On this day with Lewis & Clark

August 23, 1803

Ocean-going ships

In Pittsburgh, Meriwether Lewis waits for the completion the barge prior to departing down the Ohio River. Another traveler, F. André Michaux, tells of an ocean-going ship built there in 1802.

August 23, 1804

First bison kill

Blowing sand makes it hard to see. Despite that, Lewis collects a specimen of selenite, and Pvt. J. Field kills the expedition’s first bison. Camp is near present Vermillion, South Dakota.

August 23, 1805

The River of No Return

Clark sees the futility of trying to canoe down the Salmon River and turns back. At Fortunate Camp, Lewis has the dugouts sunk in a nearby pond and more Lemhi Shoshones arrive to help with the portage.

August 23, 1806

Passing the Moreau River

The expedition makes about forty miles stopping multiple times to wait for winds to abate or storms to pass. At their camp near present Forest City, South Dakota the mosquitoes are troublesome.

Featured Trail Segments

Two army officers at Harpers Ferry ponder an iron frame in the shape of a large canoe

Eastern Beginnings

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.

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Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


Yankton Sioux encampment with tepees and scaffold graves

Among the Yanktons

21 August–8 September 1804

Moving along the present border between Nebraska and South Dakota, the expedition turns its ‘enlightened‘ attention to several features in the upper Missouri River mythology.

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Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


York leads a horse, Sacagawea and the Captains ride

Down the Western Valleys

11 August–10 September 1805

Having reached the end of the navigable Missouri, the captains—aided by Lemhi Shoshone Chief Cameahwait, Sacagawea‘s brother—begin acquiring horses, making pack saddles, and caching supplies they can no longer take with them.

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Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


The white pirogue ad dugout canoes arrive at the French village of St. Charles.

The Final Leg

11 August–26 September 1806

While hunting on the Missouri River below present Williston, North Dakota, Lewis is accidentally shot through the flesh of his buttocks. The next day, they catch up to Clark’s party at Reunion Bay. As one united force, they are ready to sprint down the river to St. Louis.

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Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles

Featured Artist Roger Cooke

From an island on the Columbia, Indians show William Clark where the mouth of the Yakima River is

The Yakima River

The expedition paddles through high wind and wives next to the river's shore

The Dismal Nitches

A grandfather and his grandchildren commemorate the arrival of the spring salmon

First Salmon Ceremony

Historical artist Roger Cooke worked with the Washington State Historical Society to recreate several Lewis and Clark scenes of their trek in Washington and Oregon. His art is featured on many interpretive signs at waysides throughout this area of the historic trail. Cooke’s works bring people to the forefront of the Lewis and Clark story. His illustrations feature not just the expedition members but Nez Perce, Palouse, Yakama, Wanapum, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Tenino, Wishram, and various Upper and Lower Chinook Peoples. He displays a full spectrum of emotions—even smiling Indians!—and multi-generational families near their villages. These are stories that modern cameras and digital editing cannot capture.

Artist’s Index

More

    Calendar

    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!

     

    The Arts

    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.

     

    Medicine on the Trail

    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.

     

    The Boats

    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.

     

    The Fur Trade

    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.

     

    Hunting and Fishing

    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.

     

    Legacies

    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.

     

    Louisiana’s Purchase

    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.

     

    Horse Travel

    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.

     

    The Trail

    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.

     

    Native American Nations

    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.

     

    People

    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.

     

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.

Logo: Lewis and Clark.travel

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.