Watercolor provided by waynewilsonart.com
A day of rest
At Wheeling in present West Virginia, Lewis re-supplies and gives the crew a day to rest, wash clothes, and have some bread baked. He writes a letter to President Jefferson, purchases another boat, and hires another crew member. He also accepts Doctor William Patterson's offer to join the expedition. He shares a 'clever' dinner—and later has watermelon—with Thomas Rodney.
Truteau's old trading house
With favorable winds, the boats make 17 miles up the Missouri. They pass Jean Baptiste Truteau's old trading house, and they are now entirely within present South Dakota. Wolves eat a carcass and take a hat, Lewis collects a specimen of wild rice, and Pvt. Shannon is still missing.
Mountains to the left and right
The expedition proceeds north through the Bitterroot valley with the snow-capped Bitterroot Mountains to the west and the mostly barren Sapphire mountains to the east. They find two Indian horses and a colt. They also find a new pest—brittle prickly pears. In St. Louis, the Governor of Upper St. Louis, James Wilkinson, plans expeditions to the Yellowstone River and Sante [...]
Return to White Catfish Camp
Heading home, the captains stop to look at the bluff where they met with the Otoes in 1804. They recommend the location for a fort or trading post, and then the enlisted men paddle hard to reach their old White Catfish Camp below present Omaha.
31 August–13 November 1803
On 31 August 1803, after months of preparation, Lewis and his crew finally head down the Ohio River. Unfortunately, the water is so low that they must frequently unload and tow the overloaded barge with horses and oxen.
At the request of President Jefferson, Lewis disembarks at Cincinnati and travels overland to gather fossils at Big Bone Lick. He meets the boats, and together they continue to the Falls of the Ohio to pick up William Clark and several new recruits.
The expedition arrives at Fort Massac near the mouth of the Ohio on 11 November. There, they meet George Drouillard and immediately hire him as an interpreter. His first mission is to find the missing army recruits from Fort Southwest Point in Tennessee.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
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.
Instead of a volcano, they find blue earth, cliffs of white marl, and burning bluffs. Lewis becomes ill while testing one of the minerals he found. Instead of La Véndrye’s Golden Sands, they find hills of wind-blown loess. Instead of a Spirit Moundmountain of little people and devilish spirits, they find birds feeding on pissants atop present Spirit Mound.
Pvt. George Shannon fails to return from a hunting trip, and Patrick Gass is promoted to sergeant. At Calumet Bluff, their attention turns to receiving the Yankton Sioux. For two days, a council with speeches, gifts, songs, and dances is held.
At Old Baldy—present The Tower in South Dakota—everybody but the camp guard visits a prairie dog town, and they manage to capture one as a live specimen. He would travel to the Knife River Villages, Washington City, and reside in Peale’s Museum in Philadelphia.
Their encounters here had been encouraging, but Shannon is still missing, and the Lakota Sioux homelands are just ahead.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
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.
With the help of the Lemhi Shoshones, everything is carried across the Continental Divide. Clark and their new guide they call Toby, scout the Salmon River and find it is not navigable.
After nearly three weeks with the Shoshones, the expedition moves down the Lemhi River valley and heads up the North Fork Salmon River. The captains ignore Toby’s advice to follow the Indian Road, and they are forced to spend a snowy night near the summit of Lost Trail Pass.
Dropping down from Lost Trail Pass, the Flathead Salish give them a warm welcome and sell them some horses. The expedition then proceeds down the Bitterroot River Valley to Travelers’ Rest where they have yet to cross the Bitterroot Mountains.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
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.
At the Knife River Villages, they drop off the Charbonneau family and pick up Chief Sheheke and interpreter René Jusseaume who will visit Washington City.
The faithful paddlers meet several traders and receive flour, whiskey, woven shirts, and most importantly, news of the United States.
On 23 September 1806, the citizens of St. Louis—having given them up for dead—provide a boisterous welcome. The captains commence writing.
Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles
Private
On 23 January 1806, Lewis dispatched Howard and Werner to the Salt Camp on the ocean beach, to bring back a supply of salt. When they had not returned by the 26th, Lewis feared they had gotten lost.
Private
At a place where “one false Step of a horse would be certain destruction,” Frazer’s pack horse took that fateful step, lost its footing and rolled with its load “near a hundred yards into the Creek,” over “large irregular and broken rocks.”
Private
Colter left a legacy of western lore, not the least of which was his famous run from the Blackfeet Indians and his exploration of “Colter’s Hell.” Yet his contributions to the expedition were also many.
Meriwether Lewis William Clark Sacagawea York Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Seaman All Members
Final Inspection
Falls of the Ohio
Unloading the Red Pirogue at Camp River Dubois
In the words of artist Steve Ludeman, “I am fascinated with the geology, archeology, natural history, and cultural history of our country.” For years, he has specialized in landscapes and seascapes of the Pacific Northwest, but he also interprets the Eastern Legacy of Lewis and Clark. This is the 1803-04 journey of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Eastern seaboard, down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, to their winter camp at River Dubois (Wood River) across from St. Louis. These focus areas combine his love of history and outdoor adventures with a love of painting. For him, the journey of painting is a joyful one.
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.
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.
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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.
Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.
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.
From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.
Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.
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 additional funding from the following:
