, before traveling to the mouth
of the Arkansas River. From there, the Spanish followed the Arkansas
River upstream until they reached near modern-day Little Rock.
De Soto and his party next journeyed west to Tula, near Caddo
Gap, before finding winter quarters on the Ouachita River in southern
Arkansas. The next spring, resolving to go to the Gulf of Mexico
and send for reinforcements, De Soto's party headed south, now
with about 300 efficient fighting men. Near the mouth of the Red
River in Louisiana, on May 21, 1542, De Soto died from a fever
and was buried in the Mississippi River. The remainder of the
expedition returned to Mexico.
Today the National Park Service maintains the De
Soto National Memorial in Bradenton, Florida, which commemorates
the 1539 De Soto expedition. The legacy of the Coronado and De
Soto expeditions, according to the historian Herbert Bolton in
Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plain, "made known to the
world in broad outline nearly a third of the area now contained
in the United States, and in several important respects had changed
current ideas regarding the entire land mass of North America
and its geographical relation to the rest of the globe."
French Explorations: The French entered the race for
the Americas in 1534 when King Francis I sent Jacques Cartier
on a voyage of discovery across the Atlantic Ocean. Cartier
first explored Newfoundland before sailing up the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. The following year he continued exploring the St.
Lawrence as far as present-day Montreal. For the next half-century
French fishermen arrived in such numbers around the waters of
Newfoundland that they secured French claims to modern-day eastern
Canada. It was the fur trade and the wealth it generated that
caused King Henry IV, who reigned from 1589 to 1610, to secure
the area for France. Samuel de Champlain traversed much of the
new territory, establishing Quebec in 1608 and exploring the
waterways and paths around Lake Champlain, Lake Huron and the
eastern end of Lake Ontario from 1609-15. In 1663 The French
King Louis XIV created a royal province out of New France and
sent as its administrator Jean Talon, a man of great ability.
Talon sent Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet (1645-1700),
a native-born Canadian fur trader, to explore the Mississippi
River, which they entered on June 17, 1673. Marquette and Jolliet
reached as far as the mouth of the Arkansas River before turning
back.
When they returned to Quebec in 1674 René Robert Cavelier, also
known as Sieur de La Salle, listened to the tales of their adventures
with great attention. La Salle envisioned creating a series of
trading forts down the Mississippi that would prevent the Atlantic
English colonies from expanding westward. In February 1682, La
Salle and his party entered the Mississippi from the Illinois
River, and by April they entered the Gulf of Mexico, having successfully
navigated the great river. Returning to France, he received permission
to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, and with
four ships he embarked across the Atlantic, but landed instead
at Matagorda Bay, in Texas. It was in eastern Texas where mutinous
followers murdered him in 1687. La Salle's vision became a reality
when New Orleans was established in 1718, and the French forts
along the Mississippi River basin were created to secure the alliances
of the local inhabitants.
Other Explorations: Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator
sailing in the service of Russia, set out on a great expedition
in 1741, and with Aleksei Chirikov, successfully mapped the
western coast of Alaska, claiming the land for the Czars. Later
the Russians would reach as far as northern California, when,
in 1812, Russian fur traders established Fort Ross on Bodega
Bay, to the north of San Francisco. England's exploration of
North America began when Genovese navigator John Cabot explored
the seas around Newfoundland in 1497. The successful English
colonization of North America started with the founding of Jamestown
in 1607. The Dutch and the Swedes competed with England for
control of the Hudson and Delaware River valleys, with the Dutch
exploring much of modern New York State from the 1620s until
the English conquered their North American holdings in 1664.
The Dutch had earlier seized the Swedish possessions.
The English exploration of the North American interior was
slow and cautious. Captain Abraham Wood, in 1650, explored the
forks of the Roanoke River in Virginia. James Neeham and Gabriel
Arthur reached the Yadkin River and found a pass through the
Carolina Blue Ridge in 1673. It was the English fur traders
who pushed west into the Shenandoah Valley in the 1680s. By
the following decade they were on the banks of the Ohio River,
in disputed territory claimed by France. After the American
Revolution, British and British Canadian explorers continued
to map the North American continent. Captain George Vancouver
was an English explorer whose ships reached the Strait of Juan
de Fuca in May 1792. He explored the region about modern-day
Seattle, naming Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier, Whidbey Island, and
the Hood Canal. David Thompson explored western North America
from 1797 to 1812, including much of the western United States
(including the Columbia River) and Canada, and mapped the region.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage Meriwether
Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996.
Billington, Ray Allen, with James Blaine Hedges.
Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949.
Lamar, Howard R. (editor). The New Encyclopedia
of the American West. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998. (Especially helpful were the articles by Richard A. Bartlett
on Coronado and De Soto, Homer E. Socolofsky's article on Colonial
Wars, Odie B. Faulk's article on Texas, John L. Loos' article
on the Lewis and Clark Expedition).
Milner II, Clyde A., Carol A. O'Connor, Martha
A. Sandweiss (editors). The Oxford History of the American
West. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994.
National Park Service. Coronado National
Memorial Arizona. (pamphlet) Washington D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1974.
Seibert, Erika K. Martin (compiler and editor).
The Earliest Americans Theme Study for the Eastern United
States (draft). Washington, D.C.: National Historic Landmarks
Survey, NRHE, National Park Service, 2002.
Slaughter, Thomas P. Exploring Lewis and
Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 2003.
Preparing
for the Journey
Before his inauguration on March 4, 1801, President Thomas
Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis, a 29-year-old career officer
in the U.S. Army, to join him in the White House as his personal
secretary. Jefferson knew Lewis and Lewis's family, as they
were neighbors of his Monticello, Virginia,
estate. Lewis, a staunch Jeffersonian Democrat, tested the loyalty
of top Army officers to the President and reported back to Jefferson.
Lewis was sent with sensitive messages to the ministers of foreign
powers, and generally assisted the President. But most of all
Lewis listened. Lewis absorbed Jefferson's ideas on geography,
science, politics, American Indians, and diplomacy. It seems
that Lewis was being groomed to lead Jefferson's expedition
into the West.
On January 18, 1803, President Jefferson sent a special message
to Congress about the proposed expedition. He noted with concern
the fact that the British were carrying on a lucrative fur trade
with American Indians along the northern border of the United
States and into the West. He approached Congress with the idea
that "an intelligent officer with 10 or 12 chosen men, fit for
the enterprise and willing to undertake it, taken from our posts,
where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore
the whole line, even to the Western ocean ..." (Jackson 10-13).
In this message, Jefferson portrayed the major goal of the projected
expedition as a diplomatic one, in which the explorers "could
have conferences with the natives" about commerce, and gain
admission for American traders among the various Indian tribes.
The other major goal of the expedition, barely stated by Jefferson
on January 18, was a scientific one--to not only explore but
map and chronicle everything of interest, as he put it, along
"the only line of easy communication across the continent."
Jefferson took great care to describe the project as a cheap
one which would not cost the taxpayers much money. "Their arms
& accouterments, some instruments of observation, & light &
cheap presents for the Indians would be all the apparatus they
could carry, and with an expectation of a soldier's portion
of land on their return would constitute the whole expense."
Jefferson knew that diplomacy, especially with the goal of increased
commerce, could be sold to Congress; scientific discovery and
description could not. One seemed practical, the other less
so. Thus Jefferson asked for $2,500 to fund the expedition (based
on Lewis's initial estimates). (Jackson 8-9 and 13)
On about March 15, 1803, Lewis arrived in Harpers
Ferry, Virginia (today's West Virginia), to obtain rifles
and other equipment for the expedition, including an iron boat
frame. The construction of the boat detained him longer than
he had expected, and he stayed in Harpers Ferry for about a
month. The boat was made in two sections, each weighing 22 pounds,
which could be fitted together to form the skeleton of a boat
of 40 feet in length, and would be covered with animal hides
and sealed together with pitch. This special boat could be used
high in the mountains if they were unable to make dugout canoes.
Besides procuring equipment, Lewis was also expected to take
crash courses in several disciplines to round out his training
as leader of the expedition. With only the precedent of the
voyages of James Cook, Lewis was instructed to compile scientific
data on every aspect of the terrain through which he would pass.
He was prepared for this by Jefferson during the period he served
as the President's personal secretary, and during the Spring
of 1803 by astronomer Andrew Ellicott, botanist Dr. Benjamin
Smith Barton, surveyor and mathematician Robert Patterson, physician
Dr. Benjamin Rush, and anatomist Dr. Caspar Wistar (Rush and
Wistar were both members of the American Philosophical
Society). Lewis also
spent his time in Philadelphia procuring supplies, such items
as "portable soup," medicine, special uniforms made of drab
cloth, tents, tools, kettles, tobacco, corn mills, wine, gunpowder
in lead canisters, medical and surgical supplies, and presents.
In addition to all of these activities, Lewis most certainly
visited the famous museum of Charles Willson Peale, then located
on the second floor of Independence
Hall.
Lewis left Philadelphia on June 1 and traveled to Washington,
D.C. to meet with President Jefferson and make final arrangements
for his journey to the Pacific. These included writing a long
letter on June 19 to an old friend, William Clark, asking him
to be a co-leader of the expedition and to recruit men in his
area. Lewis told Clark the real destination of their mission
(the Pacific Coast), but told him to use a cover story that
the mission was to go up the Mississippi River to its source
for his recruitment. Lewis also hinted at secret news just received
by President Jefferson: the French had offered the entire territory
of Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. On July 3,
1803, official news arrived in the nation's capital--Robert
Livingston and James Monroe had purchased the Louisiana Territory
from Napoleon's France.
Lewis left Washington on July 5 for Harpers Ferry, where he
picked up the more than 3,500 pounds of supplies and equipment
he had amassed to take overland to the Pittsburgh area. The
Harpers Ferry-made items probably included 15 rifles, 24 pipe
tomahawks, 36 tomahawks for American Indian presents, 24 large
knives, 15 powder horns and pouches, 15 pairs of bullet molds,
15 wipers or gun worms, 15 ball screws, 15 gun slings, extra
parts of locks and tools for replacing arms, 40 fish giggs such
as the Indians use with a single barb point, 1 small grindstone
and the collapsible iron frame for a canoe. Lewis left Harpers
Ferry for the West on July 8. He hired a man named William Linnard
with a Conestoga Wagon to haul the supplies to Pittsburgh. The
items were so heavy that Linnard had to obtain another wagon.
At Elizabeth, Pennsylvania (south of Pittsburgh on the Monongehela
River), Lewis was held up for more than a month waiting for
his 55-foot keelboat to be built. During this time, Lewis received
word from William Clark that he would join the expedition.
On August 31, the keelboat was completed and Lewis began his
journey down the Ohio. It is believed that Lewis also purchased
what later became known as the "Red Pirogue" at this time, a
single-masted boat rowed with seven oars. Lewis investigated
ancient Indian mounds on his way down the river at what is now
Creek Mounds State Historic Site near Kent, West Virginia. The
next day Lewis first mentioned his Newfoundland dog, Seaman,
in the journals. The water in the Ohio was low, causing long
portages at various points. Lewis reached Cincinnati, Ohio,
on September 28, 1803, where he talked with Dr. William Goforth,
a local physician who was excavating the fossil remains of a
mastodon at the Big Bone Lick in Kentucky.
Lewis traveled to Big Bone Lick himself by October 4, and sent
a box of specimens back to President Jefferson, along with an
extremely detailed letter describing the finds of Goforth--the
lengthiest surviving letter written by Lewis.
On October 14, the keelboat arrived at Clarksville,
Indiana, where Lewis finally joined William Clark, his slave
York, and the "young men from Kentucky" including Joseph and
Reubin Field, recruited by Clark on August 1, and Charles Floyd
and George Gibson. John Colter officially enlisted on October
15, George Shannon and John Shields on the 19th, Nathaniel Hale
Pryor and William Bratton on the 20th. These so-called "nine
young men from Kentucky" formed the backbone of the expedition's
crew. Whatever inexperience they may have suffered from in October
1803 was rectified quickly at Camp Wood and along the trail
in 1804-06. We don't know if these men met Lewis's initial criteria,
but they certainly grew into the role as time went on, and hindsight
shows that Clark could not have chosen better.
The expedition got under way once more on October 27, moving
down the Ohio to Fort Massac, Illinois, by
November 11. Today a replica of the American fort as it looked
when Lewis and Clark visited in 1803 stands on the site. Lewis
hired interpreter George Drouillard and gained volunteers from
the U.S. military at Fort Massac: John Newman and Joseph Whitehouse
of Daniel Bissell's 1st Infantry Regiment. These were the first
active-duty military personnel added to the Corps of Discovery.
The most important addition at Massac was Drouillard, or "Drewyer"
as his name is most often spelled in the journals. Born north
of present-day Detroit, Michigan, Drouillard was half French
and half Shawnee Indian. Drouillard possessed skils that members
of the expedition lacked to this point--he was a real frontiersman
in the mold of Daniel Boone or Simon Kenton, by far the best
hunter and woodsman of the entire expedition.
On November 13 the Corps left Fort Massac, arriving in the
vicinity of modern Cairo, Illinois, on the 14th. Here Lewis
and Clark worked jointly on their first scientific research
and description; to study the geography at the junction of the
Mississippi and Ohio rivers. On November 16, they began the
diplomatic phase of their journey when they visited the Wilson
City area of Mississippi County, Missouri, and met with Delaware
and Shawnee Indian chiefs. They ended their surveys at Cairo
on November 19, and proceeded up the Mississippi River, now
working against the current.
Lewis and Clark stopped to describe and climb Tower Rock on
November 25, and arrived at Fort
Kaskaskia, Illinois, on the 29th. In 1803, Kaskaskia was
the U.S. Army post furthest north and furthest west. Kaskaskia
was a town of 467 people when Lewis and Clark visited in 1803.
Six soldiers enlisted at Kaskaskia from Russell Bissell's Company,
1st U.S. Infantry Regiment: Sgt. John Ordway and privates Peter
M. Weiser, Richard Windsor, Patrick Gass, John Boley, and John
Collins. In addition, John Dame, John Robertson, Ebeneezer Tuttle,
Issac White, and Alexander Hamilton Willard of Capt. Amos Stoddard's
company, U.S. Corps of Artillery, also enlisted for the journey.
This was a very important crop of men who added immeasurably
to the success of the expedition. Francois Labiche, another
half-Indian half-Frenchman, enlisted with the expedition on
November 30. Another boat, the "White Pirogue," may have been
acquired at Kaskaskia. Clark and the men of the Corps departed
Kaskaskia on December 3, and camped just below Ste. Genevieve.
Lewis remained at Kaskaskia, probably meeting with locals and
taking care of the military and paperwork sides of the expedition.
On December 4, Clark and the men moved further up the river,
passing Ste. Genevieve on the left side, a very prosperous town
of about 1,000 residents--equal in size to St. Louis in 1803.
Clark and the men next viewed the remains of Fort De Chartres,
abandoned for over 30 years, on the right side. On December
6, Lewis left Kaskaskia and traveled to Cahokia along the Illinois
roads. Both Lewis and Clark arrived in Cahokia on December 7.
For more information please see Preparing
for Trip West, from which this is excerpted, on the
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial's Lewis and Clark Journey
of Discovery website. See also Donald Jackson, Letters of
the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents, 1783-1854.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962.
The Journey
In December 1803, William Clark established "Camp River Dubois"
on the Wood River at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri
rivers, north of St. Louis, Missouri, and across the river in
Illinois. While at the camp it was Clark's responsibility to
train the many different men who had volunteered to go to the
Pacific on the expedition and turn them into an efficient team.
By and large, most of the members of the Corps of Discovery
were strangers to one another. The youngest man, George Shannon,
was 17 years old, the oldest, John Shields, was 35. The average
age of all the men was 27. Clark had the men build a fort and
cabins out of logs. He drilled the men, teaching them how to
march in formation, use their weapons as a team and shoot effectively
at targets. Most of all, he tried to get the men to respect
military authority and learn how to follow orders. When they
would later face danger on the frontier, there would be no time
for the men to question the officers.
During the winter, Meriwether Lewis spent a lot of time in
the little town of St. Louis. Lewis had to
gather more supplies and equipment for his journey, because
there were so many volunteers that there were over twice as
many men set to go on the expedition as he had originally planned
for! Lewis also talked with fur traders who had been up the
Missouri River, and obtained maps made by earlier explorers.
On March 9, 1804, Meriwether Lewis attended a special ceremony
in St. Louis, during which the Upper Louisiana Territory was
transferred to the United States. Two months later, on May 14,
the expedition was ready to begin. William Clark and the Corps
of Discovery left Camp River Dubois, and were joined by Meriwether
Lewis in St. Charles, Missouri, a week later.
The party numbered more than 45, mostly young, unmarried soldiers.
The civilians
who made the journey were primarily the guides and interpreters.
Among the more well-known were Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint
Charbonneau, their newborn son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ("Little
Pompey"), William Clark's black slave York, and an interpreter
named George Drouillard (pronounced Drewyer). An additional group
of men, engagés (hired boatmen), would travel only to the Mandan
country for the first winter, and these included six soldiers
and several French boatmen.
Travel up the Missouri River in 1804 was difficult and exhausting
due to heat, injuries and insects as well as the troublesome
river itself, with its strong current and many snags. The expedition
used Lewis's 55-foot long keelboat and two smaller boats called
pirogues to carry their supplies and equipment. The boats used
sails to move along, but in going upriver against a strong current,
oars and long poles were used to push the boats. Sometimes the
boats had to be pulled upriver with ropes by men walking along
the shoreline. They averaged 10-15 miles per day.
Although there were some initial disciplinary problems, the
men began to work together as a team, and to like one another.
One man they especially liked was Charles Floyd, one of the
three sergeants. Suddenly, on August 20, 1804, Sgt. Floyd got
sick and died. It is believed that he died of a burst appendix.
Floyd was laid to rest on top of a large hill by the river,
in modern-day Sioux City, Iowa, where today there is a large
monument to mark the spot. Sgt. Floyd was the only person
to die on the two and one-half year journey, even though great
danger lay ahead.
By October the Corps of Discovery reached the villages of the
Mandan Indian tribe, where they built Fort Mandan (near present-day
Stanton, North Dakota), and spent the winter of 1804-1805. The
Mandan people lived in earth lodges along the Missouri River.
Their neighbors the Hidatsa lived along the
Knife River close by. The villages of the
Mandan and Hidatsa people were the center of a huge trade network
in the West. Lewis and Clark were not the first European-Americans
to visit this part of the country. During the winter Lewis and
Clark recruited a Frenchman who had lived with the Hidatsa (sometimes
referred to as the Minnetari) Indians for many years. His name
was Toussaint Charbonneau, and the captains wanted him to act
as an interpreter. They got a real
bargain, because along with Charbonneau would come his 16-year-old
Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagawea, and her newborn baby boy. Sacagawea
had been captured by a raiding party of Hidatsa warriors five
years earlier, and was taken from her homeland in the Rocky Mountains
to the Knife River village where she met her husband. Lewis and
Clark knew that they would probably meet Sacagawea's people in
the Rocky Mountains, and that they might have to ask for horses
if they could not find a nearby stream which led down to the Columbia
River. So Sacagawea would be invaluable because she could speak
to her people directly for the explorers.
On April 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark sent the keelboat back to
St. Louis with an extensive collection of zoological, botanical,
and ethnological specimens as well as letters, reports, dispatches,
and maps. Members of the expedition who had caused problems
were sent back as well. As the keelboat headed south, the expedition,
now numbering 33, resumed their journey westward in the two
pirogues and six dugout canoes. The Corps of Discovery now traveled
into regions which had been explored and seen only by American
Indians.
The men pulled and sailed their boats up the Missouri River
through what is now Montana. By early June they reached a place
where two rivers met. Lewis and Clark knew they needed to find
the correct fork of the river. If they didn't, they might
not get to the Pacific Ocean in time for the winter. The only
clue they had was that the Indians had told them that the Missouri
had a huge waterfall on it. They led small groups of soldiers
up each river, Lewis going up the right fork and Clark up the
left, both looking for the waterfall. When they returned, both
Lewis and Clark had decided that the left fork was the right
river, even though neither party saw a waterfall. Although the
rest of the party disagreed, they followed the two captains
up the left fork, calling it the Missouri and naming the right
fork the Marias River after a cousin of Meriwether Lewis.
