Watercolor provided by waynewilsonart.com
River thick with ice
At Wood River, the thermometer drops below zero and the Missouri runs with ice. In Washington City, the Spanish Minister proposes that the Americans leave the west side of the Mississippi to the Indians.
Windy and cold
With the thermometer dropping to -12°F, there is little activity at Fort Mandan and only a few Knife River villagers visit. In Spain, King Charles IV authorizes the arrest of Lewis and his expedition.
Hats, mats, and baskets
At Fort Clatsop near present Astoria, Oregon, Lewis describes Chinookan eating utensils, woven baskets, and hats. A Clatsop man refuses to trade his otter skin robe for anything other than blue beads.
10 January–30 August 1803
The Lewis and Clark Expedition ostensibly began in February 1801 when President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Army commander General James Wilkinson requesting that Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis become the President’s personal secretary. Exploration of North America’s western half had long been a goal of the president, and now he had a young protégé who might lead such an expedition.
On 18 January 1803, Lewis hand-delivers to the U.S. Congress the President’s request to fund what would become known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The President works in Washington City and Monticello to craft instructions and line up the best talent to assist Lewis. In France, three diplomats negotiate with Napoleon Bonaparte to purchase the Louisiana Territory.
Meriwether receives training, supplies and equipment in Philadelphia and avails himself of armaments and specialized equipment—including a collapsable iron-framed boat—at the Schuylkill and Harpers Ferry arsenals. By July 1803, everything is at Fort Fayette in Pittsburgh. All Lewis needs is a large boat to carry everything down the Ohio. He also needs to know if William Clark will accept his invitation to join him.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
12 December 1803–13 May 1804
In mid-December 1803, construction of winter quarters begins. In accordance with the wishes of the Spanish Governor, Lewis could work in St. Louis and the soldiers could build a garrison in Illinois across from the mouth of the Missouri. The Wood river cantonment is known today as Camp River Dubois.
In St. Louis, Lewis learns about the Missouri River from established St. Louis traders and purchases more Indian gifts and equipment from local merchants. Across the river, the captains would need ot establish military discipline and the soldiers would need to become a team.
Both captains and key personnel cross the Mississippi frequently, and in March, Lewis and Clark witness the official transfer of Upper Louisiana from Spain to France. One day later, France transfers the territory to the United States.
With the arrival of several St. Charles French boatmen from St. Charles on 11 May 1804, departure up the Missouri is imminent.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
26 October 1804–6 April 1805
On 2 November 1804 below the Knife River Villages, work begins on the expedition’s winter fortification. The men’s quarters, storage rooms, and the 16-foot pickets, are designed for defense against hostile Indians, especially the Sioux, who would be quite troublesome, although they never attacked the fort directly. “This place we have named Fort Mandan,” Lewis recorded, “in honour of our Neighbours”—their kind and congenial Mandan Indians. Here they celebrate their second Christmas and New Year’s Day.
On 28 February 1805, sixteen enlisted men are assigned to hew six canoes from cottonwood logs, and they finish them in 22 days. Meanwhile, the rest of the men make rope, leather clothing and moccasins, cured meat, and battle axes to trade for corn. Lewis prepares botanical, zoological, and mineralogical specimens for shipping back to President Jefferson. Clark works on his Fort Mandan maps.
By the time they are ready to leave Fort Mandan, they add some key members to the permanent party: Toussaint Charbonneau, his wife and infant son—Sacagawea and Jean Baptiste, and French trader Jean-Baptiste Lepage. Each would play critical roles in the expedition’s journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
7 December 1805–22 March 1806
The expedition leaves Tongue Point on 7 December 1805, and immediately upon their arrival at a small point of land above the Netul River, begin to construct winter quarters. They would name it Fort Clatsop in honor of their neighbors.
