The captains continue to work separately. Lewis gathers intelligence in St. Louis. Clark brings the enlisted men and boats up the Mississippi and encamps in Illinois.
St. Louis Winter Scene
South Pond on the Arch Grounds. Photo by Sue Ford. Courtesy U.S. National Park Service.
Gathering Intelligence
Cahokia, December 19th 1803
Dear Sir,
I passed over to St. Louis with a view to obtain from inhabitants such information as I might consider usefull to the Government, or such as might be usefull to me in my further prosecution of my voyage.
MERIWETHER LEWIS Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[1]Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 147.
Early St. Louis
Four miles above Cahokia, on the western, or Spanish side of the Missisippi stands the village of St. Louis, on a high piece of ground. It is the most healthy and pleasurable situation of any known in this part of the country. Here the Spanish Commandant, and the principal Indian Traders reside;
—Thomas Hutchins[2]Thomas Hutchins, A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, 1778, edited by Frederick Charles Hicks, (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1904), … Continue reading
Clark’s Camp
2½ to St. Louis on the Lardb Side, passed the mouth of a Creek or Beyou on the Stbd & a Creek on the Lbd.
—William Clark
In present St. Louis, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial “commemorates Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the continental expansion of the United States” and is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service.
Notes
| ↑1 | Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 147. |
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| ↑2 | Thomas Hutchins, A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, 1778, edited by Frederick Charles Hicks, (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1904), 109–10. |
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.
This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.
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Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).