Sacagawea fell very sick, and the expedition moved slowly against
the strong current of the river. Lewis became impatient, and
led a small party of men overland to see if he could find the
waterfall--otherwise, they would have to turn back and follow
the other fork of the river. On June 13, he spotted a mist rising
above the hills in front of him. After a few minutes of walking,
Lewis looked down into a deep ravine, and saw a beautiful, huge
waterfall. He knew they were on the right river. Lewis scouted
ahead and found that there was not just one waterfall but five,
and that they stretched for many miles along the river--an area
now known as Great Falls. The canoes could
not be paddled upstream against such a current. They would have
to be portaged (taken out of the water and carried) around these
waterfalls. Sacagawea was well again after drinking water from
a mineral spring. The pirogues were left behind by this point,
so Lewis tried to put his special collapsible, iron-framed boat
from Harpers Ferry together. He was very disappointed when the
boat did not work, but Clark was ready to help by having two
more dugout canoes made.
They set out westward once more, paddling upstream. Soon they
entered the Rocky Mountains and saw incredibly beautiful scenery
with tall evergreen trees. By August 17 they reached the Three
Forks of the Missouri, which marked the navigable limits of
that river. At this spot the Missouri was fed by three rivers,
which they named the Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison after government
officials in Washington. They turned up the river named for President
Jefferson and finally reached its headwaters, where the once mighty
Missouri could be easily straddled by a man. Now that they had
reached the crest of the Rocky Mountains, it was hoped that the
headwaters of the Columbia would be nearby, and that the men could
float and paddle their way downstream to the Pacific Ocean. However,
they found nothing but more mountains stretching off as far as
they could see. Lewis knew then, as he crossed the Continental
Divide through Lemhi Pass, that there was no
easy water route to the West Coast.
This mountainous area was the homeland of Sacagawea's people,
the Shoshone. Lewis, who needed horses to get his expedition
over the mountains, was finally able to contact the elusive
Shoshone, who had never seen a white man before. When Sacagawea
came along the trail with her baby son on her back, she suddenly
recognized the chief of the Shoshone, the man for whom she was
supposed to interpret--and he was her brother! Although she
got to see old friends and her family, Sacagawea did not decide
to stay with the Shoshone. She continued with Lewis and Clark,
her husband and baby, as the captains looked westward and hoped
to find a way to the Pacific Ocean before the harsh winter weather
set in.
The explorers traveled overland on horseback, north to Lolo
Pass, where they crossed the Bitterroot Range on the Lolo
Trail; this was the most difficult part of the journey.
The men almost starved on the trail, and were lucky to stumble
into the camps of the Nez Perce Indians.
They treated the explorers with kindness, feeding and helping
them, pointing the way to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark left
their horses for safekeeping with the honest Nez Perce, and
finished making dugout canoes. They floated down the Clearwater,
Snake, and Columbia rivers, portaging dangerous waterfalls and
trading with friendly Indians along the way. They reached the
Pacific Ocean by mid-November 1805. They had fulfilled the goals
set for them by President Jefferson. Now they had to make it
through another winter and return with their information.
Once in sight of the ocean, the expedition was lashed by harsh
winds and cold rain as they huddled together on the north side
of the Columbia River. It was decided to stay on the south side
of the river, inland where the winds and rain would be less
harsh and there would be more elk to hunt for food and clothing.
In December the explorers built Fort Clatsop
(near present-day Astoria, Oregon), and settled in for the winter.
Lewis and Clark accomplished considerable scientific work, and
gathered and recorded information regarding the country and
its inhabitants. The men spent most of the winter making clothing
and moccasins out of elk hides, and trying to hunt for food
in an area which seemed to have very little game. No contact
was made with any trading ships, and Lewis and Clark knew that
all the men would have to return to the United States by an
overland route.
On March 23, 1806, the return trip began. After a tough journey
up the Columbia River against strong currents and many waterfalls,
the party retrieved their horses from their friends the Nez
Perce, and waited in the Indian villages for the deep mountain
snows to melt. It wasn't until June that they could get over
the mountains and back to the Missouri River basin. After crossing
the Bitterroots, Lewis and Clark decided to split their party
at Lolo Pass in order to add to the knowledge they could gather.
They wanted to be certain that there was not an easier way to
cross the continent to the Pacific, and that they had not missed
an important potential route or pass. Confident of their survival,
Lewis went north along the Missouri River while Clark went south
along the Yellowstone River. They planned to rendezvous where
the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers come together in western
North Dakota. Clark took the larger group with him, including
Sacagawea, her husband and son, and York. Lewis took along the
best hunters and outdoorsmen, including George Drouillard and
the Field brothers.
While on the Marias River in Montana, Lewis's small group had
a fight with a party of Blackfeet Indians, and was forced to
kill two of them who tried to steal their guns and horses at
a place now know as Two Medicine Fight Site.
This was the only violent incident of the entire journey. While
out hunting one day, Lewis was accidentally shot by Cruzatte,
a nearsighted member of his own crew. The painful wound in Lewis's
backside kept him from being able to sit down or continue his
journal writing. Soon after this near-disaster, the Corps of
Discovery was reunited in North Dakota. They returned to the
Mandan villages where they left Charbonneau, Sacagawea and the
baby behind. Clark promised to take care of the baby, who he
nicknamed "Pomp." Three years later, Charbonneau and Sacagawea
brought Pomp down to St. Louis, where William Clark saw to his
schooling.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition returned to St. Louis on September
23, 1806. When people in the settled portions of the United
States heard that Lewis and Clark had returned from the West,
they could barely believe it. Most people had given them up
for dead. If wild animals, hunger, harsh weather or Indians
hadn't killed them, perhaps they had gotten lost, they thought.
Of course, none of those things happened. Lewis, Clark and nearly
all their men returned to St. Louis as heroes. The Corps of
Discovery disbanded in St. Louis and their detailed descriptions
of the journey, maps and the numerous specimens they had collected
were sent to Philadelphia to be housed in part at the American
Philosophical Society and later at the Academy
of Natural Sciences.
Lewis and Clark made their way east, pausing for three weeks
at Locust Grove, home of Clark's sister,
and finally arriving in Washington, D.C., where they told President
Jefferson in person about the wonders they had seen in the West.
Both Lewis and Clark were rewarded for their success. Clark
was appointed Indian agent at St. Louis after his marriage in
1808. Five years later, he became Governor of the Missouri Territory.
In 1822, President Monroe appointed him Superintendent of Indian
Affairs to establish and secure treaties with the western tribes.
He died in St. Louis in 1838 and is buried at Bellefontaine
Cemetery. Lewis was appointed to the governorship of the Louisiana
Territory, a challenging position in which he struggled to appease
many divided factions. Lewis failed at many aspects of the governorship,
however, most notably in the public perception of how he spent
official government funds. Lewis was traveling to Washington,
D.C., in 1809 to explain his actions and clear his name, when
he died of two gunshot wounds, one to his head, the other to
his heart on October 11th. Most historians believe that Lewis
committed suicide due to depression and problems in his life
and career, while a popular belief continues that he was murdered,
perhaps by representatives of his political enemies. The explorer
was buried not far from where he died, and today a memorial
along the Natchez Trace Parkway pays tribute
to the man who led the Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean.
For more information please see The
Journey and Others
Who Made the Journey from which this is excerpted, on
the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial's Lewis and Clark
Journey of Discovery website.
Scientific
Encounters
It has been described as "the greatest camping trip of all
time," a voyage of high adventure, an exercise in manifest destiny
which carried the American flag overland to the Pacific. The
Lewis and Clark Expedition was all of this and more. Between
1804 and 1806, Lewis and Clark made the first systematic reports,
based on scientific measurement and observations, of the Missouri
River--not only its course, but its flora and fauna, depth and
current, tributaries and inhabitants. They continued onward
to document their observations in the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark described for science at
least 120 mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, as well as at least
182 plant species. They made the first attempt at a systematic
record of the meteorology of the West, and less successfully
attempted to determine the latitude and longitude of significant
geographical points. These facts set them apart from other contemporary
expeditions, most notably those of Zebulon Pike, which made
no new scientific discoveries.
As the expedition began to move up the Missouri River, Lewis
focused on the details--the animals, the type of rocks, the
trees and grasses--along the route. How fast was the current?
How high the cliffs? Was that bird or plant different from one
known in the East? Lewis went on to describe some of the animals,
including the eastern wood rat--the first animal new to science
encountered on the voyage--in what is today Osage County, Missouri.
The explorers encountered fierce grizzly bears which attacked
them. The bears were so tough that even several rifle shots
wouldn't kill them. The grizzly bears were truly the kings of
the western plains. Lewis and Clark were fascinated with the
little prairie dogs that built huge underground villages. They
saw so many buffalo that at one point they recorded that they
had to "club them out of the way." Other new species that the
Corps of Discovery encountered included pronghorn antelopes,
bighorn sheep, black tailed deer (or mule deer), mountain beaver,
white weasel, mountain goat, coyote and various species of rabbit,
squirel, fox and wolf. In addition to their descriptions, Lewis
and Clark sent back a large number of zoological specimens,
including a few live ones, as well as skins, bones, skeletons,
teeth, talons and horns. Among the five live animals Lewis sent
Jefferson in 1805 was a "barking squirrel," or black-tailed
prairie dog, which lived out the rest of its life at the White
House.
The geographical findings were in themselves of outstanding
significance. Lewis and Clark determined the true course of
the Upper Missouri and its major tributaries. They discovered
that a long, instead of short, portage separated it from the
Columbia River, which proved to be a majestic stream rivaling
the Missouri itself rather than a short coastal river. Neither
the Missouri nor the Columbia was found to be navigable to its
source, as many had believed. The explorers also learned that,
instead of a narrow and easily traversed mountain range, two
broad north-south systems, the Rockies and the Cascades, represented
major barriers. Passing for the most part through country that
no European-Americans had seen, the two captains dotted their
map with names of streams and natural features.
Clark made his scientific mark primarily in the field of cartography,
for which his training consisted mainly of some experience in
practical surveying and a limited amount of Army mapping. Yet
his relatively crude maps, prepared under field conditions,
enriched geographical knowledge and stimulated cartographical
advances. Of particular importance were the three progressively
improved maps Clark drew between 1804 and 1810 of the Western
United States and lower Canada. These were mainly based on the
observations of the two captians, data provided by the Indians,
earlier maps of the West, and the journals of preceding explorers.
According to historical cartographer Carl I. Wheat, the last
of the three (c.1809) was of "towering signficance"
and was "one of the most influential ever drawn" of
the United States.
Lewis and Clark also made significant additions to the botanical
knowledge of the continent. Jefferson believed that the voyages
of discovery would add to the world's supply of food crops and
plants beneficial to human kind. Lewis and Clark were directed
to pay special attention to "the soil & face of the
country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially
those not of the U.S." Lewis and Clark collected hundreds
of plant specimens and recorded information on their habitats,
growth, and uses by American Indians. Lewis showed a talent
for observation, exemplified in his description of camas, sometimes
known as quamash, an important food plant for the Nez Perce.
In a beautifully crafted essay for his journal record, Lewis
carefully described the plant's natural environment, its physical
structure, the ways Nez Perce women harvested and prepared camas,
and its role in the Indian diet. The explorers discovered about
80 species new to science, including future state flowers for
Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, as well as the state grass of Montana.
Their collections formed the basis for the first major scientific
publication that described and illustrated the plants west of
the Mississippi River. Lewis and Clark sent back numerous botanical
specimens during the expedition, orignially held in two collections,
one in Britain and another at the American Philisophical
Society in Philadelphia. In the latter half of the 19th
century, the two collections were brought together in their
permanent Phildelphia home of the Academy
of Natural Sciences.
More than a mere stunt to see if the continent could be crossed
and conquered, more than a diplomatic mission to Indian peoples,
the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a scientific foray. It is
this aspect of the expedition, fulfilled in every sense, which
sets the Lewis and Clark Expedition apart and plays a major
role in its resonance 200 years later.
For more information please see The
Science of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial Lewis and Clark Website, portions
of which were excerpted for this piece. Additional information
for this essay was taken from: Ferris, Robert G.
and Roy E. Appleman, eds. Lewis and Clark: Historic Places
Associated With Their Transcontinental Exploration (1804-06).
Washington, D.C.: United States Department of the Interior,
National Park Service, 1975.
American
Indians
The Lewis and Clark Expedition set out with several goals when
it left the St. Louis area in 1804. One of these was to conduct
diplomacy with and gather information about the various nations
of American Indians they would encounter on their journey. During
the course of the expedition, contact was made with at least
55 different native cultural groups. Other groups, such as the
Crow (Absaroke), almost certainly saw the explorers without
the explorers ever seeing them. Some groups were encountered
only through individual members, while others were met with
in formal councils. Still other American Indians participated
in the expedition by literally saving expedition members from
starving and losing their way as they crossed the continent.
Some, like the Lakota and Blackfeet, had hostile encounters
with the Corps, while others, like the Mandan, Hidatsa and Nez
Perce, forged friendships and alliances whose written descriptions
in the journals still resonate with good will after 200 years.
Lastly, the expedition itself was staffed with at least six
people who were all or part American Indian. George Droulliard,
one of the most essential members of the Corps, was half Shawnee,
while Pierre Cruzatte and Francois Labiche were half Omaha.
Although little is known of Jean Baptiste Lepage, he was also
almost certainly part American Indian, as were most of the French
engages who helped pole and haul the boats up the Missouri in
1804. Lastly, Sacagawea and her baby boy Jean Baptiste, Lemhi
Shoshone by birth and Hidatsa by adoption and clan, added important
insights into American Indian cultures that the expedition members
might never have understood otherwise.
At least 300 distinct languages existed in North America in
pre-Columbian times. Sign language was highly developed among
the Plains Indians as a method of communicating between different
tribes. In addition to language differences, cultures varied
in size, wealth and economic systems. The Great Plains Indians
and the Northwest Indians are two diverse groups that Lewis
and Clark encountered on their journey. (Milner 1994, 15)
The history of the Great Plains Indians can be traced back
at least 13,000 years and possibly even millenia. During the
last stages of the Ice Age, small bands of people migrated in
search of megafauna, or game, such as mastodons and mammoths.
As game became extinct, their cultural organization became more
complex, shifting to bison hunting and living in earth-lodge
dwellings. However, European contact brought much change. Prior
to this contact, tribes of the plains lived by agriculture or
gathering. The introduction of horses by the Spanish in the
late 16th century provided Indians with a more efficient method
of hunting buffalo. Many groups--the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Sioux,
Comanche and others--shifted to a nomadic culture. Portable
tipis, immense value placed on horses, and the accumulation
of herds were common patterns among these groups. Others such
as the Mandans, Arikara, Hidatsas, Pawnee, Wichita and Omaha
remained horticultural societies, establishing permanent settlements
in the river valleys of the plains.
Little is known of the early history of the Northwest Coast
Indians, though anthropologists believe these groups represent
the most elaborate nonagricultural culture in the world. These
Indian groups established permanent settlements with clearly
defined territories. The economy was based almost entirely on
salmon and other marine life and required large amounts of seasonal
labor.
The cultural influences of American Indians on the United States
and the world go very deep. The American Indians gave Europeans
the cultivation of corn, the potato, the sweet potato, tobacco,
pumpkins, the tomato and, philosophically, conceptions of democracy
radically different from the ancient Greek city-states. The
Six Nations, an alliance of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga,
Cayuga and Tuscarora nations, practiced a participatory democracy
from which Ben Franklin drew inspiration when uniting the English
colonies during the Albany Conference. Within the present day
United States, the Acoma and Hopi pueblos, settled around A.D.
600-1000 stand as possibly the oldest occupied communities in
the continental United States, discovered and settled long before
the Europeans came.
In order to negotiate intelligently with the American Indian
tribes and their leaders along the route, Lewis received a "crash
course" in diplomacy and about the known Indian cultural groups
from Dr. Benjamin Rush and others in Philadelphia. Lewis also
knew that gift giving and trade were important parts of most
known Indian cultures, and that he would have to have trade
goods for diplomacy and for acquiring needed goods and food
along the route. Lewis also brought along peace medals produced
by the U.S. Government in silver for presentation to American
Indian chiefs. Peace medals are a fascinating yet little-known
aspect of American history. They were an integral part of the
government's relations with American Indians in the 18th and
19th centuries. At the time, these medals represented a covenant
between nations, and were valued equally by tribal people who
had had contact with European-Americans and by the governments
of Britain, Spain, France and the United States, each of which
issued them. Lewis and Clark took along three large medals with
an image of President Jefferson on them, 13 middle-sized Jefferson
medals, 16 small Jefferson medals, and 55 of the "season medals"
struck during the presidency of George Washington. All but one
of these medals were given out during the expedition. The obverse
(front) of the Jefferson medals had a formal bust of President
Jefferson in low relief, along with his name and the date he
entered office. The reverse showed clasped hands and bore the
motto "Peace and Friendship." This design depicted Indian nations
as coequals of the United States.
Although the men of the expedition did not know what to expect
on their trek, they were prepared to meet the various Indian
tribal groups and curious about what they would be like. Previously,
almost nothing had been known of the American Indians westward
from the Mandan villages, in present North Dakota, to the Upper
Columbia River. Lewis and Clark and their men left behind various
accounts of different tribal groups and their interactions with
them. Although the information is often inaccurate, and not
every tribe is handled equally or in some cases discussed at
all, today these descriptions provide insight into what the
expedition members experienced during their journey.
Whether Lewis and Clark knew it or not, they were the "spearpoints"
of an invasion of American Indian homelands in the West. Whether
or not their actions were deliberate, they touched off an invasion
which displaced entire peoples and tribal groups with European
descended settlers, backed by the U.S. Army and English land
law. It is for this reason and others that many native peoples
see no reason to be happy about the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial,
and why this event should be looked upon by all as a "commemoration"
rather than a "celebration."
For more information please see Native
Peoples on the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial's
Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery website, portions of which
were excerpted for this piece.
Milner, Clyde, Carol O'Connor and Martha Sandweiss.
The Oxford History of the American West. New York: Oxford
U Press, 1994.
Lamar, Howard R. The New Encyclopedia of
the American West. New Haven: Yale U Press, 1998.
The
Trail Today
Two hundred years later, what can be found on the Lewis and
Clark Trail today? The pathway taken by these explorers has
been greatly altered over the past two centuries. Highways cross
the continent where once only American Indian trails and rivers
were used for travel and communication. Towns and cities founded
by American pioneers moving westward have altered the landscape,
and the courses of rivers--such as the Missouri--have been altered
by dams, in some instances forever covering campsites once used
by the Corps of Discovery. There are however large areas such
as Nez Perce National Historical Park that
remain relatively unspoiled. Historian Dayton Duncan notes that
"Without a doubt, the most unchanged section of the entire Lewis
and Clark route is the White Cliffs section of the Missouri
River in north-central Montana--a stretch of the river, now
protected by Congress, that is only accessible by boat (usually
canoe). This is the place, with its eerie sandstone formations,
that Lewis described as 'scenes of visionary enchantment' ."
The Lewis and Clark National
Historic Trail traces the route of the explorers as closely
as possible given these changes over the years. Today you can
follow in the approximate footsteps of Lewis and Clark, by boat,
canoe, or kayak, by car or bus, on foot or bicycle, or by train,
exploring the route they traveled and reliving the adventure
of the Corps of Discovery.
On July 3, 2002, President Bush was joined by Secretary of the
Interior Gale Norton and other cabinet members in the East Room
of the White House to usher in the Bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's
Voyage of Discovery. Across the nation events commemorating the
bicentennial of the expedition have begun and will continue through
2006. President Bush remarked that "American history is filled
with remarkable examples of heroism and adventure, and the voyage
of Lewis and Clark is one of the most remarkable of them all."
The National Park Service's unique contribution to the bicentennial--the
Corps
of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future--is a traveling
education center that will recreate the epic journey and be the
unifying component for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial observance.
Over the next four years it will make stops in large urban areas,
American Indian reservations and small towns along the original
Corps of Discovery's route, and later travel to areas off the
original trail from Florida to Texas, Minnesota to California.
The traveling exhibit includes two interpretive tents with displays
and a performance tent-- the Tent of Many Voices--with
space for demonstrations, lectures, cultural presentations and
audiovisual shows. Performances will be provided in partnership
with American Indian tribes, State governments, local agencies,
the private sector and other Federal agencies. The nation's commemoration
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition began with the debut of the
Corps of Discovery II at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello,
on January 14, 2003.
Time magazine estimates that approximately 25 million travelers
will traverse the route of Lewis and Clark from 2004 to 2006.
Communities around the country are planning local events to commemorate
their place in the history of the expedition. Fifteen communities
from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Astoria, Oregon, have been
selected by the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
as sites for national heritage signature events. Each community
was chosen for its place in the expedition's chronology, its historical
relevance, cultural diversity, tribal involvement, geographic
location and sponsoring organizations' capacity. Information about
these signature events, as well as news and announcements about
the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, can be found at www.lewisandclark200.org.
