On the Trail
July 15, 1803
Pittsburgh arrival
Outside Pittsburgh, Lewis arrives at Fort Fayette at two in the afternoon. One hour later, he writes to President Jefferson. In Washington City, Jefferson writes to Lewis with news of the Louisiana Purchase and shares the coordinates of Lt. Broughton's exploration of the Columbia River.
July 15, 1804
Treeless plains
After waiting for the Missouri River fog to lift, the expedition sets out at 7 am and encamps near present Nemaha, Nebraska where the treeless plains extend for miles. Lewis’s chronometer—critical for calculating longitude—stops, and he collects a specimen of hedge bindweed—now lost.
July 15, 1805
Leaving the Falls of the Missouri
After laboring since 2 June 1805 to move beyond the Great Falls of the Missouri, the expedition is finally moving again. They make about 26 river miles passing high sand banks, a fort mountain, and blooming prickly pears. Lewis’s dog Seaman helps hunt.
July 15, 1806
Yellowstone arrival
Today, the expedition is split into five separate detachments. Clark crosses present Bozeman Pass and arrives at the Yellowstone River. He names a river after Pvt. Shields but fails to find any trees large enough to build canoes. Lewis remains at camp above the Great Falls of the Missouri where mosquitoes torment his dog, Seaman. In three other detachments, Pvt. [...]
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.
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Up the Missouri
14 May–20 July 1804
On 14 May 1804—after more than a year of preparation and travel—the boats leave Camp River Dubois and head up the Missouri River. At St. Charles, the two captains, Clark’s slave York, interpreter George Drouillard, eight or nine French engagés, 34 enlisted men, and Lewis’s dog Seaman depart in three boats: the barge and two large pirogues.
Everyone quickly learns of the struggles and hazards of moving up the Missouri with its many sawyers and sandbars. Despite the overloaded boats and several close calls, they safely pass many landmarks made familiar by earlier traders from St. Louis.
Crossing the present state of Missouri and then heading north along the Kansas-Missouri border, they pass the homelands of the Omaha, Kansa, Otoe, and Pawnee. On 21 July, they reach the mouth of the Platte where only a handful of traders had ever continued north towards the Knife River Villages.
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Gates of the Rockies
13 July–17 August 1805
Above the Great Falls of the Missouri, the expedition continues up the Missouri River in eight dugout canoes. There, the river flows along and through the eastern arms of the Rocky Mountains. Clark lists each river constriction as a gate, gap, or narrow.
| Clark’s description | Date | Present-day name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Rockey Mountains at Pine Island rapid | 16 July 1805 | Tower Rock |
| 2. | Great Gate of the Rock Mouts. | 19 July 1805 | Gates of the Mountains |
| 3. | Little Gate of the Mountain | 25 July 1805 | Toston Dam, Lombard |
| – | three forks of Missouri | 27 July 1805 | Three Forks, Headwaters of the Missouri |
| 4. | Narrows of the 3d Mountain | 1 August 1805 | Jefferson Canyon |
| 5. | 4th Gap of the Mountain | 15 August 1805 | Rattlesnake Cliffs |
| 6. | Rapid at the narrows of 5th Mtn. | 16 August 1805 | Beaverhead Canyon Gateway |
1 From Clark’s list of “Estimated Distances”.
Below Three Forks, Montana, the Missouri River ends—fed by three forks named by the captains: the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson. They continue up the Jefferson until it too forks into three rivers.
The Beaverhead River is only a sixth the size of the Missouri, and the enlisted men must walk the heavy dugouts up the shallow rapids. They are encouraged when Sacagawea sees familiar landmarks such as Beaverhead Rock.
To get to the waters of the Columbia, they would need horses. The captains take turns scouting ahead by land to find the Shoshones who they hope will have horses. While crossing the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass, Lewis finally meets them.
Clark would continue with most of the party moving the boats up the shallow Beaverhead. By the time they reach the end of the navigable river, Lewis and a group of Shoshones are waiting for them. One journalist would later name the place Fortunate Camp.
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Clark on the Yellowstone
15 July–11 August 1806
Having traveled up the Gallatin River and over Bozeman Pass, Clark, York, the Charbonneau family, and eight enlisted men arrive at the Yellowstone River near present Livingston, Montana.
They travel by horse for several days before finding cottonwood trees large enough to make canoes. By the time they finish two small dugouts, most of their horses are stolen—likely by Crows.
Sgt. Pryor and three privates take the remaining horses across the river and follow an Indian road leading to the Knife River Villages. They would not get far before all their horses are stolen. The small detachment returns to the river where they construct two bull boats from willow and bison hides. Now far behind Clark, they would need to paddle hard if they are to ever rejoin the expedition.
In the two new dugouts, Clark’s party of nine encounter large herds of bison as they paddle down the river. They reach the Missouri River on 3 August with relative safety. Chased by swarms of mosquitoes, they move slowly down the Missouri for several days, but they can find no sign of Lewis and his group.
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Lewis on the Marias
16 July–11 August 1806
Lewis can’t leave finding the source of the Marias River alone. If it comes from the far north, then that region will be considered part of the Louisiana Territory. With only three men, Lewis risks traveling through Blackfeet homelands to find the river’s source.
On 16 July, Lewis directs Sgt. Gass to portage the dugouts around the falls. Those boats are coming down the Missouri—paddled by a detachment lead by Sgt. Ordway. Lewis and his small group then leave the Great Falls of the Missouri bound for the Marias.
On Cutbank Creek, a small tributary, Lewis determines the headwaters will not extend America’s reach into present Canada. Attempts to take celestial observations are obscured by clouds, and the entire junket becomes a big disappointment.
Now in the heart of Blackfeet country, Lewis meets a group of young men, and when the latter attempt to steal rifles, a fatal encounter ensues. Both groups flee.
Riding all day and through the night, Lewis can only hope that he will find the relative safety of Gass and Ordway’s detachments and that together, they can paddle down the Missouri to reunite with William Clark at the mouth of the Yellowstone.
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Featured Members
George Drouillard
Hunter and interpreter
Drouillard was one of the captains’ three most valuable hands. He was also the highest paid member after the captains, he shared the Charbonneaus’ tent with the family and the captains, and he was the only man Clark seemed to call by first name in the journals.
John Thompson
Private
On 8 October 1805, the canoe split open and took on water. The Corps encamped for two days to dry out the goods, allowing Thompson to heal a bit.
Hugh Hall
Private
As if to confirm the captains’ poor evaluation of the new arrivals from Fort Southwest Point, a scant nine days after his arrival, Hall was among a group of six or seven men who got drunk on New Year’s Eve.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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!
Scientific Explorations
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
Related Explorers
Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.
Expedition Members
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.
Other Topics
Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On.
Tools and Techniques
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.
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 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.
Language
From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.
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.
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 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.
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.
A Military Corps
Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.
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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