The weather is sometimes snowy, sometimes icy, but almost always rainy. Their diet is typically elk, which quickly spoils in the warm, wet climate. Visiting Clatsops and Kathlamets sell them sturgeon, wapato, and eulachon as well as woven mats, bags, and waterproof conical hats.
A saltworks near present Seaside, Oregon is established to make salt by boiling seawater. In early January, Clark visits the salt works on his way to get blubber from a beached whale. Sacagawea, who hadn’t yet seen the ocean, insists she be included in his group.
After the dark and damp coastal winter and nearly two years since leaving St. Louis, everyone is anxious to head back.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
“Arikara Village of Earth-Covered Lodges”
“Buffalo hunt. On snow shoes.”
“Ball Players”
George Catlin (1796–1872) gives us one of the most accurate views of Native American lifeways as seen by the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition when they traveled on the Missouri River in 1805 and 1806. His curiosity sparked by Lewis and Clark artifacts displayed at Peale’s Museum in Philadelphia, Catlin began painting Native Americans with a trip up the Mississippi with General William Clark in 1830. He expanded his travels creating over 500 paintings. He also wrote a series of ‘letters’ of his travels, providing an early ethnographic record of many Native nations and tribes: Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, Volumes 1 and 2.
From major crisis such as the death of Sgt. Floyd, Lewis’s gunshot wound, and the illness of Sacagawea to minor events such as sexually transmitted diseases, mosquito-born illnesses, and deep cuts, the medical aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition provide an interesting topic of study.
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
The entire story is told in these five webpages.
Learn about the people—and one dog—who were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Because of the literate journalists, historians and visual artists can tell the Expedition’s story. When they celebrated with song and dance, we too can share in the experience.
Starting with its genesis in Jefferson’s Monticello, Lewis’s training and preparations in Philadelphia, and the barge’s excursion down the Ohio River, the route they took, often called the Lewis and Clark Trail, crosses the continent weaving an epic tale of western exploration treasured by many today.
Given President Jefferson’s directive to establish commerce, the captains worked extensively within a long-established network of North American fur trade. Part of their mission was to help establish the United States of America’s position within that industry.
Explore the methods they used to get stuff done—from building canoes to making rope.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition benefited from the Indians’ knowledge and support. Maps, route information, food, horses, open-handed friendship—all gave the Corps of Discovery the edge that spelled the difference between success and failure.
To cross the Rocky Mountains, the Lewis and Clark Expedition needed horses and the skills to manage them. Despite their seemingly constant struggle to find missing and stolen horses, as a kind of calvary unit, they left hoof prints on approximately 1,500 miles of western terrain.
Starting at Pittsburgh, traveling to the Pacific Ocean, and then returning to St. Louis, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled approximately 10,600 miles. Of that, 85%—over 9,000 miles—was by boat. To understand travel in the early 1800 American West is to understand the boats and challenges of river navigation.
From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.
Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.
Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On.
Expedition Calendar
Links to every day-by-day page in a calendar format spanning 31 August 1803 to 26 September 1806. A page every day!
Lewis and Clark left behind among many Indians a legacy of nonviolent contact. Those who came later enjoyed that legacy and too often betrayed it.
Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.
The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was due to its many members and the people they met, including politicians, Eastern gentleman scientists, traders, and the many people already living in the American west.
The President’s representatives in Paris had bargained successfully with Napoleon’s bureaucrats not only to buy the port of New Orleans, then the keystone of the continent, but also to acquire, at three cents an acre, an area extending from the Mississippi River to . . . where? No one knew until Meriwether Lewis stood at the crest of the Rocky Mountains at a place known today as Lemhi Pass, on 12 August 1805.
Although hunting and fishing were often considered a ‘gentleman’s sport’ especially in Europe, hunting and fishing for Native Americans and Americans alike were a matter of survival. The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition depended on the success of its hunters.
Legacy is a very slippery sort of term. If we could erase our myth concepts of Lewis and Clark … it might reawaken something really extraordinary in our national consciousness.
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).