Examples include:
- The Falls
of the Ohio in Clarksville, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky,
will host a 13-day signature event from October 14-26, 2003,
which will open with the reenactment of Lewis's arrival in
Louisville and meeting with William Clark on October 14, 1803.
It will close with the reenactment of the Corps' departure
from Clarksville on October 26.
- On March 12-14, 2004, in St. Louis, Missouri, the National
Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Committee and the National
Park Service will host an international ceremony observing
the 200th anniversary of the transfer of the Louisiana Territory
from Spain to France to the United States. Activities at sites
surrounding the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial National Historic Site will feature the cultures
of the Louisiana Territory-French, Spanish, Anglo-American
and American Indians through interactive displays relating
the legacies of these cultures in America and highlighting
the roles of each in today's world. Information about this
event can be found at http://louisianapurchase.umsl.edu.
- On May 14, 2004, the communities of Hartford and Wood River,
Illinois, will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Corps
of Discovery's final departure from its winter encampment
at Camp River DuBois. Discovery Expedition reenactors
will trace the steps of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, leaving
the Camp River DuBois winter quarters to launch their boats
from the eastern bank of the Mississippi into the mouth of
the Missouri River to begin their journey into the West. By
this date a new Lewis and Clark Visitor Center and Camp River
DuBois fort replica in Hartford will be complete. To find
out more about this three-day event go to www.lewisandclarkillinois.org
- From November 24-27, 2005, there will be a symbolic walk
across the four-mile bridge to Astoria, Oregon, from the Fort
Clatsop National Memorial. The walk is one of several
events cosponsored by the Pacific County Friends of Lewis
and Clark and Fort Clatsop honoring the Corps of Discovery's
historic arrival at the Pacific Ocean at Station Camp and
the winter encampment at Ft. Clatsop.
- An event on August 17-20, 2006, in New Town, North Dakota
will mark the 200th anniversary of the Corps of Discovery's
return to the Knife River Indian Villages.
This event offering American Indian perspectives will contrast
the hopes and dreams of President Thomas Jefferson with those
of tribal leaders who met Lewis and Clark and focus on the
contributions of Sacagawea. For those seeking further information,
please go to www.mhanation.com.
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially ended September
23, 1806, when the explorers arrived in St. Louis, Missouri.
A flotilla of watercraft will travel to various historic sites
on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in commemoration of
this bicentennial event. These historic sites will present
exhibits and conduct programs during the commemorative weekend.
See the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
National Historic Site for more information.
In addition to the 15 signature events, many States and communities
are also hosting events commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Missouri, the starting point for Lewis and Clark into the largely
uncharted West, offers a number of venues to explore the Lewis
and Clark Bicentennial. Missouri's events can be found at www.lewisandclark.state.mo.us/
or www.mohistory.org.
The Missouri History Museum at Forest Park hosts Lewis
& Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition, from January
20 through September 6, 2004. This is the opening venue of the
national exhibition organized by the Missouri Historical Society.
Events commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Iowa and
Nebraska can be found at www.lewisandclarkne-ia.com. These include
the annual Sgt. Floyd Re-enactment Days every August in
Sioux City, Iowa. The South Dakota State Historical Society and
the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society will host
an online
exhibition tour combining photos and Lewis and Clark journal
entries with modern visual images and historic renderings.
Information on North Dakota events during the Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial can be found at www.ndlewisandclark.com. Montana
will host a Lewis and Clark Festival from June 25-29,
2003, to highlight events of the Lewis and Clark Expedition during
their stay in Great Falls in 1805, and Clark
Day on July 26-27, 2006, at Pompey's Pillar.
An entire list of statewide events can be found online at Lewis
and Clark in Montana. In Oregon, a play about Sacagawea was
performed in January 2003 by the Oregon Children's Theatre (OCT).
The play, written by nationally recognized playwright Eric Coble,
tells how Sacagawea joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In
June 2004, People of the River will debut--an exhibit focusing
on the American Indians who lived on the rivers from the mouth
of the Snake to the Pacific Ocean. The result of a collaborative
effort between the Portland Art Museum and the National Museum
of American Indians (part of the Smithsonian Institution), this
100-year-old collection of exclusively American Indian artifacts
has never been on exhibit or published in journals. This and other
events hosted throughout the Northwest can be found on the Lewis
& Clark Bicentennial in Oregon or Washington
State Historical Society websites.
If you are interested in participating in the Lewis and Clark
commemoration and traveling the trail yourself, you will find
helpful links to websites that list events in each State and
nationally on our Learn More page.
Sites are listed geographically and chronologically as they
were encountered,
except where noted in italics. You can also explore them with
a strictly chronological list.
Chrnological
List of Sites
Sites are listed chronologically. You can also explore them
geographically.
Old Cahokia
Courthouse
From December 1803 until the spring of 1804, Lewis and Clark
used the Old Cahokia Courthouse as a headquarters for collecting
information, meeting with territorial leaders, gathering supplies
and corresponding with President Thomas Jefferson while the
party camped at nearby Camp River Dubois. The courthouse, built
as a dwelling in the 1730s, is a unique remnant of the French
presence in Illinois. The building became a courthouse in 1793,
and for 20 years it served as a center of political activity
in the Old Northwest Territory. The building was dismantled
in 1901, re-erected twice, and reconstructed on its original
site in 1939. It is an excellent example of early French log
construction known as poteaux-sur-solle (post-on-sill
foundation). The upright hewn logs are seated on a horizontal
log sill; the spaces between logs are filled with stone and
mortar chinking. The courthouse rests on its original foundation
of stone nearly two feet thick. Walnut beams extend the cantilever
roof over the porch. Inside are four rooms that originally functioned
as a courtroom, a schoolroom, and offices for attorneys and
clerks.
Shortly after his arrival in Cahokia, Lewis drafted a letter
to Thomas Jefferson describing his experiences and future plans:
Cahokia, December 19th 1803
Dear Sir,
On my arrival at Kaskaskias, I made a selection of a sufficient
number of men from the troops of that place to complete my party,
and made requisition on the Contractor to cause immediately
an adequate deposit of provisions to be made at Cahokia subject
to further orders or other destination should circumstances
render it necessary. This done, it became important to learn
as early as possible the ultimate decision of Colo. Charles
Deheau de Lassuse (the Governor of Upper Louisiana) relative
to my ascending the Missouri.I determined to loose no time in
making this application; with a view therefore of greater expedition,
I thought it best to travel by land to St. Louis (the residence
of the Govr.).I arrived at Cahokia on the 7th and immediately
took occasion to make myself acquainted with Mr. John Hay (the
Post Master of this place) and a Mr. Jarrot, in whom from previous
information I had every confidence; both these Gentleman are
well acquainted with the English & French Languages, a necessary
qualification to enable them to serviceable on the present occasion
as the Spanish Commandant cannot speak the English Language,
and I am unfortunately equally ignorant of that of the French
- these gentlemen readily consented to accompany me, and on
the next day (the 8th) I set out in company with them to visit
Colo. Lasuse.he was sensible the objects of the Government of
the U. States as well as my own were no other than those stated
in my Passports or expressed by myself; that these in their
execution, would not be injurious to his royal master, the King
of Spain, nor would they in his opinion be detrimental
to his Majesty's subjects with whose interests he was at the
moment particularly charged, that as an individual he viewed
it as a hazardous enterprize, but wished it every success.he
would if permitted by me take a transcript of my Passports,
and send them immediately by an express to New Orleans to the
Govr. Genl. of the Province, and that he would with cheerfulness
give the aid of his influence with that officer, to promote
my wishes; and finally as a friend advised my remaining at Cahokia
untill the next spring, alledging that by that time he had no
doubt the Govrs. consent would be obtained.Thus defeated in
my application, tho' not much disappointed nor at all diverted
from my future views, I spent the evening with the Commandant
and returned the next day to join Capt. Clark who had just arrived
at Cahokia. On the evening of the 10th Inst. we left Cahokia,
and continued our route up the Mississippi four miles, opposite
St. Louis where we remained for the night. Early the next morning
Capt. Clark continuted his route with the party to the river
Dubois (distant from St. Louis 18 miles) in order to erect cabins
for our winter residence.I passed over to St. Louis with a view
to obtain from the inhabitants such information as I might consider
usefull to the Government, or such as might be usefull to me
in my further prosecution of my voyage. I have the honor to
be with much respect Your Obt. Servt.
Meriwether Lewis Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.
(Jackson 1962, 145-147)
During the months of their encampment near Cahokia, the Corps
of Discovery was able to comprehensively plan the expedition.
Extensive geographic information was compiled, gifts were packaged
and organized based on intelligence gathered of the American
Indian tribes they would meet, important items were evenly distributed
and food was prepared and packaged. Lewis and Clark also made
many trips to St. Louis, including March 9, 1804, when Lewis
was present at a special ceremony, during which the Upper Louisiana
Territory was transferred to the United States. Finally in May
1804, the Corps of Discovery broke camp and proceeded to St.
Louis and then on to St. Charles to begin
their westward journey.
The Old Cahokia Courthouse is located at 107 Elm St. in
Cahokia, Illinois. Tours are conducted Tuesday-Saturday from
8:30am to 5:00pm. Please call 888-666-8624 or visit the website
for further information.
Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial National Historic Site
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic
Site in St. Louis, Missouri, commemorates President Thomas Jefferson's
vision of the continental destiny of the United States, evidenced
by his sponsorship of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. President
Jefferson's final instructions to Lewis and Clark were:
. . .the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri
river, & such principal streams of it, as, by its course & communication
with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct
& practicable water communication across this continent, for
the purposes of commerce . . . (DeVoto 1997, 5)
In December 1803, Clark established "Camp River Dubois" on
the Wood River at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri
rivers, north of St. Louis, Missouri. While at the camp it was
Clark's responsibility to train the many different men who had
volunteered to go on the expedition and turn them into an efficient
team. Meanwhile, Lewis spent the winter in St. Louis, then a
Spanish controlled town of 900 inhabitants, gathering supplies
and equipment for the journey. On March 9, 1804, Lewis attended
a special ceremony in St. Louis, during which the Upper Louisiana
Territory was transferred to the United States. All the land
from the Mississippi River to the tops of the Rocky Mountains
now officially belonged to the United States. Two months later
the expedition was ready to begin. Clark and the men went to
St. Charles, Missouri, where Lewis joined
them a week later.
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is comprised of the
Gateway Arch (a National Historic Landmark), the Museum of Westward
Expansion, and St. Louis' Old Courthouse. Architect Eero Saarinen's
design for a 630-foot stainless steel catenary arch was selected
in a 1947 design competition as the ideal monument to the spirit
of the western pioneers. However, construction on the Gateway
Arch did not begin until the 1960s. The Arch, the tallest monument
in the United States, cost less than $15 million and was built
to withstand high winds and earthquakes. Below the Gateway Arch
lies the Museum of Westward Expansion, which houses an extensive
collection of artifacts and an overview of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. The nearby Old Courthouse, built in 1839, is one
of the oldest existing buildings in St.Louis.
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic
Site, administered by the National Park Service, is located
in the heart of downtown St. Louis on the Mississippi River.
The Gateway Arch and Museum of Westward Expansion are open daily
from 8:00am to 10:00pm Memorial Day-Labor Day and 9:00am to
6:00pm the remainder of the year. The Old Courthouse is open
daily from 8:00am to 4:30pm. Admission is free. All are closed
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's day. Separate fees are
charged for tickets to see films and for the tram ride to the
top of the Arch on a per-event basis. Please call 314-655-1700,
or visit the park's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Gateway Arch National Historic Landmark nomination.
The Old Courthouse, part of
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, is the subject of an
online-lesson
plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National
Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on
properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit
the Teaching with Historic
Places home page.
St. Charles
Historic District
St. Charles, Missouri, served as the final embarkation point
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. At noon on May 14, 1804,
Clark and approximately 42 men docked at St. Charles, an outpost
for traders dating from about 1769. St. Charles, the first permanent
European settlement on the Missouri River and one of the first
in the state of Missouri, was described as being "about 100
houses, the most of them small and indefferent and about 450
inhabitents Chiefly French, those people appear Pore, polite
and harmonious" (DeVoto 1997, 4). Here Clark met with two more
members of the expedition, Pierre Cruzatte and Francois Labiche,
who served as boatmen and interpreters. While awaiting Lewis's
arrival the men entertained the townspeople on the boats, danced
at balls and attended a Mass conducted by a local priest. Some
members of the crew celebrated too much, resulting in court-martials
and punishments. John Collins received 50 lashes for being absent
without leave (AWOL), misbehaving at a ball and using disrespectful
language to Clark. William Werner and Hugh Hall were also found
guilty of being AWOL and received sentences of 25 lashes each.
Lewis arrived at 6:30pm on May 20 and the entire crew set out
on their journey to the Pacific Ocean on May 21, 1804, to the
sound of "three cheers" from the audience lining the riverbank.
Clark noted in his journal that day:
. . . All the forepart of the day arranging our party and procureing
the different articles necessary for them at this place. Dined
with Mr. Ducett and set out at half passed three oClock under
three cheers from the gentlemen on the bank and proceeded on .
. . We camped in a bend at the Mo. of a small creek. Soon after
we came too the Indians arrived with 4 deer as a present, for
which we gave them two qt. of whiskey . . . (Jones 2000, 2)
After reaching the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark retraced
their journey and returned safely to the St. Charles riverfront
on September 26, 1806. The St. Charles Historic District includes
numerous 19th-century residential and commercial buildings,
and is the home of the first Missouri State Capitol building
(1821-1826).
To reach the St. Charles Historic District take Hwy. I-70
west from downtown St. Louis for approximately 15 miles, go
across the Missouri River Bridge and take the first St. Charles
exit. Turn right and follow the signs to the historic section
of St. Charles. Please call the Greater St. Charles Convention
and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-366-2427, or visit www.historicstcharles.com
for further information.
Tavern Cave
On May 23, 1804, two days after leaving St.
Charles, the Lewis and Clark Expedition visited Tavern Cave,
located at the south bank of the Missouri River at the base
of a huge sandstone bluff called Tavern Rock. This landmark,
well known to the Indians, rench and Spanish trappers and traders,
was first described by Lewis and Clark as:
. . . a large cave called by the French the Tavern - about
120 feet wide 40 feet deep & 20 feet high. Many different immages
are painted on the rock. At this place the Ind. & French pay
omage. Many names are wrote on the rock. Stoped about one mile
above for Capt. Lewis who had assended the clifts which is at
the said cave 300 fee[t] high, hanging over the waters..Capt.
Lewis near falling from the pinecles of rocks 300 feet. He caught
at 20 foot. Saved himself by the assistance of his knife . .
. (Jones 2000, 2-3)
On September 21, 1806, the explorers once again passed Tavern
Cave on their journey home. Today, Tavern Cave sits approximately
250 feet from the edge of the Missouri River and is 20 feet smaller
in width than when Lewis and Clark visited here.
Tavern Cave is located two miles northeast of St. Albans,
Missouri, along the track of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific
Railroad. There is no public access to the cave but an interpretive
sign and marker are located in the village of St. Albans.
Rocheport Historic
District
On June 7, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through
the area of modern day Rocheport, Missouri. Clark noted this
area in his journal:
. . . a Short distance above the mouth of [a] Creek, is
Several Courious paintings and carving on the projecting rock
of Limestone inlade with white red & blue flint, of a verry
good quallity, the Indians have taken of this flint great quantities.
We landed at this Inscription and found it a Den of Rattle Snakes,
we had not landed 3 Minites before three verry large Snakes
was observed on the Crevises of the rocks & killed . . .(DeVoto
1997, 7)
Near the mouth of Moniteau Creek Clark also observed "uncouth
paintings of animals," known as manitous--a French version of
an Algonquian word for spirit--which he sketched in his journal
before continuing on. These petroglyphs are no longer visible.
After completing their journey to the Pacific Ocean, the explorers
retraced their steps and passed through Rocheport again on September
19, 1806. The Rocheport Historic District, with its significant
collection of 19th-century frame and brick buildings, is an
example of a Missouri river town whose growth paralleled the
fortunes of steamboat transportation on the river.
The Rocheport Historic District is located 12 miles west
of Columbia and two miles north of Hwy I-70. Visit www.rocheport.com
for further information.
Arrow Rock
Arrow Rock was notable in the trail breaking journeys that
opened the West, beginning with the Lewis and Clark Expedition
on June 9, 1804. Clark noted Arrow Rock Bluff and the party's
experience in his journal:
. . . we got fast on a Snag Soon after we Set out which
detained us a Short time passed the upper Point of the Island,
Several Small Chanels running out of the River below a Bluff
& Prairie (Called the Prairie of Arrows) where the river is
confined within the width of 300 yds. opposit the Lower point
of the 2d Island on the S. S. we had like to have Stove our
boat, in going round a Snag her Stern Strucj a log under water
& She Swung round on the snag, with her broad Side to the Current
expd. to the Drifting timber, by the active exertions of our
party we got her off in a fiew Mints. without engerey (injury)
and Crossed to the Island where we Campd. Seeing them and the
banks too uncertain to Send her over . . . (DeVoto 1997, 7)
Clark passed by Arrow Rock again in 1807 with his Dragoons
on the way to build Fort Osage. He commented
that the area was an excellent location for a fort and a town.
George Sibley established a trading post at Arrow Rock and waited
there during the War of 1812 when Fort Osage became too dangerous.
A permanent ferry was established in 1817, and the town of Arrow
Rock was later founded in 1829.
Arrow Rock, a National Historic Landmark, is 13 miles north
of I-70 on Hwy. 41 in Saline County, Missouri. Arrow Rock State
Historic Site is open from 7:00am to 10:00pm daily. The Visitor
Center is open June-August from 10:00am to 5:00pm daily; March-May
and September-November from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily; and December-February
open Friday-Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm and on holiday Mondays.
Please call 660-837-3330, or visit www.mostateparks.com/arrowrock.htm
for further information. Walking tours are also offered
by the Friends of Arrow Rock daily during the summer, and on
weekends in the spring and fall. There is a fee for the tours;
please visit the Friends' website
for tour times and further information. You can also
download
(in pdf) the Arrow Rock National Historic Landmark nomination.
Fort Osage
Lewis and Clark passed through the area of Fort Osage in June
1804 on their journey west to the Pacific Ocean. Clark considered
this spot to be a good place for a fort with its "high commanding
position, more than 70 feet above high-water mark, and overlooking
the river, which is here but of little depth." Upon their return
in 1806, Meriwether Lewis was named governor and William Clark
was given the post of commander of the militia and Indian agent
of the Louisiana Territory. Clark established Fort Osage, one
of the first military outposts in the Louisiana Purchase, in
1808 to protect and promote trade with the Osage Indians. The
fort was built by the men of the 1st Regiment, U.S. Infantry,
who traveled in six keelboats up the Missouri River under the
command of Captain Eli Clemon and the St. Charles Dragoons who
marched overland under Clark's command. Fort Osage quickly became
one of the most successful of the 28 government supervised trading
posts that functioned from 1795 to 1822. These operated under
a "factory" system intended to prevent exploitation of American
Indians by individual traders. Fort Osage also became the point
from which distances were measured on the Santa Fe Trail in
1825.
Fort Osage, a National Historic Landmark, is located at
Sibley, Missouri, on the Missouri River, 14 miles northeast
of Independence. From Kansas City take 24 Hwy. east to Buckner,
Missouri. Turn north at Sibley St. (BB Hwy.) and travel 2-3
miles, watching carefully for directional signs. Drive through
Sibley following the signs to Fort Osage. Please call 816-650-5737 for further information.
You can also download
(in pdf) the Fort Osage National Historic Landmark nomination.
Leary Site
William Clark was the first recorded visitor to Leary Site;
on July 12, 1804, he noted in his journal:
. . . after going to Several Small Mounds in a leavel plain,
I ascended a hill on the Lower Side, on this hill, Several Artificial
Mounds were raised; from the top of the highest of those Mounds
I had an extensive view of the serounding Plains, which afforded
one of the most pleasing prospects I ever beheld, under me a
Butifill River of Clear water of about 80 yards wide Meandering
thro a level and extensive Meadow, as far as I could See, the
[view of the] prospect Much enlivened by the fine Trees &
Shrubs which [was] is bordering the bank of the river, and the
Creeks & runs falling into it,- . . . I observed artificial
mounds (or as I may more justly term Graves) which to me is
a strong indications of this Country being once Thickly Settled.
