A Military Corps
Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.
On the Trail
May 8, 1804
Shakedown cruise
At Camp River Dubois opposite the mouth of the Missouri, the barge and a pirogue are taken a few miles up the Mississippi for a shakedown cruise. In New Orleans, the former governor of Spanish Louisiana urges his Commandant General to arrest Meriwether Lewis and his expedition.
May 8, 1805
The 'River that Scolds all Others'
In eastern Montana, Clark explores the Milk River and sees wide plains, large herds of bison, and distant smoke. While walking the shore with Clark, Sacagawea gathers breadroot, an important food source. Fears mount when Lewis discovers where a pronghorn hide was recently scraped, and he wishes to avoid an encounter with the Assiniboine People.
May 8, 1806
An argument about horses
After describing northern shovelers and the Nez Perce methods of feeding on ponderosa pine, the expedition climbs to the Camas plains high above present Idaho's Clearwater River. Walammottinin, Twisted Hair, and Neesh-ne-park-ke-ook, Cutnose, argue about the expedition’s horses left in their care the previous winter, and Lewis adds the glacier lily to his plant collection.
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.
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
Winter at Wood River
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
Along the Northern Reach
7 April–12 June 1805
At 4 p.m. on 7 April 1805, the permanent party heads their six canoes and two pirogues up the Missouri toward the Rocky Mountain barrier. At the same moment, Corp. Warfington and a small crew accompanied by Too Né’s delegation bound for a meeting with President Jefferson head downriver in the barge.
The Missouri River reaches it most northern position flowing from the Great Falls of the Missouri across present Montana and North Dakota. Moving through this stretch, the expedition passes the Yellowstone, Milk, Poplar, and Musselshell rivers. In the Upper Missouri River Breaks, the journalists describe both “scenes of barrenness and desolation” and “seens of visionary inchantment”.
At the mouth of the Marias, they come to a river they did not expect. They are unsure which fork is the true Missouri. After ten days exploring each, the captains decide to take the left fork.
Lewis scouts ahead to find the Falls of the Missouri that they are expecting. Sacagawea becomes dangerously ill and travels with Clark and the boats until they can go no farther—below present Belt Creek.
If the expedition is to be successful, Sacagawea will need gain her health, and the heavy boats will need to be carted around not one, but several waterfalls on a long and difficult portage.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
Return to the Clearwater
23 March–9 June 1806
The desire to return to St. Louis motivates the paddlers as they head up the Columbia River. Across from the Sandy River, they stop to hunt and dry meat. They explore the Willamette and Sandy hoping that one of them is the fabled river that comes from California.
Below Celilo Falls, they begin trading for horses and by the time they reach the Walla Walla River, they have enough horses to take the overland Travois Trail back to the Snake River. They then continue by horse up the Clearwater River.
At Kamiah in present Idaho, they establish a “Long Camp” among the Nez Perce to wait for mountain snows to melt. Sgt. Ordway takes a side trip to the Salmon and Snake rivers where some Nez Perce fishers are catching salmon.
After five weeks sharing with the Nez Perce, they head to the mountain trails that will take them to the land of the buffalo.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
Featured Members
John Shields
Private
During the damp winter at Fort Clatsop and throughout 1806, the journals speak more and more often about Shields’ life-sustaining work as gunsmith. Certainly the guns had seen hard use.
Jean-Baptiste Lepage
Private
At the age of 43, Lepage was the oldest member of the expedition. He was a French-Canadian trapper and had lived among the Mandan prior to the expedition. His most embarrassing moment may have been losing the pack horse with Lewis’s winter clothing.
George Shannon
Private
Shannon had found the horses, then “Shot away what fiew Bullets he had,” failing to get any meat. Eventually, he carved a bullet from a stick and got a rabbit–his only food other than wild grapes during more than two weeks.
Quick Links
Meriwether Lewis William Clark Sacagawea York Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Seaman All Members
Native Nations Encountered
Northwest Coast
Plateau / Southwest
Northeast
Featured Artist: John Mix Stanley
The Bears Tooth
Fort Owen—Flathead Village
Lolo Hot Springs
The American portraitist, artist and illustrator John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), served as one of the official artists with the Stevens railroad survey party to the Northwest. His record of highlights along the route often combined documentary verisimilitude with romantic fantasy.
More
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.
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.
Trail Diplomacy
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.
Tools and Techniques
Related Explorers
Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.
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.
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.
Language
From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.
Synopsis of the Expedition
by Harry W. Fritz
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.
Other Topics
Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On.
Expedition Members
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Scientific Explorations
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
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.
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.
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