On the Trail
July 27, 1803
Building Fort Kaskaskia
In Pittsburgh, Lewis oversees construction of the barge and waits to see if Clark will accept or decline his offer to co-command his Western expedition. In Washington City, orders are issued to lease land in Kaskaskia to build an American Army post to support the transfer of Louisiana and Jefferson's Western expeditions.
July 27, 1804
Leaving White Catfish Camp
At White Catfish Camp, the enlisted men and engagés load the boats, and they proceed to present Lewis and Clark Landing in Omaha, Nebraska. Clark investigates mounds and an old Otoe village and returns after dark. A knee is cut, mosquitoes rage, and Lewis adds several plant specimens to his collection—now lost.
July 27, 1805
Naming the three forks
With the canoes, Lewis reaches the Headwaters of the Missouri and decides to stop to take celestial observations and rest the enlisted men. Clark and his small group explore the Madison River and returns to the headwaters. Together again, the captains name the three rivers Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin.
July 27, 1806
Fight with the Blackfeet
Today, the expedition travels in five separate groups along four different rivers. On the Two Medicine River, the young Blackfeet camping with Lewis and his small party attempt to steal rifles and horses. A fatal encounter ensues, and everyone takes flight. Clark and his group paddle down the Yellowstone passing large herds of bison and elk and camping near present [...]
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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Past the Omahas
21 July–20 August 1804
Following the Missouri River north along the present Nebraska-Iowa border, the expedition passes the homelands of the Otoes and Omahas. The captains pay their respects to the late Omaha Chief Blackbird and conduct their first two councils, one with the Otoes and another with the Omaha.
Strong currents, heat, sandbars, sawyers, and masses of driftwood make hard days for the enlisted men and engagés, and Pvt. Moses Reed and an engagé desert.
Shortly after the council with the Omahas, Sgt. Charles Floyd becomes ill, and passes away. He is buried “with all the honors of War” on a bluff overlooking the river in present Sioux City, Iowa.
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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
Sacagawea
Interpreter
Speaking Hidatsa and Shoshone, she was an interpreter beyond value yet never on the payroll. Still, Sacagawea remains the third most famous member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
John Ordway
Sergeant
Ordway’s journal is the only one carries an entry for every one of the trek’s 863 days. Just after the expedition ended, Ordway had purchased the land warrants issued to Jean-Baptiste Lepage and William Werner.
Joseph Whitehouse
Private
His journal begins, “about 3 Oclock P.M. Capt. Clark and the party consisting of three Sergeants and 38 men who manned the Batteaux and perogues. we fired our Swivel on the bow hoisted Sail and Set out in high Spirits for the western Expedition.”
Quick Links
Meriwether Lewis William Clark Sacagawea York Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Seaman All Members
Native Nations Encountered
Northwest Coast
Plateau / Southwest
Northeast
Featured Artist: Alfred Jacob Miller
Pierre and the Buffalo in Jean Baptiste, Mountain Man.
Snake Indian Camp in August 19, 1805.
Blackfeet on the Warpath in The Blackfeet Confederacy
Miller’s reputation rests on his single Green River Rendezvous trip from which he transformed his original sketches and notes into a lifetime of images. His work preserves details of clothing, equipment, camps, transport, and performance. At the same time, his images were made for patrons who valued romance and spectacle. For that reason, Miller should be read carefully.
More
Other Topics
Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On.
Scientific Explorations
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
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!
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.
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.
Related Explorers
Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.
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.
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.
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.
A Military Corps
Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.
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.
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.
Expedition Members
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.
Tools and Techniques
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.
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.
Language
From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.
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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