(The Indians of the Missouris Still Keep up the Custom of Burying
their dead on high ground.) (Moulton 1986, 2: 369-370)
Clark correctly conjectured that these mounds were constructed
for human burial. The mounds are a component of one of the largest
and richest prehistoric villages of the Oneota culture.
A court martial also convened on July 12. Alexander Willard
was charged with lying down and sleeping while on guard duty.
The court found him guilty and "being a breach of the rules
and articles of war (as well as tending to the probable destruction
of the party)" he was sentenced to "one hundred lashes, on his
bear back, at four diferent times in equal proportion" (Jones
2000, 3). The Corps of Discovery set out at sunrise on July
13 to continue their westward trek.
Leary Site, located near Rulo, Nebraska, is a National
Historic Landmark. It is an archeological site that is not open
to the public. However, a collection of artifacts from the Leary Site can be viewed online.
Fort Atkinson
Lewis and Clark set up camp on July 30, 1804, at this site
which later became known as Fort Atkinson, and during their
stay here hosted their first Indian council. William Clark celebrated
his 34th birthday on August 1 while awaiting the arrival of
the Indians. To mark the occasion he "order'd a Saddle of fat
Vennison, an Elk fleece & a Bevertail to be cooked and a Desert
of Cheries, Plumbs, Rasberries, Currents and grapes of a Supr.
quality" (Ambrose 1996, 152). At sunset on August 2, a party
of Otoe and a few Missouris and a trader known as "Mr. Fairfong"
arrived at the camp, named Council Bluff by Lewis and Clark.
The first official council between United States representatives
and western Indians began just after breakfast on August 3.
This council established the routine for all subsequent councils
on the expedition--Lewis, Clark and the Indian chiefs would
give speeches; smoke a pipe; award peace medals to the Indians;
exchange gifts; parade the men and display technology such as
the air gun, magnet, spyglass, compass and watch. Upon conclusion
of the council, the explorers continued their journey up the
river.
The Yellowstone Expedition of 1819 established Fort Atkinson,
named after Col. Henry Atkinson, commander of the Yellowstone
Expedition, as the first U.S. military post west of the Missouri
River after the recommendation of William Clark that the site
was an excellent location for a fort. Between 1820 and 1827, the
years of the fort's existence, Fort Atkinson was home to the first
school and library in Nebraska, served as a gateway to the fur
regions of the Upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains and served
as the starting point for several early expeditions to the Mexican
settlements of Taos and Santa Fe. Based on more than 10 seasons
of archeological fieldwork, most of the fort has been reconstructed
and an interpretive center established.
Fort Atkinson, a National Historic Landmark, is located
one mile east of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. The Fort Atkinson State
Historical Park is open year-round and the Visitor Center is
open daily from 9:00am to 5:00pm from Memorial Day through Labor
Day. Nebraska State Parks require an entry permit for which
there is a fee. Please call 402-468-5611 or visit the park's
website
for further information.
Sergeant Floyd
Monument
The Sergeant Floyd Monument commemorates Sergeant Charles Floyd,
Jr., the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die on the
journey. Writing in his diary on July 31st, Floyd noted, "I
am verry sick and has ben for Sometime but have Recovered my
helth again." However, this quick recovery was followed by a
turn for the worse. The night before his death, Clark remarked,
"Serjeant Floyd is taken verry bad all at once with a Biliose
Chorlick we attempt to relieve him without success as yet, hr
gets worst and we are much allarmed at his Situation, all attention
to him" (DeVoto 1997, 21). On August 20, 1804, Floyd passed
away, most likely from peritonitis, caused by the inflammation
or rupture of his appendix. He died from an illness that even
the best doctors of the day could not have cured. Clark wrote:
. . . Serj. Floyd died with a great deal of composure.
Before his death he said to me, "I am going away. I want you
to write me a letter." We buried him on the top of the bluff
½ mile below a small river to which we gave his name. He was
buried with the Honors of War much lamented. A seeder post with
the (I) Name Sergt. C. Floyd died here 20th of August 1804 was
fixed at his grave. This man at all times gave us proofs
of his firmness and determined resolution to doe service to
his countrey and honor to himself . . . (Jones 2000,
9)
Today, part of a 23-acre park, a 100-foot obelisk of heavy Kettle
River sandstone marks the final resting place of Sergeant Charles
Floyd, Jr.
The Sergeant Floyd Monument, a National Historic Landmark,
in Sioux City, Iowa, is located at 1000 Larsen Park Rd., northeast
of Exit 143 on I-29. It is open daily, year-round. Please call
712-279-0198, or visit www.sioux-city.org/museum
for further information.
Spirit Mound
On August 25, 1804, Lewis and Clark, along with several of
their men and Lewis's dog Seaman, walked nine miles to Spirit
Mound from their camp on the south bank of the Missouri River
near the mouth of White Stone Creek in South Dakota. The explorers
were determined to see the mound that was so feared by the Indians
of the area. In his journal Clark explained the legend of Spirit
Mound:
. . . and by the different nations of Indians in this quarter
is Suppose to be the residence of Deavels. That they are in
human form with remarkable large heads, and about 18 inches
high, that they are very watchful and are arm'd with Sharp arrows
with which they Can Kill at a great distance; they are Said
to kill all persons who are So hardy as to attempt to approach
the hill; they state that tradition informs them that many Indians
have Suffered by these little people.So much do the Maha [Omaha],
Soues [Sioux], Ottoes [Otoes] and other neighboring nations
believe this fable, that no Consideration is Sufficient to induce
them to approach the hill. One evidence which the Inds give
for believing this place to be the residence of some unusial
Spirits is that they frequently discover a large assemblage
of Birds about this mound . . . (DeVoto 1997, 22)
The intense heat fatigued everyone, especially Seaman who was
sent back to the river to rest. Finally, Lewis and Clark reached
the top of Spirit Mound where they "beheld a most beautiful landscape;
Numerous herds of buffalo were seen feeding in various direction;
the Plain to the North N.W. and N.E. extends without interruption
as far as can be seen" (DeVoto 1997, 24).
Today, Spirit Mound is one of the few remaining physical features
on the Upper Missouri River that is readily identifiable as
a place Lewis and Clark visited and recorded.
Spirit Mound is located approximately six miles north of
Vermillion, South Dakota on Hwy. 19. A state park, Spirit Mound
Historic Prairie, was recently established, and the landscape
is being restored. An interpretive sign is located at the I-29
Information Center near Junction City, and a small parking lot
and day use area will be established by 2004 at the NW corner
of the intersection of State Hwy. 19 and 312th St. For more
information, visit the Spirit Mound Historic Prairie website
or call 605-987-2263.
Knife River
Indian Villages National Historic Site
The 1,758-acre Knife River Indian Villages National Historic
Site preserves historic and archeological remnants of the culture
and agricultural lifestyle of the Northern Plains Indians and
indicates a possible 8,000-year span of inhabitation. The Lewis
and Clark Expedition entered the Knife River vicinity in October
1804, camping at nearby Fort Mandan for the winter. On October
29, three days after their arrival, the explorers, wanting to
establish good relations with the Indians, staged the most impressive
council yet. Lewis and Clark used this friendly relationship
to gain much information from the Indians. The Minitaris, or
Hidatsas, had great knowledge of the terrain and inhabitants
of the Upper Missouri all the way to Three Forks
and a good understanding of the area beyond to the Bitterroot
Mountains. In addition to providing information on the people
and lands out west, the Indians told the explorers much of their
own history, some of which Clark recounted in his journal:
. . . The interpreter says that the Mandan nation as they (old
men) Say came out of a Small lake (subterraneous Villages & a
lake) where they had Gardins, maney years ago they lived in Several
Villages on the Missourie low down, the Small pox destroyed the
greater part of the nation and reduced them to one large village
and Some Small ones, all the nations before this maladey was affrd.
of them, after they were reduced the Seaux [Sioux] and other Indians
waged war, and killed a great maney, and they moved up the Missourie.
those Indians Still continued to wage war, and they moved Still
higher, until got in the Countrey of the Panias, whith this Ntn
they lived in friendship maney years, inhabiting the Same neighbourhood
untill that people waged war, they moved up near the Watersoons
& Winataras where they now live in peace with those nations.they
can raise about 350 men the Winataries about 80 and the Big bellies
about 600 or 650 men . . . The Ravin Indians have 400 Lodges &
about 1200 men, & follow the Buffalow, or hunt for their Subsistance
in the plains & on the Court Noi & Rock Mountains, & are at war
with the Siaux [and] Snake Indians . . . The Big bellies
& Watersoons are at war with the Snake Indians & Seauex and were
at war with the Ricares untill we made peace a fiew days passd.
The Mandans are at war with all who make war only, and wish to
be at peace with all nations, Seldom the ogressors . . . (DeVoto
1997, 64-65)
During their stay here, the Corps of Discovery had also gained
the services of Charbonneau, a French-Canadian who had been
living and trading with the Indians for five years, his wife
Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian and their newborn son Jean Baptiste.
By April 7, 1805, the Expedition was prepared to proceed west
to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, administered
by the National Park Service, is one-half mile north of Stanton,
North Dakota on County Rd. 37. The Visitors Center is open from
7:30am to 6:00pm during the summer and from 8:00am to 4:30pm
during the winter. Please call 701-745-3309, or visit the park's
website for further
information.
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic
Site is also a focus of the online-lesson plan Knife River:
Early Village Life on the Plains, produced by Teaching with
Historic Places, a National Register program that offers classroom-ready
lesson plans on places listed in the Register. To learn more,
visit the Teaching with
Historic Places home page.
Big Hidatsa
Village Site
The Big Hidatsa Village Site, today part of the more than 1,700-acre
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic
Site, was first established around 1740. Occupied from about
1740 to 1850, Big Hidatsa, comprised of approximately 120 circular
earthlodges, is the largest of three Hidatsa communities near
the mouth of the Knife River. Housing 20 to 30 individuals each,
the lodges were set close together, allowing for communal interaction
among the inhabitants. Having previous interaction with numerous
foreign visitors interested in developing trade networks with
Plains nations, the Mandan and Hidatsa were receptive when approached
by the Corps of Discovery in the winter of 1804. Anxious to
find shelter from the fast-approaching winter season, the American
pioneers quickly set to constructing a suitable lodge of what
little material that they could find. Consisting of "two rows
of huts or sheds, forming an angle where they joined each other;
each row containing four rooms, of 14 feet square and 7 feet
high," (DeVoto 1997, 66).
Fort Mandan was erected approximately 2 miles south of the Big
Hidatsa Village. Over the following months, the Corps entertained
visitors, hunted whenever necessary and traded when advantageous.
Another major undertaking was the preparation of a shipment to
dispatch to President Jefferson, some of which the President sent
to the American Philosophical Society. Cages
contained a live prairie dog, a sharp-tailed grouse and four magpies;
boxes and trunks held pelts, horns and skeletons of various animals,
dried plant, soil, mineral and insect specimens. Mandan and Hidatsa
artifacts were also packed; and letters, reports, dispatches and
maps were addressed to President Jefferson and Secretary of War
Henry Dearborn. Lewis and Clark enlisted several new members to
the crew, replacing those who were sent back down the Missouri
as safeguards of the information and artifacts collected. Most
notable among the new additions, Charbonneau and his Shoshone
wife Sacagawea joined the Expedition in the spring of 1805. Valuable
interpreters, they both would play integral roles in the future
success of the mission. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, departing
from Big Hidatsa Village on April 7, 1805, truely set out for
the first time into lands unknown to European or Americans. Unexplored
and uncharted, the land to the west was a mystery, a source of
a number of challenges to come for the Corps of Discovery.
The Big Hidatsa Village Site, a National Historic Landmark
administered by the National Park Service, is part of the Knife
River Indian Villages National Historic Site. It is located
one-half mile north of Stanton, North Dakota on County Rd. 37.
The Visitor Center is open from 7:30am to 6:00pm during the
summer and from 8:00am to 4:30pm during the winter. Please call
701-745-3309, or visit the park's website
for further information.
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic
Site is also a focus of the online-lesson plan Knife River:
Early Village Life on the Plains, produced by Teaching with
Historic Places, a National Register program that offers classroom-ready
lesson plans on places listed in the Register. To learn more,
visit the Teaching with
Historic Places home page.
Fort Union
Trading Post National Historic Site
The Corps of Discovery arrived at a "long wished for spot"
(DeVoto 1997, 101) in the area of Fort Union, near the confluence
of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, in late April 1805.
The men set up camp and "spent the evening with much hilarity,
singing & dancing, and seemed as perfectly to forget their past
toils, as they appeared regardless of those to come" (101).
Exploration of the area on April 25 revealed:
. . . the whol face of the country was covered with herds
of Buffaloe, Elk & Antelopes; deer are also abundant, but keep
themselves more concealed in the woodland. the buffaloe Elk
and Antelope are so gentle that we pass near them while feeding,
without appearing to excite any alarm among them, and when we
attract their attention, they frequently approach us more nearly
to discover what we are . . . (DeVoto 1997, 99)
This area was also home to animals never before seen by an American
citizen--the "white bear" and the bighorn, or Rocky Mountain,
sheep. On April 14 Clark saw his first "white bear," a creature
so dreaded by the Indians that they would only hunt them in groups
of eight or 10 men. According to Lewis, before a hunting party
set out in quest of a grizzly, the Indians performed "all those
superstitious rights commonly observed when they are about to
make war uppon a neighboring nation" (Jones 2000, 35). Even still
the hunting parties often returned having lost one or more men.
On the return journey in 1806, Lewis and Clark split up and
led divisions of the Corps on separate explorations of the Missouri
and Yellowstone rivers. The confluence of the rivers was the
meeting point for the two groups; however, Clark arrived first
and moved downriver to escape the mosquitoes. While hunting
nearby, Pierre Cruzatte, who apparently mistook his commanding
officer for an elk, accidentally shot Lewis in the buttocks.
Lewis spent much of the next few weeks traveling in a canoe,
lying on his stomach.
John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company built Fort Union Trading
Post in 1828. It became the headquarters for trading bison hides,
beaver and other furs with the Assiniboian, Crow, Blackfeet,
Cree, Ojibwa, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes.
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, a National
Historic Landmark, is administered by the National Park Service
and located just off North Dakota State Hwy. 1804, 25 miles
southwest of Williston, North Dakota and 24 miles northeast
of Sidney Montana. The site is open from 8:00am to 8:00pm daily
Memorial Day through Labor Day and from 9:00am to 5:30pm Labor
Day through Memorial Day. Please call 701-572-9083, or visit
the park's website
for further information.
The Lewis and
Clark Camp at Slaughter River
The Lewis and Clark Camp at Slaughter River was one of the
few sites used by the explorers on both their outgoing and return
trips. The party first camped here on May 29, 1805. Here they
discovered the remains of over 100 buffalo, which the explorers
assumed were killed at a buffalo jump. Indians in the high Plains
used jumps to kill buffalo before the advent of steel-tipped
arrows, lances and rifle-muskets. The Indians would entice a
herd near the edge of a butte, eroded cliff or river gorge and
then instigate a stampede that forced the buffalo over the edge.
Lewis explained:
. . . for this purpose one of the most active and fleet
young men is scelected and disguised in a robe of buffaloe skin,
having also the skin of the buffaloe's head with the years and
horns fastened on his head in form of a cap, thus caparisoned
he places himself at a convenient distance between a herd of
buffaloe and a precipice proper for the purpose.the other indians
now surround the herd on the back and flanks and at a signal
agreed on all shew themselves at the same time moving forward
towards the buffaloe; the disguised indian or decoy has taken
care to place himself sufficiently nigh the buffaloe to be noticed
by them when they take flight and runing before them they follow
him in full speede to the precipice.the decoy in the mean time
has taken care to secure himself in some cranney or crivice
of the clift which he had previously prepared for that purpose.
the part of the decoy I am informed is extreamely dangerous,
if they are not fleet runers the buffaloe tread them under foot
and crush them to death, and sometimes drive them over the precipice
also, where they perish in common with the buffaloe . . . (DeVoto
1997, 121)
The explorers wrongly attributed this jump to some Blackfeet
Indians, whose two-week-old campsite was found earlier in the
day. The buffalo had simply drowned in the river and piled up
on the bank when the ice broke. The presence of these buffalo
was the inspiration for naming the nearby creek Slaughter River
(now Arrow Creek). The party arrived again at Slaughter River
on July 29, 1806, just two days after Lewis's struggle with
the Piegans, a Blackfoot tribe, at Two Medicine
Fight Site. While at this campsite the explorers killed
a wolf, an elk, two beavers and nine Audubon bighorn sheep.
The Lewis and Clark Camp at Slaughter River is located
in Montana 40 miles south of Big Sandy on the north bank of
the Missouri River approximately ¾ of a mile upstream from the
mouth of Arrow Creek. For information on river trips that include
this campsite, visit www.trailadventures.com or the Boston Museum
of Science Travel Program at www.mos.org/learn_more/travel-lc.html.
Great Falls
Portage
The Great Falls Portage presented Lewis and Clark with one
of the most challenging ordeals of the expedition. On June 13,
1805, Lewis and a small advance party witnessed "the grandest
sight" (DeVoto 1997, 137) when they became the first white men
to see the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Lewis commented
that "from the reflection of the sun on the sprey or mist which
arrises from these falls is a beautifull rainbow produced which
adds not little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery"
(138). Despite their splendor the Great Falls presented much
danger and hardship for the explorers. In one afternoon Lewis's
path converged with a bear, a mountain cat or wolverine and
three buffalo bulls; to Lewis it seemed that "all the beasts
of the neighbourhood had made a league to distroy me, or that
some fortune was disposed to amuse herself at my expence" (140).
Many members of the expedition were ill, including Sacagawea
who had been suffering for more than a week from an unknown
sickness. Clark, Charbonneau, Sacagawea and her baby nearly
drowned in a violent storm of torrential rain and huge hailstones.
Grizzly bears, rattlesnakes and mosquitoes were a constant worry,
even to the dog, Seaman, who Clark noted was "in a constant
state of alarm with these bear and keeps barking all night"
(151). Finally, all equipment and supplies, including canoes,
had to be carried by hand or in makeshift wagons overland for
approximately 18 miles in order to bypass the 21-mile stretch
of falls and rapids. Progress was very slow--the crude wagons
required constant repair as the men dragged them across the
rough terrain, the heat was intense, and the prickly pear cactus
tore through the men's moccasins. In his journal Lewis described
his men's condition:
. . . They are obliged to halt and rest frequently for
a few minute. At every halt these poor fellow tumble down and
are so much fortiegued that many of them are asleep in an instant.
In short their fatiegues are incredible; some are limping from
the soreness of their feet, others faint and unable to stand
for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue, yet no one complains.
All go with cheerfulness . . . (Jones 2000, 69)
Further misfortune followed when Lewis's "Experiment," an iron-framed
boat manufactured in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and carried
from Pittsburgh, failed to work. Consequently, 10 men under Clark's
supervision spent five days creating two dugout canoes out of
huge cottonwood trees. Nevertheless, the Great Falls area did
provide plentiful game, allowing the explorers to stock up on
food and leather clothing and to merrily celebrate Independence
Day:
. . . This evening, we gave the men a drink of sperits,
it being the last of our stock, and some of them appeared a
little sensible of it's effects. The fiddle was plyed and they
danced very merrily until 9 in the evening when a heavy shower
of rain put and end to that part of the amusement tho' they
continued their mirth with songs and festive jokes and were
extreemly merry untill late at night. We had a very comfortable
dinner, of bacon, beans, suit dumplings & buffaloe beef &c.
In short we had no just cause to covet the sumptuous feasts
of our countrymen on this day . . . (Jones 2000, 72)
Finally on July 15, after a month of portaging around the
Great Falls, the explorers set out upstream, eager to locate
the Shoshone Indians. Only a short time remained to cross the
Rocky Mountains before winter and there were many great obstacles
ahead.
The Great Falls Portage, a National Historic Landmark,
in Great Falls, Montana is primarily privately owned and is
not open to the public. The U.S. Forest Service operates a Lewis
and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center in Giant
Springs Heritage State Park in Great Falls, Montana. The Interpretive
Center is open Memorial Day weekend through September 30 from
9:00am to 6:00pm daily and October 1 through Memorial Day weekend
from 9:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday-Saturday and 12:00pm to 5pm on
Sundays. There is a fee for admission. Please call 406-727-8733,
or visit the U.S. Forest Service's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Great Falls Portage National Historic Landmark
nomination.
Tower Rock
Tower Rock marked the end of the first phase of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition and the beginning of the next--the transition
from the familiarity of the Great Plains to the unknown terrain
of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Having just
completed the Great Falls Portage the previous
day, Lewis, Drouillard, John Potts and Jean Baptiste LePage
set out on July 16, 1805, to explore the area where the Missouri
River enters the Big Belt Canyon in the Adel range of the Rocky
Mountains. Up to this point in their journey, they had been
crossing territory that, though unexplored by Americans, was
a familiar landscape--the animals, plants and rolling dry hills
were similar to those they left in North Dakota.
In his journal Lewis noted the steep black "clifts" that bordered
the Missouri River and the presence of an aboriginal trail on
the west side of the river. He also was the first to describe
Lone Pine Rapids (renamed Half-Breed Rapids). The group arrived
at Tower Rock, which Lewis described as a:
. . . a large rock of 400 feet high wich stands immediately
in the gap which the missouri makes on it's passage from the mountains
by a handsome little plain which surrounds it base on 3 sides
and the Missouri washes it's base on the other, leaving it on
the Lard. as it descends. this rock I called the tower. it may
be ascended with some difficulty nearly to its summit, and from
there is a most pleasing view of the country we are now about
to leave. from it I saw this evening immense herds of buffaloe
in the plains below. (Moulton 1987, 4: 387)
Until this point, while traveling through lands unexplored
by Americans, the Corps of Discovery had some knowledge of the
territory based on maps, descriptions and information gathered
from Indians. Tower Rock marked the transition into the unfamiliar,
as on either side of this landform, the explorers encountered
a vastly different landscape.
Tower Rock is located on the west side of the Missouri
River, approximately eight miles south of Cascade, Montana at
Interstate 15 Interchange # 247.
Three Forks
of the Missouri
The Corps of Discovery reached the Three Forks of the Missouri
on July 25, 1805. More than 2,500 miles from their starting
point on the Mississippi River, the expedition had once again
come to a critical juncture, the confluence of three previously
uncharted rivers. Lewis and Clark first set about finding suitable
names for these Missouri tributaries, naming them in honor of
the President and two of his cabinet members, Madison and Gallatin.
The next challenge involved choosing the correct river to follow.
Should they choose wrongly and be forced to backtrack, they
faced the likelihood of getting caught in the Rocky Mountains
at the onset of winter.
In an effort to ascertain the best future course and to avoid
making an unwise decision, a small group marched ahead and scouted
the surrounding areas while the rest of the camp nursed injuries
for a few days. Looking out over the lands, Lewis noted in his
journal that "the mountains are extreemly bare of timber and
our rout lay through the steep valleys exposed to the heat of
the sun without shade and scarcely a breath of air" (DeVoto
1997, 174). In essence, the land before them looked rough and
unforgiving, foreshadowing the physically daunting terrain of
the Rocky Mountains and beyond.
Three Forks had previously served as a campground for the Shoshone
tribe, Sacagawea's people. It was at Three Forks that Sacagawea
had originally been captured and carried away to live with the
Mandan tribe of North Dakota. Upon hearing Sacagawea's account
of the area, the Americans realized that they had successfully
penetrated Shoshone land. Anxious to encounter the indigenous
people, Lewis and Clark hoped to acquire much-needed assistance
and information about the regions that lay ahead of them on their
westward path. So on July 30, 1805, with unforgiving lands lying
ahead, the Corps opted for the southwest flowing tributary and
pushed onward, down the rough and shallow waters of the Jefferson
River.
Three Forks of the Missouri, a National Historic Landmark,
is a part of the Missouri Headwaters State Park, located four
miles northeast of Three Forks, off of Hwy. 205, then onto Hwy.
286. Please call 406-994-4042, or visit the park's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Three Forks of the Missouri National Historic Landmark
nomination.
Beaverhead
Rock-Lewis and Clark Expedition
Sacagawea created much excitement on August 8, 1805, when she
recognized Beaverhead Rock in the distance as the area in which
her people, the Shoshones, had been when she was kidnapped as
a child several years earlier. Lewis remembered in his journal:
. . . The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain
to our right which she informed us was not very distant from
the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains
which runs to the west. this hill she says her nation calls
the beaver's head from a conceived re[se]mblance of it's figure
to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either
find her people on this river or on the river immediately west
of it's source; which from it's present size cannot be distant.
as it is now all important with us to meet with those people
as soon as possible I determined to proceed tomorrow with a
small party to the source of the principal stream of this river
and pass the mountains to the Columbia; and down that river
untill I found the Indians; in short it is my resolution to
find them or some others, who have horses if it should cause
me a trip of one month. for without horses we shall be obliged
to leave a great part of our stores, of which, it appears to
me that we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length
of the voyage before us . . . (DeVoto 1997, 181-182)
With Beaverhead Rock as their landmark, the explorers were confident
they would soon find the Shoshone Indians. Lewis, Drouillard,
John Shields and Hugh McNeal set out for Beaverhead Rock over
land on August 9, 1805, to find the Shoshones while Clark and
the rest of the men continued down the river. Contact between
the Americans and Shoshone Indians was made three days later when
Lewis stumbled upon an old Shoshone woman and two teenage girls.
They were soon met by a party of 60 warriors on horseback led
by Chief Cameahwait. After exchanging trinkets and signs of peace,
the explorers set up camp with the Indians on the banks of the
Lemhi River to await Clark and his companions. Throughout the
next few days, Lewis learned much from Chief Cameahwait, most
importantly that "he had understood from the persed nosed [Nez
Perce] Indians who inhabit this river below the rocky mountains
that it ran a great way toward the setting sun and finally lost
itself in a great lake of water which was illy taisted" (DeVoto
1997, 211). Historian Stephen Ambrose explained the significance
of this information: "For the first time, a white man had a map,
however imperfect and imprecise, to connect the great rivers of
the western empire."
Clark and his party arrived shortly after on August 17, 1805,
after days of difficult navigation down the river; it was during
this time that Clark stopped to make observations on the outcropping
now known as Clark's Lookout. The arrival
of Clark and the others was filled with excitement as Sacagawea
suddenly recognized Chief Cameahwait as her brother and "instantly
jummped up, and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her
blanket and weeping profusely" (DeVoto 1997, 203). Chief Cameahwait
and the Shoshone Indians traded with the explorers, supplying
them with the horses necessary to continue. Sacagawea's ability
to recognize Beaverhead Rock and direct the explorers to her
people proved to be immensely helpful in the journey to the
Pacific Ocean.
Beaverhead Rock is 14 miles northeast of Dillon, Montana.
The Beaverhead Rock State Park is open to the public year-round,
free of charge. The site itself can be viewed and photographed
from a distance, but is not directly accessible. Please call
406-834-3413, or visit the park's website
for further information.
Lemhi Pass
In mid-August 1805, Lewis and three other members of the Corps
of Discovery had left the main group behind in search of native
inhabitants of the area, heading toward Beaverhead
Rock. On August 12, this small group came to Lemhi Pass,
a two-mile span stretching across the present-day border between
Montana and Idaho. Nestled among these mountains and bridging
the gap between the ranges of the Rockies, Lemhi Pass maintains
its unobtrusive, yet momentous, place in our nation's history.
As they ventured westward, the party came across some of the
most imposing landscapes that they had ever encountered--peaks
upon jagged peaks as far as the eye could see. The crossing
of this pass--the Continental Divide, a ridge extending North
and South along the Rocky Mountains' Beaverhead Range--would
prove one of the greatest achievements of Lewis and Clark's
expedition to the West Coast. The first Americans to do so,
the crew officially left United States territory, journeyed
into disputed lands claimed by various European powers and reaffirmed
their desire to reach the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and his men also
came to the westernmost reaches of the now less than mighty
Missouri River. Writing in his journal that day, Lewis recorded
the significance of the area and the event:
. . . the road took us to the most distant fountain of
the waters of the Mighty Missouri in surch of which we have
spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights. thus far I
had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind
has been unalterably fixed for many years, judge then of the
pleasure I felt in all[a]ying my thirst with this pure and ice-cold
water . here I halted a few minutes and rested myself. two miles
below McNeal had exultingly stood with a foot on each side of
this rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride
the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri. after refreshing
ourselves we proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from
which I discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to
the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow .
. . here I first tasted the water of the great Columbia river
. . . (DeVoto 1997, 188-189)
The two groups of explorers reunited shortly after, camping
briefly at Traveler's Rest before continuing
on their westward journey.
Lemhi Pass, a National Historic Landmark, is located 12
miles east of Tendoy off ID 28, in Beaverhead and Salmon National
Forests, and marks the boundary between Idaho and Montana. The
Forest Service has signs at Lemhi Pass during the summer months,
to help tell the story of the pass. Please call 406-683-3900
or 208-768-2500, or visit the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National
Forest's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Lemhi Pass National Historic Landmark nomination.
Lemhi Pass is the subject
of an online-lesson
plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National
Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on
properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit
the Teaching with Historic
Places home page.
Clark's Lookout,
August 13, 1805
While Lewis and three other members of the Corps of Discovery
were headed to Beaverhead Rock overland,
Clark and the rest of the explorers headed there by river. On
August 13, 1805, Clark ascended a rocky limestone outcropping,
now known as Clark's Lookout, where he viewed the region through
a telescope, made a number of compass readings and sketched
a map of the area. Five days earlier on August 8, 1805, Sacagawea
had identified Beaverhead Rock, the point of a high plain, as
the place where her people, the Shoshones, had been when she
was kidnapped. Lewis, understanding the importance of finding
the Shoshone Indians and obtaining horses and aid from them
before winter, went ahead with a small party. Clark and the
remainder of the group continued up the river. After days of
difficult navigation, Clark and his companions stumbled upon
the limestone outcropping and a nearby stream named McNeal's
Creek (now Blacktail Deer Creek) after Hugh McNeal, a member
of the party.
That night, after travelling 16 miles by water and five miles
by land, the explorers camped a few miles southwest of present-day
Dillon, Montana. From here they traveled upriver, crossed the
Continental Divide and rejoined Lewis on the banks of the Lemhi
River. The explorers soon received critical aid from the Shoshone
Indians, led by Sacagawea's brother Chief Cameahwait, to continue
their journey.
Clark's Lookout is located one mile north of Dillon, Montana
on Old State Hwy. 91. Clark's Lookout State Park is open to
the public year-round, free of charge. Call 406-834-3413, or
visit the park's website
for further information.
Traveler's
Rest
Traveler's Rest, Montana, an undisturbed area of meadows along
a branch of the Bitterroot River, was a pivotal site of the
Lewis and Clark Expedition. After being unable to find a water
route from the Shoshone village to the Pacific, the Corps of
Discovery paused here for two days, before beginning the most
arduous part of their journey over the Lolo Trail.
On September 9, 1805, Lewis wrote:
. . .we continued our rout down the W. side of the [Bitterroot]
river about 5 miles further and encamped on a large creek which
falls in on the West. as our guide inform[ed] me that we should
leave the river at this place and the weather appearing settled
and fair I determined to halt the next day rest our horses and
take some scelestial observations. we called this Creek Traveler's
rest. (DeVoto 1997, 236)
Lewis estimated Traveler's Rest to be 20 yards wide. The expedition
also camped at Traveler's Rest on their return trip from June
30 to July 3, 1806, to allow the men and horses to recuperate
from the trek back over the Lolo Trail. Clark described the company's
arrival at the site:
. . . a little before Sunset we arrived at our old encampment
on the S. side of the Creek a little above its entrance into
Clarks river. here we Encamped with a view to remain 2 days
in order to rest ourselves and horses and make our final arrangements
for Separation . . . (DeVoto 1997, 414)
At this point, Lewis and Clark began their separate journeys
of exploration in Montana after which they reunited near Sanish,
North Dakota and continued down the river to St. Louis. Lewis
set out on his journey with a small party to the Great Falls
of the Missouri River, after which he explored a portion of
the Marias River. Clark and his men ascended the Bitterroot
River to recover the cache and boats on the Beaverhead River
at Camp Fortunate, Montana. After raising their boats the party
descended the Beaverhead and Jefferson to Three Forks. At that
point, Clark's party split, one group descending the Missouri
to rejoin Lewis and his men near the mouth of the Marias. Clark
and several other men crossed overland to the Yellowstone and
descended that stream to the Missouri where they rejoined Lewis
and his party.
Traveler's Rest, a National Historic Landmark, is located off U.S. Rte. 93 one mile south of Lolo, Montana, near the western border of Montana and the Continental Divide, where Lolo Creek enters the Bitterroot River. The area is now Travelers' Rest State Park, open seven days a week May-September; Monday-Friday from October-May. Park tours start on the hour from 11:00am to 3:00pm. Please call 406-273-4253, or visit the Travelers' Rest State Park website for further information. You can also download (in pdf) the Traveler's Rest National Historic Landmark nomination.
Lolo Trail
In mid-September 1805, after crossing the Continental Divide
at the Lemhi Pass and spending a couple of
nights at Traveler's Rest, the Lewis and
Clark Expedition reached the historic Lolo Trail. Knowing Lolo
Trail would provide the members of the Corps with a truly physical
challenge and fearing that they would not be able to survive
the perilous peaks ahead without assistance, the Corps of Discovery
was quick to acquire as many horses as possible and enlist the
help of a few guides, familiar with the route that lay ahead.
Under the guidance of a member of the Shoshone nation known
as Old Toby, the Lewis and Clark crew turned northward and began
their ascent into the daunting Bitterroot Mountains. To get
through this more than 200-mile stretch of unforgiving mountain
terrain, the pioneers followed the Lolo Trail for 11 harrowing
days. Suffering from frostbite, malnutrition and dehydration,
the Americans recorded their woes in the pages of their journals.
Losing a bit of the energy that had carried him thus far, Clark
noted, "I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever
was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearfull my feet would
freeze in the thin Mockirsons which I wore" (DeVoto 1997, 240).
Nevertheless, the crew pushed on, each day drawing closer to
the end of Lolo Trail and the successful completion of the Bitterroot
crossing. Capturing the moment, Lewis wrote:
. . . the pleasure I now felt in having tryumphed over
the rockey Mountains and decending once more to a level and
fertile country where there was every rational hope of finding
a comfortable subsistence for myself and party can be more readily
conceived than expressed, nor was the flattering prospect of
the final success of the expedition less pleasing . . .
(Moulton 1988, 5: 229)
The Expedition had traveled for days through an area of high
mountains, high hills, heavy timber and little game. Exhausted
and starving, the men stumbled out of the Bitterroot Mountains
and encountered the Nez Perce Indians at
Weippe Prairie. On their return trip, the
Corps of Discovery again traversed the Lolo Trail starting up
on June 15th and reaching Traveler's Rest 15 days later.
The Lolo Trail, a National Historic Landmark administered
by the National Park Service, is part of the Nez Perce National
Historical Park. The 200-mile-long trail extends from Lolo,
Montana, to Weippe Prairie, Idaho. There are two main Visitor
Centers, one at Park Headquarters in Spalding, Idaho, 11 miles
east of Lewiston and the other at Big Hole National Battlefield,
10 miles west of Wisdom, Montana. The Visitor Center at Spalding,
Idaho is open in the winter months from 8:00am to 4:30pm and
until 5:30pm in the summer. The Visitor Center at Big Hole National
Battlefield near Wisdom, Montana is open in the winter from
9:00am to 5:00pm and in the summer from 8:30am to 6:00pm. Please
call 208-843-2261, or visit the park's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Lolo Trail National Historic Landmark nomination.
Lolo Trail is the subject
of an online-lesson
plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National
Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on
properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit
the Teaching with Historic
Places home page.
Weippe Praire
Stumbling down from the Bitterroots, the Corps of Discovery
reached the western terminus of Lolo Trail
by late September 1805 and ventured out onto Weippe Prairie.
Clark and seven of the men had pressed ahead arriving September
20th, shortly ahead of the rest of the group that made it to
the prairie by the 22nd. Spanning several thousand acres, the
open flatland was a welcome sight after the crew's brutal trek
through the Rockies. Even more welcome were the friendly faces
of the local Indian nation, the Nez Perce. On September 20 Clark
wrote:
. . . Proceeded on through a butifull countrey for
three miles to a small plain in which I found main Indian lodges.
Those people gave us a small piece of buffalow meat, some dried
salmon berries & roots . . . They also gave us the bread made
of this root, all of ehich we eate hartily . . . They call themselves
Cho pun-nish or Pierced noses. I find myself very unwell all
the evening from eateing the fish & roots too freely . . . (Jones
2000, 113)
Establishing contact with this group for the first time, Lewis
and Clark communicated via sign language with one of the Nez
Perce leaders, Chief Twisted Hair. Over the following two and
a half weeks, the Corps stayed with the Nez Perce, specifically
within their two villages located at the southern end of Weippe
Prairie. There, the Americans rested, recuperated, and learned
much from the Nez Perce, namely the existence of a navigable
water route to the West Coast. Furthermore, they learned why
the Nez Perce chose to reside in the shadow of the Bitterroots.
Unbeknownst to the pioneers, Weippe Prairie, also known as the
"Quawmash flats," was an area rich in the camas plant/root,
providing the Nez Perce with a consistent and healthy food source.
Aside from giving the expedition their fill of camas, the Nez
Perce provided for the pioneers in other ways. Twisted Hair
accompanied the Corps to a canoe camp, where the expedition
members immediately set to constructing canoes in preparation
for their journey down Clearwater River and beyond. The explorers
were finally ready to set out for the Pacific by mid-October
1805, by way of the Columbia River.
On their return journey in the spring of 1806, the Corps again
stayed with the hospitable Nez Perce of the Weippe Praire. Waiting
until the snow melted and Lolo Trail again became passable,
the pioneers resided on the "Quawmash flats" for over a month.
There they built a temporary structure, of which there are no
present-day remains. The crew developed considerable respect
for the Nez Perce during their stay, both for the genteel nature
of the Indians and the quality of their horses, the Nez Perce-bred
Appaloosa.
Weippe Prairie, a National Historic Landmark administered
by the National Park Service, is part of the Nez Perce National
Historical Park. There are two main Visitor Centers, one at
Park Headquarters in Spalding, Idaho, 11 miles east of Lewiston
and the other at Big Hole National Battlefield, 10 miles west
of Wisdom, Montana. The Visitor Center at Spalding, Idaho is
open in the winter months from 8:00am to 4:30pm and until 5:30pm
in the summer. The Visitor Center at Big Hole National Battlefield
near Wisdom, Montana is open in the winter from 9:00am to 5:00pm
and in the summer from 8:30am to 6:00pm. Please call 208-843-2261,
or visit the park's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Weippe Prairie National Historic Landmark nomination.
Rock Fort Campsite
After passing through the mountain ranges of Montana and Idaho,
the Corps of Discovery spent six months--nearly a quarter of
the two-year mission--on the Columbia River now dividing the
states of Washington and Oregon. On October 25, 1805, after
having negotiated two extensive rapids on the Columbia, the
expedition made camp in the bowl of a fort-like outcropping
just downstream from the mouth of Mill Creek at present-day
The Dalles. Clark described the campsite, called Rock Fort,
that day:
. . .we proceeded on down the water fine, rocks in every
derection for a fiew miles when the river widens and becoms
a butifull jentle Stream of about half a mile wide, Great numbers
of the Sea Orter [or Seals] about those narrows and both below
and above. we Came too, under a high point of rocks on the Lard.
Side below a crrek of 20 yards wide and much water, as it was
necessary to make Some Selestial observations we formed our
Camp on the top of a high point of rocks, which forms a king
of [artif] fortification in the Point between the river &
Creek, with a boat guard, . . . our Situation well Calculated
to defend [us] our Selves from any designs of the natives, Should
They be enclined to attack us. (Moulton 1988, 5: 339)
The expedition spent two days and three nights at this spot, taking
advantage of fair weather to take celestial observations, caulk
battered canoes and dry river-soaked supplies. Hunting parties
followed Mill Creek (which Lewis and Clark named "Quenett" after
local American Indian usage) into the foothills of the Cascade
Range to the southwest and found the first game to vary the expedition's
diet since entering Oregon. On October 26, the expedition was
visited by chiefs of the Chinookan tribes from the Washington
shore of the Columbia. The chiefs were given medals and assorted
other presents by the co-commanders as a customary gesture of
good will.
The expedition camped three nights at Rock Fort again on the
home-bound journey from April 15 to 17, 1806. They were once
again visited by people from Chinookan villages at the Great
Narrows, which came to be called "Les Grandes Dalles" by voyagers
who arrived on the Columbia after Lewis and Clark.
Rock Fort Campsite is located on a wedge-shaped parcel
bordered by the Columbia River, Bargeway Rd., Bridge and Garrison
sts. in The Dalles, Oregon. A riverfront trail leads to Rock
Fort where interpretive signage marks the campsite. Please call
541-296-2231 for further information. The nearby Columbia Gorge
Discovery Center includes displays on the Lewis and Clark Expedition;
visit their website
or call 541-296-8600 for further information.
Cape Disappointment
Historic District
Cape Disappointment is a large headland forming the northern
portion of the mouth of the Columbia River, as it opens to the
Pacific Ocean. Most members of the Corps of Discovery arrived
in this area where they were first able to glimpse the ocean
on November 15, 1805, and set up a base camp near Chinook
Point. However, Lewis and a small party of men had set out
ahead of the rest of the group the day before and began scouting
for a favorable site for a winter encampment. On November 17th,
Lewis and his party returned from the area of Cape Disappointment
and located Clark's base camp. Lewis was followed by several
Chinook Indians with "roots mats &c. to Sell" and "the principal
chief of the Chinnooks & his family came up to See us this evening"
(DeVoto 1997, 286). Clark then "directed all the men who wished
to see more of the main Ocian to prepare themselves to Set out
with me early on tomorrow morning" (286). This second group
proceeded to Cape Disappointment where Clark, seeing Lewis's
name carved in a tree, carved his own name and the date into
the same trunk. Clark wrote in this journal that his group proceeded:
To the iner extremity of Cape Disapointment passing a nitch
in which there is a Small rock island, a Small Stream falls into
this nitch from a pond which is imediately on the Sea coast passing
through a low isthmus. this Cape is an ellivated circlier [cir-]
cular] point covered with thick timber on the iner Side and open
grassey exposure next to the Sea and rises with a Steep assent
to hight of about 150 or 160 feet above the leavel of the water
this cape as also the Shore both on the Bay & Sea coast is a dark
brown rock. I crossed the neck of Land low and ½ of a mile wide
to the main Ocian, at the foot of a high open hill projecting
into the ocian, and about one mile in Si[r]cumfrance. I assended
this hill which is covered with high corse grass. descended to
the N. of it and camped. [walked] 19 Miles [to-day]." (DeVoto
1997, 287)
The hill he climbed was undoubtedly the present McKenzie Head.
Clark and his party of men returned to the base camp on November
20th. A few days later, the Corps of Discovery decided to investigate
the south side of the Columbia River, and eventually established
Fort Clatsop there as their winter encampment.
Today, Cape Disappointment is also known as an important early
landmark in the navigation of the Pacific Coast, the site of
two well known lighthouses, and the oldest coastal defense installation
in the state of Washington.
The Cape Disappointment Historic District is located two
miles south of Ilwaco, Washington, just north of the Washingon/Oregon
border. From Astoria, Oregon, take Hwy. 101 north across the
Columbia River until you pass Ilwaco and head south. From Washington,
take Hwy. 101 until it meets Hwy. 100 south of Seaville; go
south to Ilwaco and beyond. Cape Disappointment State Park is
located on the cape, and includes a Lewis and Clark Interpretive
Center. The park is open year-round for camping and day use
from 6:30am to 10:pm during the summer, and 6:30am to 4:00pm
in the winter. Call 360-642-3078 or visit the park's website
for more information.
Chinook Point
On November 15, 1805, after months of journeying west, the
Corps of Discovery finally viewed the Pacific Ocean near Chinook
Point. There had been "great joy in camp" (DeVoto 1997, 279)
earlier on November 7 when at Pillar Rock they mistook the open-horizoned
estuary of the Columbia River for the "great Pacific Octean
which we been so long anxious to See" (279). Intense thunderstorms
that had been raging for days finally stopped on the 15th, which
allowed the men to move four miles westward and set up camp
on a beautiful sandy beach a half mile from Chinook Point where
"the Ocian is imedeately in front and gives us an extensive
view" (DeVoto 1997, 285). Boards from a temporarily deserted
Chinook Indian village nearby were used to erect shelters for
the party. For the next 10 days the men used this as a base
camp to explore the surrounding area in an attempt to locate
a favorable site for a winter encampment. Lewis and Clark made
separate exploratory trips around Cape Disappointment.
Clark and his group of 11 men stopped at Chinook Point, which
Clark described in his journal as "a point of rocks about 40
feet high, from the top of which hill Side is open and assend[s]
with a Steep assent to the tops of the mountains, a Deep nitch
and two Small Streams [are] above the Point." (Thwaites
1904, 223-250)
Unfortunately, the explorers could not locate a suitable campsite
because game in the area was scarce. Discussions with the Chinook
revealed that game, particularly elk, and edible roots were
more plentiful on the south bank of the Columbia River. A second
alternative was to return upstream some distance on the Columbia;
however, salt was scarce in that area and the climate was colder.
Lewis and Clark decided to let the entire party, including York
and Sacagawea, vote on the location of the winter camp. Most
African Americans and women could not vote in the United States
in 1805, but the decision would affect everyone and, therefore,
Lewis and Clark felt York and Sacagawea also deserved a vote.
The Corps decided to investigate the south side of the river
and, if the game was plentiful, camp there. Clark gave an account
of the vote in his journal for November 24, 1805:
. . . we have every reason to believe that the nativs have
not provisions Suffient for our Consumption, and if they had,
their price's are So high that it would take ten times as much
to purchase their roots & Dried fish as we have in our possession,
... They generaly agree that the most Elk is on the opposit Shore,
and that the greatest numbers of Deer is up the river at some
distance above. added to-, a convenient Situation to the Sea coast
where we Could make Salt, and a probibility of vessels Comeing
into the mouth of columbia ("which the Indians inform us would
return to trade with them in 3 months["]) from whome we might
precure a fresh Supply of Indian trinkets to purchase provisions
on our return home: together with the Solicitations of every individual,
except one of our party induced us Conclude to Cross the river
and examine the opposit Side.the Climate which must be from every
appearance [must be] much milder than that above the 1st range
of Mountains, The Indians are Slightly Clothed and give an account
of but little Snow, and the weather which we have experienced
Since we arrived in the neighbourhood of the Sea coast has been
verry warm, and maney of the fiew days past disagreeably So. if
this Should be the Case it will most Certainly be the best Situation
of our naked party dressed as they are altogether in leather.
(Moulton 1990, 6: 85-88)
On November 25, 1805, the Corps of Discovery left their base
camp near Chinook Point and traveled to the more favorable location
of Fort Clatsop.
Chinook Point, a National Historic Landmark, is in the
Fort Columbia State Park, located two miles west of the Astoria
Bridge on Hwy. 101 in Chinook, Washington. The park is open
from 6:30am to 9:30pm in the summer and from 8:00am to 5:00pm
in the winter. Please visit the park's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Chinook Point National Historic Landmark nomination.
Fort Clatsop
Having reached the Pacific Ocean over a year and a half after
departing from Camp Wood, the Corps of Discovery realized that
the rough and miserable winter of 1805 to 1806 would have to
be spent thousands of miles from the warmth and comfort of their
homes back east. Resigned to this reality, the crew quickly
set to building a suitable shelter that would provide protection
for the upcoming months. The result of their efforts was the
creation of Fort Clatsop, a reconstruction of which is found
at its original site, located in Astoria, Oregon. The expedition's
presence in this area strengthened the United States's claim
to the Northwest, and paved the way for the first American settlement--the
Pacific Fur Company Post, established at the mouth of the Columbia
River in 1811 by John Jacob Astor.
When complete, Fort Clatsop consisted of two parallel rows
of huts, separated by a 20 foot by 48 foot parade ground. Due
to the complement of firepits and bunkbeds, it is thought that
the three huts on the south side of the fort housed all of the
enlisted men. In contrast, on the north side of the complex,
lay a series of four rooms, only two of which actually opened
onto the central promenade. The room to the farthest right was
most likely used for meat storage, while the other three huts
served as interconnected private rooms for the leaders of the
expedition and possibly for the family of Sacagawea as well.
In furnishing the reconstructed fort, historians have made sure
to handcraft all items using the same types of tools originally
used by the expedition. Adding to the interpretive quality of
the site, special displays are showcased during the summer months.
From animal skins to dried plants to bullet-making equipment,
each room provides a tangible way to interact with the history
of the Corps of Discovery.
Not inclined to waste away their time, the Lewis and Clark
pioneers remained busy throughout the winter season. Whether
they were distilling salt at the nearby cairn, compiling scientific
observations or trading and communicating with neighboring indigenous
groups such as the Clatsop or Chinook, the members of the Corps
of Discovery did not lose sight of the exploratory nature of
their mission. Nevertheless, the expedition was more than ready
to begin the return trip home on March 23, 1806, setting out
at the first sign of spring.
Fort Clatsop National Memorial, administered by the National
Park Service, is located four and one half miles southwest of
Astoria, Oregon. The Visitor Center is open from 8:00am to 6:00pm
during the summer, 8:00am to 5:00pm the remainder of the year.
Please call 503-861-2471 ext. 214, or visit the park's website
for further information.
Fort Clatsop National Memorial
is the subject of an online-lesson
plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National
Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on
properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit
the Teaching with Historic
Places home page.
Lewis &
Clark Trail-Travois Road
On their return from the Pacific Ocean in May of 1806, the
Corps of Discovery entered the foothills of the Blue Mountains,
a region of moderately steep rolling hills, cut by creek valleys,
near an ancient American Indian trail. This road, sometimes
referred to as the Nez Perce Trail, once extended from the mouth
of the Walla Walla River in what is now South Central Washington
to the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers in present-day
Idaho. Many Plateau Indian groups, particularly the Nez Perce,
Walla Wallas and Cayuse, used this road extensively. In late
spring and early summer the trail provided access to salmon
fishing spots on the rivers; in early fall it became a route
to the highlands for deer and elk hunting. A frequent mode of
transportation on this road was a travois, built with two long
trailng poles, one on either side of a dog or horse, and attached
in front with a makeshift collar. The poles were held together
behind the animal with hides supported by short cross poles,
forming a hammock or pocket on which possessions were carried.
These devices were dragged over the trail, causing deep, parallel
tracks to mark the earth. This accounts for the ruts visible
on some of the eastern portions of the Travois Road today.
On May 3rd, the explorers set up camp for the night in a grove
of cottonwood trees on Pataha Creek at the spot where the ancient
Indian trail left the valley and went up the ridge to the higher
plains. Earlier that day, at some considerable distance west
of the campsite, Lewis and Clark were agreeably surprised when
they met 11 Nez Perce men led by We-ark-koomt, known as Big
Horn Chief, whom Clark wrote received that name "from the circumstance
of his always wearing a horn of that animal suspended by a cord
to his left arm." (DeVoto 1997, 370) Both Lewis and Clark specifically
mention the surviving trail and campsite in their journals.
Clark, for instance, wrote:
after meeting this Chief we Continued Still up the Creek bottoms
N.75° E. 2 m. to the place at which the roade leaves the Creek
and assends the hill up to the high plains: here we Encamped in
a Small grove of Cotton trees which in some measure broke the
violence of the wind. . .it rained, hailed, Snowed & blowed
with Great Violence the greater portion of the day. . .the air
was very cold. we divided the last of our dried meat at dinner
when it was Consumed as well as the ballance of our Dogs nearly
we made but a Scant Supper, and had not any thing for tomorrow.
(Moulton 1991, 7: 204)
On the following day, May 4, Lewis stated: "Collected out
horses and set out early; the morning was cold and disagreeable.
we ascended through a high level plain to a ravine which forms
the source of a small creek, thence down this creek to it's
entrance into Lewis's river 71/2 ms. Below the entrance of the
Kooskooske [Clearwater]." (DeVoto 1997, 371) In the years after
Lewis and Clark, the Travois Road was used by fur trappers,
traders, and other European Americans as well as being continually
used by American Indians.
The Lewis and Clark Trail--Travois Road crosses U.S. Rte.
12 at Pataha Creek, 5 miles east of Pomeroy and 15 miles south
of the Snake River. Because of farming along most of the trail,
this quarter mile section is one of the last surviving portions
of the entire trail.
The Nez Perce
National Historical Park
The Nez Perce National Historical Park contains 38 sites, mostly
in Idaho, encompassing the valleys, prairies, mountains and
plateaus of the inland northwest that have been home to the
Nez Perce people for thousands of years. Lewis and Clark established
extremely friendly relations with the Nez Perce Indians beginning
in September 1805 on their westward journey. The Nez Perce,
superior horse breeders who are credited with developing the
Appaloosa breed of horses, had never seen a white man until
the explorers, near starvation, stumbled out of the Bitterroot
Mountains and camped with the Indians at Weippe
Prairie. The Nez Perce graciously welcomed the Corps of
Discovery, giving them supplies and information about the river
route to the Pacific Ocean. Refreshed and prepared to continue
onward, the explorers entrusted their horses to the Nez Perce
until their return.
In early May 1806, the Corps of Discovery reunited with the
friendly Nez Perce Indians. The explorers had hurried from the
Pacific coast in the hopes of crossing the Bitterroot Mountains
over the Lolo Trail early. Lewis and Clark
were disappointed to learn that the snow was too deep in the
mountains and they would not be able to proceed on for at least
three or four weeks. On May 14, the Corps set up camp nearly
opposite the present-day town of Kamiah, Idaho. This camp has
become known by many names: Long Camp, due to the almost one
month stay; Camp Chopunnish, a name Lewis and Clark used for
the Nez Perce; and Camp Kamiah, based on the camp's location.
During their stay Clark became the Nez Perce's "favorite phisician"
and spent much of his time tending patients. He treated chiefs,
braves, women and children for ulcers, rheumatism, sore eyes
and weak limbs and Clark dressed wounds, drained abscesses and
distributed salves, laxatives and eyewash. The Corps also participated
in much revelry with the Indians. Clark recounted this merriment
in his journal, "in the evening several foot races were run
by the men of our party and the Indians; after which our party
devided and played at prisoners base untill night. after dark
the fiddle was played and the party amused themselves in dancing"
(DeVoto 1997, 400). The rest and relaxation ended on June 10
when the Corps of Discovery broke camp to continue on. The Corps:
. . . rose early this morning and had all the horses collected
except one of Whitehouses horses which could not be found, an
Indian promised to find the horse and bring him on to us at
the quawmash fields at which place we intend to delay a fiew
days for the laying in some meat by which time we calculate
that the Snows will have melted more off the mountains and the
grass raised to a sufficient hight for our horses to live. we
packed up and Set out at 11 A M we set out with the party each
man being well mounted and a light load on a 2d horse, besides
which we have several supernumary horses in case of accident
or the want of provisions, we therefore feel ourselves perfectly
equiped for the Mountains . . . (DeVoto 1997, 401)
The explorers traveled approximately eight miles northeastward
to the southern portion of the Weippe Prairie, near the spot
where they first met the Nez Perce a year earlier. Finally,
on June 15, the Corps set out over the Lolo Trail on their journey
home.
The Nez Perce National Historical Park, administered by
the National Park Service, has two main Visitor Centers, one
at Park Headquarters in Spalding, Idaho, 11 miles east of Lewiston
and the other at Big Hole National Battlefield, 10 miles west
of Wisdom, Montana. The Visitor Center at Spalding, Idaho is
open in the winter months from 8:00am to 4:30pm and until 5:30pm
in the summer. The Visitor Center at Big Hole National Battlefield
near Wisdom, Montana is open in the winter from 9:00am to 5:00pm
and in the summer from 8:30am to 6:00pm. Please call 208-843-2261,
or visit the park's website
for further information.
Pompey's Pillar
The Corps of Discovery reached Pompey's Pillar on July 25,
1806. Having already reached the majestic Pacific, disproved
the myth of the Northwest Passage, and established sound relations
with the indigenous peoples of the American West, the explorers
were ready to return home with a wealth of stories and information.
On the way back, the American pioneers continued to explore
the surrounding areas and make new discoveries.
Pausing at Traveler's Rest from June 30
to July 3, 1806, Lewis and Clark decided that it would be best
to divide the group into separate parties, maximizing their
exploratory range. Clark and his party traversed Bozeman Pass,
set out down the Yellowstone River, and headed for the caches
at Beaverhead. Along the way, the crew came across a prominent
rock formation, located on the south bank of the river in present-day
Nibbe, Montana. Naming the anomalous natural formation after
Sacagawea's child Jean Baptiste Charbonneau or 'Pomp', Clark
wrote of the discovery in his journal that evening:
. . . At 4PM [I] arrived at the remarkable rock situated
in an extensive bottom.This rock I ascended and from it's top
had a most extensive view in every direction. This rock which
I shall call Pompy's Tower is 200 feet high and 400 paces in
secumpherance and only axcessible on one side which is from
the N.E. the other parts of it being a perpendicular clift of
lightish coloured gritty rock.The Indians have made 2 piles
of stone on the top of this tower. The nativs have ingraved
on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c.(Jones 2000,
185-186)
Clark, too, left his mark at Pompey's Pillar, engraving his
name and the date into the stone; still visible, his mark is
probably the only extant on-site evidence of the entire expedition.
Pompey's Pillar National Monument, a National Historic
Landmark, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S.
Department of the Interior. The Pillar overlooks the Yellowstone
River about 25 miles east of Billings, Montana. From Memorial
Day weekend through Labor Day the National Monument is open
to drive-in visitation from 8:00am to 8:00pm; after Labor Day
through the remainder of September the hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm;
from October to the Memorial Day weekend, vehicle gates are
closed, but the Monument is open to walk-in visitors although
no services are available. Please call 406-875-2233, or visit
the monument's website
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Pompey's Pillar National Historic Landmark nomination.
Camp Disappointment
Lewis and three companions, George Drouillard and the Field
brothers, Joseph and Reubin, spent July 22 to July 26, 1806,
at Camp Disappointment, the northernmost campsite of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition. Lewis hoped to determine how far north
the Marias River extended. President Jefferson desired proof
of a tributary of the Missouri River that extended to 50°-north
latitude, giving the United States a claim to a more northern
boundary. Had this been the case, the natural boundaries of
the Louisiana Purchase would have been extended. Unfortunately,
Lewis "lost all hope of the waters of this river ever extending
to N. Latitude 50 °" (DeVoto 1997, 431). Lewis's plan of finding
an easy portage route between the Marias and Saskatchewan rivers
that would allow America to divert Canadian fur trade into American
territory at the Missouri River was also thwarted. Therefore,
on Saturday, July 26, the men broke camp and continued down
river. Lewis wrote:
. . .The mor[n]ing was cloudy and continued to rain as
usual, tho' the cloud seemed somewhat thiner I therefore postponed
seting out untill 9 A.M. in the hope that it would clear off
but finding the contrary result I had the horses caught and
we set out biding a last adieu to this place I now call camp
disappointment . . . (DeVoto 1997, 433)
As the men journeyed onward, they met a group of Piegan Indians
who made camp with them. The following morning the first and
only conflict of the expedition occurred at Two
Medicine Fight Site.
Camp Disappointment, a National Historic Landmark, is located
on the Blackfeet Reservation near Browning, Montana. The campground
is open to the public. Please call 406-338-7737 or visit www.blackfeetnation.com
for further information. You can also download
(in pdf) the Camp Disappointment National Historic Landmark
nomination.
Two Medicine
Fight Site
Two Medicine Fight Site was the scene of the only violence
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On July 26, 1806, Meriwether
Lewis, George Drouillard and the Field brothers, Joseph and
Reubin, left Camp Disappointment and traveled
down the Marias River. There they encountered eight members
of a Blackfeet tribe known as the Piegans and made camp for
the night. Lewis asked the Piegans about trade in the area and
discovered that a British post was six days away. There one
could "obtain arm[s] amunition speritous liquor blankets &c
in exchange for wolves and some beaver skins" (DeVoto 1997,
436). Unworried by news of an established British trade post,
Lewis told the Indians of the advantages of having the Americans
on the plains. He also explained that he had mediated peace
between warring Indian nations on either side of the mountains.
This was upsetting news to the Blackfeet Indians. Lewis had
just informed them that not only did he organize the worst enemies
of the Blackfeet--the Nez Perce, the Shoshones and others--he
intended to supply them with weapons. The Blackfeet monopoly
on guns would end if the explorers succeeded. Lewis and his
men, unaware of the Piegans fear of their plans, settled down
to sleep.
The next morning Lewis awoke to the shouts of his men. The
Piegans were stealing their weapons. Drouillard and Lewis quickly
chased the Indians and recovered their guns, but Reubin Field,
in his struggle, stabbed and killed one of the Piegans. The
Indians then tried to take the explorers' horses. This struggle
also ended in the death of a Piegan at the hands of Lewis, who
was almost shot. He commented, "being bearheaded I felt the
wind of his bullet very distinctly" (DeVoto 1997, 439). The
Piegans fled and the explorers broke camp and hurriedly continued
down the river.
This struggle on July 27, 1806, was the only violent conflict
between the Corps of Discovery and American Indians and resulted
in the only two Indian casualties of the Expedition. Furthermore,
it marks the first meeting and conflict between any representative
of the American government and the Blackfeet Indians.
Two Medicine Fight Site is just south of Cut Bank, Montana,
approximately 19 miles southeast of Camp Disappointment. The
site is not open to the public.
Other Places Listed in the National
Register Associated with Lewis and Clark
Monticello
Monticello, home of President Thomas Jefferson, is today a
National Historic Landmark reflecting the versatility and genius
of its creator. Jefferson was born at Shadwell in Goochland
(now Albermarle) County, Virginia, in 1743 and graduated from
the College of William and Mary in 1762. Ten years later Jefferson
married Martha (Wayles) Skelton, the widow of Bathurst Skelton,
with whom he had six children although only two lived to adulthood.
Jefferson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769
to 1775, the Virginia House of Delegates from 1776 to 1779,
was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1775-1776 and
the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. Elected
Governor of Virginia in 1779, he served until 1781. Jefferson
was Minister of France from 1785 to 1789, the first Secretary
of State of the United States from 1790 to 1793, Vice President
to John Adams, and the third President of the United States,
elected in 1800 and reelected in 1804. In 1814 Jefferson drafted
the bill which resulted in the establishment of the University
of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1819. Jefferson played a key
role in developing that institution and designed the plans for
many of its buildings.
Jefferson began building Monticello, his "Little Mountain," from
his own design in 1770 and by 1775 had completed the western part,
including a two-tiered portico. Between 1796 and 1809 Jefferson
enlarged Monticello, making it an example of classical design
adapted to its environment. Jefferson's careful symmetry had a
far-reaching influence in developing the Federal style of architecture.
Monticello, as it finally took shape during the second building
campaign (1793-1809), clearly reflects Jefferson's years in France.
The low horizontal appearance of a single story, interlocked in
the center by the spherical mass of the dome, is strongly reminiscent
of the river front of the Hôtel de Salm in Paris. Jefferson, influenced
by the great buildings he had observed in Europe, both modern
and ancient, retained the original main room with its octagonal
end and portico, and the flanking rooms with their octagonal bays.
He eliminated the entrance hall and stairs, and extended the outer
walls of the old hall to more then twice their original length.
Ultimately, with other additions, the whole house was deepened
by more than twice its original area.
The interior of Monticello is distinguished by beautiful woodwork
and holds many examples of Jefferson's ingenuity. Jefferson
designed dumbwaiters, disappearing beds, a duplicate-writing
machine, the forerunner of the one-arm lunch chair, folding
doors and other apparatuses, which are still evident at Monticello
today. A classical example of American architecture, Monticello
contains 35 rooms, including 12 in the basement. The west façade,
most familiar to the public, looks out upon a large lawn bordered
by a flower garden. Except for absences necessitated by his
public service, Jefferson remained here until his death on July
4, 1826.
It was from Monticello, on January 18, 1803, that President Jefferson
sent a confidential letter to Congress, asking for $2,500 to finance
a trek to the American West--up the Missouri River and beyond
to the Pacific Ocean--a journey of discovery that would become
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Meriweather Lewis was a familiar
presence in Jefferson's home, being a near neighbor and later
the secretary to the President. In 1792, as a teenager, Lewis
heard about Jefferson's proposal to the American
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia to outfit an adventurer
to explore the American continent, and he volunteered but was
deterred by Jefferson. Ultimately Jefferson chose André Michaux,
a French botanist, for the mission, which ran into diplomatic
entanglements and was called off. Jefferson recalled that the
young Lewis "warmly solicited me to obtain for him the execution
of that object." A decade later Jefferson did choose Lewis to
lead his expedition.
At Monticello Jefferson created a double-story Entrance Hall
in which he planned to display some of Lewis and Clark's exhibits
sent back from their journey. This hall held maps of the world,
European sculptures and paintings, and examples of items found
in the New World. Lewis and Clark sent several boxes and barrels
back east in the summer of 1805 containing animal skins, bones,
and horns, as well as American Indian objects. These arrived
in Washington D.C. in August, while Jefferson was at Monticello
were he wrote to Etienne Lemaire on August 17, 1805:
The barrel, boxes, & cases from Baltimore mentioned in
your letter contain skins, furs, horns, bones, seeds, vases
& some other articles. Being apprehensive that the skins & furs
may be suffering I would wish you to take them out, have them
well dried & brushed, and then done up close in strong linen
to keep the worm-fly out. As I do not know in what packages
they ate, it will be necessary for you to open them all & take
out the skins & furs, leaving everything else in their cases
. . .
Unfortunately, the fate of Jefferson's collection of American
Indian objects, which disappeared after his death, remains unknown.
Many of Lewis and Clark's items found on their expedition ended
up at the American Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia. Because of Jefferson's pivotal role and personal
interest in the expedition, Monticello was chosen to host the
first signature event of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in
January 2003.
Monticello, a National Historic Landmark, is located in the Virginia Piedmont about two miles southeast of Charlottesville, Virginia, off of State Rte. 53. Open daily 8:00am to 5:00pm March-October, 9:00am to 4:30pm November-February, closed Christmas Day. Tours of the house and gardens available March-October. House tours offered daily; seasonal outdoor tours offered March-October. There is a fee for admission. Call 434-984-9822 or visit the website for further information. Monticello is also a designated World Heritage Site. You can also download (in pdf) the Monticello National Historic Landmark nomination.
Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is located at the scenic
confluence of the Sheanandoah and Potomac rivers in the Blue
Ridge Mountains. George Washington visited Harpers Ferry in
August 1785 and was impressed by the water power potential of
the site. Ten years later, as President, he personally selected
this site for a proposed Federal musket producing factory or
armory. Construction of a dam, musket factory and power canal
along the Potomac began in 1798. Today, the preserved 19th-century
commercial and residential buildings of Harpers Ferry reflect
its importance as a manufacturing and commercial center from
1800 to the Civil War. It was here that John Hall pioneered
the successful development of interchangeable parts in manufacturing.
In 1859 the town was the scene of the John Brown's raid, an
event of major importance in bringing the nation closer to the
Civil War. Strategically important, Harpers Ferry changed hands
from Union to Confederate forces several times during the War.
Its capture, together with 12,693 Union soldiers defending the
town, by "Stonewall" Jackson in 1862 was a dramatic prelude
to the great battle at Antietam Creek that ended the first southern
invasion of the North. The buildings of former Storer College
are also part of Harpers Ferry, and illustrate the efforts by
the Freedman's Bureau and private philanthropy to aid and educate
African Americans after the Civil War.
It was at Harpers Ferry that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was
outfitted with weapons for their western journey. Meriwether Lewis
relied on the U.S. Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry for guns
and hardware that would meet the unique requirements of his transcontinental
expedition. On March 16, 1803, Lewis arrived in Harpers Ferry
with a letter from Secretary of War Henry Dearborn addressed to
Armory superintendent Joseph Perkins:
Sir: You will be pleased to make such arms & Iron work,
as requested by the Bearer Captain Meriwether Lewis and to have
them completed with the least possible delay.
In addition to procuring rifles, powder horns, bullet molds,
ball screws, extra rifle and musket locks, gunsmith's repair
tools, several dozen tomahawks and large knives, Lewis also
attended to the construction of a collapsible iron boat frame
of his own design. The strange craft was comprised of an iron
frame, which came apart in sections, over which was stretched
a covering of hide. This special boat could be used high in
the mountains if they were unable to make dugout canoes. The
Armory mechanics assigned to the project, however, had considerable
difficulty assembling the iron frame, and Lewis was forced to
prolong his Harpers Ferry stay from the week he had planned
to more than a month. On April 20, 1803, Lewis wrote President
Jefferson:
My detention at Harper's Ferry was unavoidable for one
month, a period much greater than could reasonably have been
calculated on; my greatest difficulty was the frame of the canoe,
which could not be completed without my personal attention to
such portions of it as would enable the workmen to understand
the design perfectly. -My Rifles, Tomahawks & knives are already
in a state of forwardness that leaves me little doubt of their
being in readiness in due time. (Jackson 1962, 38-39)
Lewis and the Armory mechanics finally finished the iron frame,
and Lewis conducted a "full experiment" on the unusual canoe.
To his satisfaction, he found the craft could carry a load of
1,770 pounds. Better yet, since the collapsible frame weighed
just 99 pounds, he could transport the disassembled boat with
relative ease. On April 18, 1803, Lewis finally departed Harpers
Ferry to attend to other pressing matters in Lancaster and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Eleven weeks later, on July 7, Lewis returned to
Harpers Ferry. The following day he wrote President Jefferson:
"Yesterday, I shot my guns and examined the several articles
which had been manufactured for me at this place; they appear
to be well executed." Securing a driver, team and wagon to
haul his large supply of weapons and articles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Lewis departed Harpers Ferry for the last time on July 8, 1803.
Although there would only be one skirmish at Two
Medicine Fight Site in which weapons were used against American
Indians, the arms procured at Harpers Ferry kept Lewis and his
men fed for 28 months. The following is the list of inventory
acquired by Lewis at Harpers Ferry: 15 Rifles, 24 Pipe tomahawks,
36 Pipe tomahawks for "Indian Presents," 24 Large knives, 15 Powderhorns
and pouches, 15 Pairs of bullet molds, 15 Wipers or gun worms,
15 Ball screws, 15 Gun slings, extra parts of locks and tools
for repairing arms, 40 Fish giggs, a collapsible iron boat frame
and 1 small grindstone.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, administered by
the National Park Service, stands at the confluence of the Potomac
and Shenandoah rivers in the states of West Virginia, Virginia
and Maryland, 65 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and 20
miles southwest of Frederick, Maryland, via U.S. Rte. 340. The
Visitor Center is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas
and New Year's Day. Hours of operation are from 8:00a.m. to
5:00p.m. There is a fee. Please call 304-535-6298 or visit the
park's website for further
information.
American Philosophical
Society
Since 1789, this two-story, late Georgian brick building has
been the home of one of America's oldest and most honorable
learned and scientific societies. The American Philosophical
Society traces its origins back to 1743, when Benjamin Franklin
publicly urged the creation of a society to stimulate interest
in learning. In addition to providing a central meeting place
for its members, the American Philosophical Society Hall served
many purposes in its early years. Portions of it were leased
to the University of Pennsylvania and to artist Thomas Sully
for his portrait studio, and the basement was used as a wine
cellar for an import business. Most notably, the Hall became
the first home of Charles Willson Peale's famous natural history
museum (before it was moved to Independece
Hall) which included specimens of all kinds of plants and
animals, including the giant bones of an extinct mastodon. The
Society's journal, Transactions, continues as the country's
oldest scholarly periodical. Over the years the Society has
counted America's intellectual elite among its members. President
Thomas Jefferson was one, and 10 years before the Corps of Discovery,
Jefferson proposed that the American Philosophical Society outfit
an adventurer to explore the American continent. A teenage Meriweather
Lewis volunteered to lead this expedition but was deterred by
Jefferson. Jefferson ultimately chose André Michaux, a French
botanist, to lead this exploration. Although the Michaux expedition
was called off, the Society became entertwined with the exploration
of the American west. During Lewis's stay in Philadelphia during
the Spring of 1803, he took crash courses in a variety of disciplines
that he and Jefferson thought would be necessary as leader of
the expedition. Among those he consulted were physician Dr.
Benjamin Rush and anatomist Dr. Caspar Wistar, both members
of the Society.
After the Corps of Discovery disbanded in 1806, many of Lewis
and Clark's journals were deposited in the collections of the
American Philosophical Society at Jefferson's urging. Some editors
of the journals argued that the excellent condition of these
journals indicates that they were fair copies made after the
end of the expedition in September of 1806, and prior to Jefferson's
receiving them at the end of the year. Others, however, suggest
that the story is more complex. The American Philosophical Society
collection consists of 18 small notebooks, approximately 4 by
6 inches, of the type commonly used by surveyors in field work.
Thirteen of these are bound in red morocco leather, four in
boards covered in marbled-paper, and one in plain brown leather,
and there are a number of loose pages and rough notes as well.
The available evidence suggests that Lewis and Clark carried
their notebooks sealed in tin boxes that were intended to protect
the relatively fragile journals from the elements. If nothing
else, with Jefferson's advising, the journals were considered
invaluable as the only reliable record of data gathered on the
expedition. It seems likely, therefore, that great care would
be taken in their preservation. From a close examination of
the journals and sets of loose notes, noted Lewis and Clark
historian Gary Moulton, among others, has concluded that Lewis
and Clark often worked from rough notes compiled daily, then
periodically transcribed these into more polished form in the
bound volumes, however in most cases, the time between taking
the notes and transcribing them must have been very brief. On
many occasions, the explorers clearly wrote directly into the
bound volumes. The journals contain huge volumes of data, going
beyond geographical notes and records of temperature and weather.
Both men made meticulous observations on the geology and biology
of the region and enlivened their journals with images of animals
and plants, American Indian artifacts, canoes and clothing.
Today, the journals remain an invaluable record of the journey.
The Hall recently opened its doors to the public for the first
time since the early 19th century. On view are exhibitions that
explore the intersections of history, art and science, with
a focus on the early days of Philadelphia and the nation.
The American Philosophical Society Hall, a National Historic
Landmark, is located at 104 South Fifth St., in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. It is part of Independence
National Historical Park, administered by the National Park
Service. The Hall is open year round from 12:00pm to 5:00pm;
from April-September it is open Wednessday-Sunday; October-March
is is open Thursday-Sunday. The Library, located across Fifth
St., is open to researchers 9:00am to 4:45pm, Monday-Friday,
except holidays. Please notify the Library at least 24 hours
in advance of any visit by calling 215-440-3400. Visit the American
Philosophical Society online at www.amphilsoc.org.
Big Bone Lick
State Park
During the Pleistocene age, which occurred during the last
great Ice Age, enormous herds of herbivorous animals existed
in the vicinity of what is today Big Bone Lick State Park. The
area is recognized as the key to understanding the life of the
Ice Age on the North American continent over 10,000 years ago.
The mammoth and the mastodon were among the animals to visit
the Lick. Ancestors of the sloth, bison and horse also frequented
the area, which had vegetation and salty earth around the springs
that the animals used to supplement their diet. The land was
soft and marshy and many of the animals became mired in the
bogs and died.
The area was widely known to the American Indians, such as
the Delaware and Shawnee, who inhabited the Ohio Valley and
relied on these centrally located springs for much of their
salt and a large amount of their game. The Europeans learned
of the existence of Big Bone Lick from these American Indians
and the first European to visit this site was a French Canadian,
de Longueil, in 1739. A map of Louisiana, dated 1744, marks
the lick as the "place where they found the elephant bones in
1739." The first removal of fossil bones from the lick by American
Indian trader Robert Smith was also recorded in 1744. In 1773,
a survey party reported using the enormous ribs of the mammoth
and mastodon for tent poles and the vertebrae as stools or seats.
Explorers noted that the large bones lay scattered throughout
the valley. The first map of Kentucky, prepared by John Filson
in 1784, bore on the legend: "Big Bone Lick; Salt and Medical
Spring. Large bones are found there."
Meriwether Lewis traveled to Big Bone Lick in October 1803 on
his way west to join William Clark and the men assembling in Louisville
for the Corps of Discovery. Lewis sent a box of specimens back
to President Jefferson, along with an extremely detailed letter
describing the finds of Goforth--the lengthiest surviving letter
written by Lewis. President Jefferson devoted much time to the
study of Big Bone Lick and believed that some of the large animals
might still be living in the western regions of the country. In
1807, after the Corps of Discovery disbanded, Jefferson sent Clark
to Big Bone Lick for the first organized vertebra paleontology
expedition in the United States. Clark employed laborers and collected
bones, enough, in three weeks' time, to ship three huge boxes
to the President. Jefferson had a room in the White House for
the display of the Big Bone collection. The collection was divided
and various sections of it went to the National Institute of France
in Paris, to Philadelphia and to Jefferson's personal collection,
which was unfortunately ground into fertilizer by a careless servant.
Between 1756 and 1812, while excavations were continuing, the
salt industry developed in the area. The salt works required 500
or 600 gallons of water to make a bushel of salt. Two furnaces
were created to speed the process of evaporating the water from
the salt, but the operation proved too expensive to be profitable,
and the business was halted in 1812. From 1831 to 1848, various
paleontologists and geologists visited Big Bone Lick, and the
lick was included in indexes of all the principle geological,
paleontological and scientific journals in the United States,
England, Germany, and France. Besides salt, the springs were known
for their medicinal qualities and by 1821 Big Bone Lick was one
of the most celebrated resorts in that part of the Ohio Valley.
A large hotel was erected and named Clay House, in honor of Henry
Clay, the famous statesmen from Lexington, Kentucky.
Big Bone Lick State Park is located at 3380 Beaver Rd.
in Union, Kentucky. The park is located 22 miles southwest of
Covington on State Hwy. 338, off Hwy. 42/127 and I-71/I-75.
The park, including a 7.5 acre lake, is open dawn to dusk and
is home to a buffalo herd. Camping is available year-round.
The outdoor museum is generally open 9:00am to 5:00pm daily,
except during the winter when it is only open weekends, or by
calling the main office. There is a fee for admission. Please
call 859-384-3522 for more information, or visit the park's
website.
Old Clarksville
Site
In June of 1778, George Rogers Clark, older brother of William
Clark, led a military expedition from the Falls of the Ohio
to attack British garrisons in the Old Northwest. In a series
of bold strikes, Clark's forces captured Kaskaskia, in Illinois,
some smaller forts near there, and Fort Sackville at Vincennes
(Indiana). Because of the American presence in the Old Northwest
at the end of the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, during
peace negotiations with the British, could assert boundaries
for the new country stretching west to the Mississippi and north
to the Great Lakes.
Even before leaving on this expedition Clark was familiar
with the Kentucky and Ohio Valley having traveled, surveyed
and claimed land there since 1775. It was in the area around
the Falls of the Ohio that Clark was to spend his life after
the American Revolution. He divided his time between trying
to press his claims for payment of debts he had incurred during
his march and administrating the land that has come to be known
as Clark's Grant.
On January 2, 1781, the general assembly of Virginia passed
a resolution that not more than 150,000 acres of land northwest
of the Ohio River be granted to officers and men in Clark's
force. This land, known as the Illinois Grant, was selected
at a meeting of the officers on February 1, 1783, at Louisville.
Probably chosen on Clark's recommendation, it ran from below
the Falls of the Ohio to a spot up the river at a distance as
would make the width not exceed the breadth. At an early meeting
the commission chosen to distribute and administer this land
set aside 1000 acres for a town that came to be known as Clarksville.
George Roger Clark preferred Clarksville to all others as a
place of business and residence. In 1803, Clark grew tired of
living with his sister and brother-in-law at Locust
Grove across the river in Kentucky and moved to his cabin
on a rocky point above Clarksville. Clarksville failed to thrive
and Clark moved back to Locust Grove in 1809.
William Clark was living in Clarksville while gathering recruits
to form the Corps of Discovery. In October 14, 1803, George Rogers
Clark hosted Lewis when he arrived in Clarksville and the two
explorers made final preparations for their historic journey.
On October 26, Lewis and Clark left Clarksville with their chosen
men, heading down the Ohio River for their westward journey. Today,
the Old Clarksville Site includes the site of George Rogers Clark's
two-room cabin which he occupied from 1803 until 1809, the site
of a mill that he built on Mill Run, and the sites of the cabins
that once composed Clarksville--the first American town in what
was to become the Northwest territory. The best description of
Clarksville as a town is provided by several travelers and observers
who visited early in the 19th century. In 1805 Josiah Espy wrote
in his journal, which was later quoted in Ross F. Lockridge's
1927 book, George Rogers Clark, that "At the lower end
of the falls is the deserted village of Clarksburg (Clarksville)
in which General Clark himself resides. I had the pleasure of
seeing this celebrated warrior at his lonely cottage seated on
Clark's Point. This point is situated at the upper end of the
falls, particularly the lower rapid, commanding a full and delightful
view of the falls particularly the zigzag channel which is only
navigable at high water. The general has not taken much pains
to improve this commanding and beautiful spot, having only raised
a small cabin but it is capable of being made one of the handsomest
seats in the world."
The Old Clarksville Site is located in Clarksville, Indiana.
The site is not accessible to the public. For information on
visiting the nearby Falls of the Ohio State Park, location of
one the Lewis and Clark Bicenninal signature events, visit the
park's website.
Fort Massac
In 1757, in order to protect their communication lines and
supply routes to forts on the upper Ohio, the French ordered
a party to scout the area adjacent to the mouth of the Tennessee
River and to build a suitable fortification. Under the authority
of Captain Charles Phillipe Aubry the French erected a fort
and named it Fort Ascension. The fort was strengthened in 1759
and renamed Fort Massiac in honor of a minister of the French
Marine. The French held the fort until 1765 when it was surrendered
to the British under the terms of the treaty of 1763. While
the British had plans to occupy the fort this was not carried
out, and on June 28, 1778, George Rogers Clark,
the older brother of William Clark, came with a command of 160
men, and landed at the mouth of Massac Creek a few hundred yards
east of the fort. Clark and his men were on their way to capture
the British garrison at Vincennes.
In 1794 President George Washington ordered General "Mad" Anthony
Wayne to fortify and rebuild Fort Massiac. A detail of men under
Captain Thomas Doyle arrived at Fort Massiac on June 12, 1794,
and by October 20, 1794, they had erected a fort, which was
named Massac, an anglicized version of Massiac. By 1797 Fort
Massac became a major port of entry for settlers coming down
the Ohio and entering the Illinois country. Fort Massac was
placed under direct control of Alexander Hamilton in 1799. Plans
to garrison 1,000 men at the fort as a response to a French
threat were abandoned in favor of a new fort down river at Grand
Chain. In 1802 a garrison was established under the command
of Captain Daniel Bissell. In 1804, a detachment of troops from
Fort Massac occupied New Madrid in present-day Missouri.
On July 2nd the Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn wrote to Meriwether
Lewis: "You will call on the Commanding Officers at Massac
and Kaskaskais for such Non-commissioned Officers & privates as
will be necessary to accompany you on your tour to the Westward,"
(Jackson 1962, 102). On November 11, 1803, Lewis and Clark
arrived at Fort Massac. Lewis hoped to find eight soldiers who
had volunteered for the Corps of Discovery at South West Point,
Tennessee, but they were not present. Lewis hired a local woodsman
named George Drouillard, the son of a French father and Shawnee
mother, to find the soldiers and report with them near St. Louis
at the east bank of the Mississippi for the expedition west. Only
two volunteers from Fort Massac met Captain Lewis's standards,
and became members of the expedition. On November 13th, the Corps
of Discovery left Fort Massac.
In 1805 Aaron Burr came to Fort Massac for a meeting with General
Wilkinson. It is believed that Burr tried unsuccessfully to
enlist Wilkinson's participation in a scheme to establish a
nation west of the Alleghenies. In 1811, the New Madrid earthquake
caused severe damage at the fort, but the damage was repaired
and the fort became headquarters for the 24th Infantry. The
fort was evacuated in 1814 and its garrison was moved to St.
Louis. Nearby settlers stripped the fort of its wood and bricks.
In 1903, the Daughters of the American Revolution purchased
24 acres surrounding the site and on November 5, 1908, it was
officially dedicated as Illinois' first state park. The present
site of the fort was excavated in 1939 by a team of archeologists
directed by Paul Maynard under the sponsorship of the State
of Illinois, Division of Parks and Memorials. World War II interrupted
the work and at that time Maynard reconstructed the ditch. In
the early 1970s a replica of an American fort at Fort Massac
was reconstructed off the original site of the French and American
forts. This replica, based on the 1794 American Fort, was brought
down in the fall of 2002. A replica of an 1802 American fort
is currently under construction, to be complete by August 2003.
The original site, where all the forts were built, has the archeological
outline of the original 1757 French Fort. Geographically, the
Fort Massac Site overlooks the Ohio River and is situated on
a rise of ground about 50 feet above the water level. The site
commands a view of about three miles upstream and downstream.
Fort Massac Site is located at 1308 E. 5th Street, Metropolis,
Illinois. Metropolis is on the Illinois side of the Ohio River,
looking across to Kentucky, some miles down river from Paducah,
Kentucky on the opposite bank. Take Exit 37 off I-24 through
Metropolis. Follow Hwy. 45 through Metropolis and follow the
signs to the fort. For more information visit Fort Massac State
Park's website
or call 618-524-4712.
Locust Grove
Built around 1790, Locust Grove was the residence of its builder
and owner, Major William Croghan and his wife, Lucy Clark Croghan.
Lucy was the sister of Revolutionary War General George Rogers
Clark (1752-1818) and William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.
Locust Grove, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was visited by
a number of national figures including James Monroe, Andrew
Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John James Audubon, and Aaron Burr.
In 1841, Locust Grove was the scene of a duel between the fiery
Kentucky statesman Cassius Marcellus Clay and Robert Wickliffe.
Architecturally, Locust Grove is a fine example of the frontier's
adaptation of Georgian styling. Each floor of the two and one-half
story brick residence contains four rooms divided by an axis
hallway. A kitchen, servants quarters, well, dairy and log cabin
have been rebuilt on excavated foundations.
On November 9, 1806, Lewis and Clark stopped at Locust Grove,
as they were making their way back east after the Corps of Discovery
had disbanded. The citizens of Louisville threw a banquet ball
for the explorers and bonfires were lit in their honor. On November
13, 1806, Lewis and Clark parted company for the time, as Lewis
went to Monticello to see President Jefferson
and Clark went to Fincastle, Virginia. General George Rogers Clark
lived here from 1809 to 1818, after leaving the Old
Clarksville Site. Today, Locust Grove and its surrounding
55 acres are owned by Jefferson County, Kentucky, and operated
by Historic Locust Grove, Inc.
Locust Grove, a National Historic Landmark, is located
at 561 Blankenbaker Ln. in Louisville, Kentucky. From I-65 take
I-71 North. Continue on I-71, passing the I-64 split, and exit
at Zorn Ave. Turn left onto Zorn, right onto River Rd., right
onto Blankenbaker Ln. and proceed gradually uphill away from
the river where you will find the entrance to the Locust Grove
parking lot on your left. Locust Grove is open Monday-Saturday,
10:00am to 4:30pm, with the final tour at 3:30pm. There is a
fee. The museum is closed New Year's Eve and Day, Easter, Derby
Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Please call 502-897- 9845
or visit www.locustgrove.org
for further information.
Natchez Trace
Parkway
The importance of the Old Natchez Trace as a road of national
significance cannot be underestimated. The existence of the
trail, and its subsequent use by travelers during America's
history, brought about the opening of the Western frontier.
The Trace's use was a major factor contributing to the development
of the nation's interior. The vast network of trails, which
we now know as the Natchez Trace, was used by American Indians
in prehistoric times, and later as a road of commerce between
many American Indian nations. The Spanish explorer Hernando
DeSoto and his expedition force are believed to be the first
Europeans to have used part of the Trace on their 1540 journey
across the southeastern United States.
The French, traveling from their settlements in the St. Lawrence
Valley, also used the Trace. Among the Frenchmen known to have
traveled through Tennessee, probably via the Trace, were Father
Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliett (1673), Robert Cavelier
de la Salle (1682), Martin Chartier (1692) and Jean Couture
(1696). The arrival of the English in the region strained relations
with the French, and during the Revolutionary War both Loyalists
and Rebels moved into eastern Tennessee. For the new United
States, the Old Southwest, stretching from the Mississippi River
on the west to present Georgia on the east to the present Kentucky-Tennessee
border on the north, was faced with communication and transportation
difficulties. The capital of the southern territory was Natchez
and it was removed from the nearest outpost, Nashville, by 600
miles of American Indian territory.
Winthrop Sargent, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and the
first governor of the Natchez District, attempted to solve the
problem of insufficient communications between settlements by
encouraging the use of the Trace for travel to Natchez. Communicating
with Washington D.C., more than 1200 miles from Natchez, required
a long and dangerous journey over the Trace to Nashville where
the trail connected with the Wilderness Road. Those traveling
southward from Nashville had the choice of riding or walking
over the Trace or guiding wooden flatboats and barges over the
waterways, but the return trip north always required following
the Trace. Boatmen, itinerant preachers, slave traders, land
speculators, gamblers and merchants all followed the trail,
as did men who would later gain renown: Jim Bowie, Sam Houston,
John J. Audubon, Andrew Jackson, Meriwether Lewis and Aaron
Burr. The trail was designated the official U.S. mail route
in 1800 and postriders were allowed two weeks to make the trip
from Nashville to Natchez. Postriders continued to use the Trace
for mail until almost 1830, in spite of competition from the
steamboats introduced in 1820. Between 1801 and 1803 the Trace
was cleared by Federal troops, and in the War of 1812 the Americans
used the Trace returning from the defense of New Orleans in
1815. The Natchez Trace ceased to be the main highway leading
to the riverport cities of Natchez and New Orleans after the
introduction of the steamboat in 1820, when river travel replaced
the use of the Old Natchez Trace.
Meriwether Lewis traveled the Natchez Trace during his final trip
in 1809, when he was governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis
opted against taking a sea route, for British ships were pressing
Americans into the British Navy against their will to fight in
the Napoleonic Wars--a course of action that led to the War of
1812. Packing the journals, which he did not want to fall into
British hands, Lewis traveled the Natchez Trace, then the most
heavily traveled road of the region. The party, consisting of
Lewis, Major James Neelly, John Pernier, and Neelly's servant,
reached the Chickasaw Agency, some six miles north of the present
location of Houston, Mississippi, where Lewis asked Neelly, in
the event that anything fatal were to occur to him, that the trunks
with the expedition journals would be sent to "the President."
Stephen Ambrose records in Undaunted Courage that "Neelly
assumed Lewis meant Jefferson, not Madison," then the current
President. On October 11, at Grinder's Inn, 72 miles short of
Nashville, most historians believe that Lewis, suffering from
depression and anxiety, shot himself in the head and died the
following morning. Thomas Jefferson had much earlier noted Lewis's
depressions, when he served as the President's secretary, and
believed that they ran in the Lewis family. The Meriwether Lewis
Monument and grave in Lewis County, Tennessee, are located about
100 yards from the site of Grinder's Inn. The Inn was located
on the Old Trace, near the crossing of Little Swan Creek, and
was said to border American Indian territory.
The Natchez Trace Parkway, administered by the National
Park Service, follows an historic Indian trace, or trail, between
Nashville, Tennessee and Natchez, Mississippi. Of the 444 miles
of Parkway, 423 are completed. Meriwether Lewis's grave is in
Meriwether Lewis Park, near where old Natchez Trace crosses
Tenessee State Hwy. 20, on an upland ridge between the Tennessee
and Duck rivers. For more information on travel, camping, lodging,
activities, fees and permits visit the Natchez Trace Parkway
website.
Learn
More
By clicking on one of these links, you can go directly to a
particular section:
Links to Lewis & Clark Tourism and Commemoration Websites
Links to Websites of Places Featured in
the Lewis & Clark Itinerary
Selected Bibliography for Lewis & Clark
Children's Literature
Links
to Lewis & Clark Tourism and Commemoration Websites
Lewis and Clark
National Historic Trail, National Park Service
This 3,700 mile-long trail follows the expedition's route
as closely as possible given the changes over the years. The
trail has worked with the Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI) Lewis
and Clark Project in developing the Corps
of Discovery II, a traveling exhibit that will be following
the Lewis and Clark Trail during the bicentennial commemoration.
Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial National Historic Site, National Park Service,
and Lewis
and Clark Journey of Discovery
The Memorial's Museum of Westward Expansion presents an overview
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as does their excellent website.
National
Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial
In cooperation with State, Federal, and Tribal governments,
the mission of the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial
is to commemorate the journey, re-kindle its spirit of discovery,
and acclaim the contributions and goodwill of the native peoples.
Lewis
and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
For more than 30 years, the Foundation has been the pre-eminent
nonprofit organization coordinating efforts to promote the heritage
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
LewisandClark200.gov
This website is a partnership among 32 Federal agencies and
organizations aimed at providing a single, easy-to-use web portal
with information about various Lewis and Clark historic places.
PBS
Online: Lewis and Clark
PBS explores the Lewis and Clark Expedition, offering biographies
on the members of the Corps of Discovery, information about
the Indian tribes, journal entries, a timeline and a living
history.
Discovering
Lewis and Clark
A multimedia rich site about the visions and values inherent
in the Northwest as Lewis and Clark saw it, and the way it is
seen today.
The
Journals of Lewis and Clark
Presented by the American Studies department of the University
of Virginia, this site offers excerpts from the journals of
Lewis and Clark.
Lewis
and Clark on the Information Superhighway
A comprehensive list of web sites that are related in some manner
to the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
World
Heritage Sites
Monticello, one of the sites highlighted in this itinerary,
is also a desingated World Heritage Site.
National
Trust for Historic Preservation
Learn about the programs of and membership in the oldest national
nonprofit preservation organization. In 2003, the Trust is offereing
two National
Trust Study Tours which follow the footsteps of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition.
Historic
Hotels of America
A feature of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's
Heritage Traveler program that provides information on historic
hotels and package tours in the vicinity of this itinerary.
National
Park Service Office of Tourism
National Parks have been interwoven with tourism from their
earliest days. This website highlights the ways in which the
National Park Service promotes and supports sustainable, responsible,
informed, and managed visitor use through cooperation and coordination
with the tourism industry.
State Websites:
Links
to Websites of Places Featured in the Lewis & Clark Travel
Itinerary
- Monticello,
VA
- Harper's Ferry National
Historical Park, WV
- American
Philosophical Society Hall, PA
- Big
Bone Lick State Park, KY
- Locust
Grove, KY
- Fort
Massac, IL
- Old
Cahokia Courthouse, IL
- Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial National Historic Site, MO
- St. Charles Historic District, MO: www.historicstcharles.com
- Rocheport Historic District, MO: www.rocheport.com
- Arrow
Rock, MO
- Fort
Atkinson, NE
- Sergeant
Floyd Monument, IA
- Knife River Indian
Villages National Historic Site, ND
- Big Hidatsa Village
Site, ND
- Fort Union Trading
Post National Historic Site, ND
- Great
Falls Portage, MT
- Three
Forks of the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park,
MT
- Beaverhead
Rock, MT
- Clark's
Lookout, MT
- Traveler's
Rest State Park, MT
- Pompey's
Pillar, MT
- Lemhi
Pass, ID & MT
- Lolo Trail,
ID & MT
- Weippe Prairie,
ID
- Nez Perce National
Historical Park, ID & MT
- Cape
Disappointment Historic District, WA
- Chinook
Point, WA
- Fort Clatsop,
OR
- Natchez Trace Parkway,
KY & MS
Selected
Bibliography for Lewis & Clark
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether
Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Bergon, Frank, ed. The Journals of Lewis and
Clark. New York: Penguin Books, 1989.
Betts, Robert B. In Search of York: The Slave
Who Went to the Pacific With Lewis and Clark. Boulder: University
of Colorado Press, 2000.
Billington, Ray Allen and James Blaine Hedges.
Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949.
Clarke, Charles G. The Men of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition: A Biographical Roster of the Fifty-one Members
and a Composite Diary of Their Activities from all the Known
Sources. Glendale, California: A. H. Clark Co., 1970.
DeVoto, Bernard, ed. The Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.
Duncan, Dayton. Lewis & Clark: An Illustrated
History. New York: Knopf, 1997.
Fanselow, Julie. Traveling the Lewis and Clark
Trail. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2003.
Ferris, Robert G. and Roy E. Appleman, eds. Lewis
and Clark: Historic Places Associated With Their Transcontinental
Exploration (1804-06). Washington, D.C.: United States Department
of the Interior, National Park Service, 1975.
Fifer, Barbara and Vicky Soderberg. Along the
Trail with Lewis and Clark. Helena, Montana: Farcountry
Press, 2002.
Furtwangler, Albert. Acts of Discovery: Visions
of America in the Lewis and Clark Journals. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1993.
Hunsaker, Joyce Badgley. Sacagawea: Beyond
the Shining Mountains With Lewis and Clark. Boise: Tamarack
Books, 2000.
Jackson, Donald, ed. Letters of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition With Related Documents 1783-1854. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1962.
Jones, Landon Y., ed. The Essential Lewis and
Clark. New York: Ecco Press, 2000.
Lamar, Howard, ed. The New Encyclopedia of
the American West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Lavender, David. The Way to the Western Sea:
Lewis and Clark Across the Continent. New York: Anchor Books,
1990.
Mansfield, Leslie. The Lewis & Clark Cookbook:
Historic Recipes from the Corps of Discovery & Jefferson's
America. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2002.
Moulton, Gary E., ed. The Journals of Lewis
and Clark, Volumes 1-13. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska
Press, 1983-2001.
National Park Service. Coronado National Memorial.
Arizona. (pamphlet) Washington, D.C.: government Printing Office,
1974.
Rodger, Tod. Bicycle Guide to the Lewis &
Clark Trail. Harvard, MA: Deerfoot Publications, 2000.
Schmidt, Thomas. National Geographic Guide
to the Lewis & Clark Trail. Washington, DC: National Geographic,
2002.
Seibert, Erika K. Martin, comp. The Earliest
Americans Theme Study for the Eastern United States (draft).
Washington, D.C.: National Historic Landmarks Survey, NRHE,
National Park Service, 2002.
Slaughter, Thomas P. Exploring Lewis and Clark:
Reflections on Men and Wilderness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
2003.
Thwaites, Rueben Gold, ed. The Original Journals
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: Atlas. 1904. Reprint,
Scituate, Massachussets: Digital Scanning, 2001.
Children's
Literature
Adler, David. A Picture Book of Sacagawea.
New York: Holiday House, 2000.
Bergen, Lara. The Travels of Lewis & Clark.
Austin, Texas: Steadwell Books, 2000.
Bowen, Andy Russell. The Back of Beyond: A
Story About Lewis and Clark. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books,
1997.
Christian, Mary Blount. Who'd Believe John
Colter? New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1993.
Faber, Harold. Lewis and Clark. New York:
Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish, 2001.
Myers, Laurie. Lewis and Clark and Me.
New York: Scholastic, Inc, 2002.
Scheuerman, Richard and Arthur Ellis, eds. The
Expeditions of Lewis & Clark and Zebulon Pike: North American
Journeys of Discovery Travelogue. Madison, Wisconsin: Demco,
2001.
National
Geographic's Lewis and Clark web site features children's
activities
Credits
Lewis and Clark Expedition was produced by the National
Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial, and Lewis and Clark National Historic
Trail, in conjunction with the National Conference of State
Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO). It was created under
the direction of Carol D. Shull, Keeper of the National Register
of Historic Places, National Park Service, Patrick Andrus, Heritage
Tourism Manager, and Beth L. Savage, Publications Managing Editor.
Lewis and Clark Expedition is based on information in
the files of the National Register of Historic Places and National
Historic Landmarks collections. These materials are kept at
1201 Eye St., NW, Washington, D.C., and are open to the public
from 8:00am to 12:00pm and 1:00pm to 4:00pm, Monday through
Friday (although the collection is currently closed, click
here for more information).
Bob Moore from the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and
Laurie Heupel from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
provided invaluable photographic and editorial assistance. National
Register web production team members included Jeff Joeckel,
who designed the itinerary, Rustin Quaide, and Shannon Bell
(all of NCSHPO). Property descriptions were written by Kristin
Sanders, (National Council for Preservation Education intern),
Mike Chin (also from NCPE) and Rustin Quaide. Essays entitled
Early Explorations and The Trail Today were written
by Rustin Quaide; the other four essays were excerpted by Shannon
Bell from material written by Bob Moore for the Lewis and
Clark Journey of Discovery portion of the Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial website. Special thanks to the following
for their photographic contributions: American Philosophical
Society, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Bureau of Land
Management, Discovering Lewis and Clark (www.lewis-clark.org),
Friends of Arrow Rock, Friends of Fort Atkinson, Illinois State
Historic Preservation Agency, Larry Grantham of the Missouri
Department of Historic Resources, Missouri Historical Society,
Nebraska State Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society,
Oregon Tourism Commission, Pebble Publishing (www.rocheport.com),
Sioux City Public Museum, State Historical Society of North
Dakota, Travel Montana, Traveler's Rest Preservation and Heritage
Association, and artists Ron Backer and Gary Lucy.
Images used in the design of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
homepage are courtesy of Discovering Lewis and Clark (www.lewis-clark.org)
[boat image: Researched and built by Richard C. Boss for Fort
Clatsop National Memorial; now on loan to the Lewis and Clark
Interpretive Center, Great Falls, Montana], Ed Hamilton [Portrait
of York: Photo by Ed Hamilton of clay study for 8 foot bronze
York Memorial to be installed in the spring of 2003 on the Belvedere
Plaza in downtown Louisville overlooking the Ohio River commissioned
by the City of Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor David Armstrong 2002],
and Scott Christensen [St. Louis Arch].
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