At Fort Clatsop near the Pacific Ocean, George Drouillard kills seven elk and receives praise from Lewis. A new plan to conserve meat begins, and a lost canoe cannot be found.
In Washington City, President Jefferson writes to William Dunbar and shares news of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Clark’s Plan to Ration Meat
by Yellowstone Public Radio[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading
Meathouse
Fort Clatsop (replica)
© 1995 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Taken with cooperation from Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, Fort Clatsop.
Drouillard Kills Seven Elk
This morning sent out Drewyer and one man to hunt, they returned in the evening, Drewyer having killed seven Elk; I scarcely know how we should subsist were it not for the exertions of this excellet hunter.
—Meriwether Lewis
Drouillard’s Sagacity
Drewyer, who was the son of a Canadian Frenchman and an Indian woman, had passed his life in the woods, and united, in wonderful degree, the dexterous aim of the frontier huntsman with the intuitive sagacity of the Indian in pursuing the faintest tracks through the forest. All our men, however, had become so expert with the rifle, that we were never under serious apprehensions as to food, since, whenever there was game of any kind, we were almost certain of procuring it.
—Nicholas Biddle[2]Paul Allen, ed., History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark (Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814), 2:136.
Conserving Elk Meat
We have heretofore usually divided the meat when first killed among the four messes into which we have divided our party leaving to each the care of preserving and the discretion of using it, but we find that they make such prodigal use of it when they hapen to have a tolerable stock on hand that we have determined to adapt a different system with our present stock of seven Elk; this is to jerk it & issue it to them in small quantities.—
—Meriwether Lewis
Giving up the Search
The men who were sent in surch of the canoe returned without being able to find her, we therefore give her over as lost.
—Meriwether Lewis
Finding Longitude
Washington. Jan. 12. 06.
Dear Sir [William Dunbar]
you have probably known before this that the Colo. Freeman thought of for the Red river expedition was a different person from the military officer. the one proposed for this expedition is now here, and will be the bearer of this letter.
. . . . .
we have capt Lewis’s notes of the Missouri to his wintering place at Fort Mandan, and a map of the whole country watered by the Missouri & Columbia composed by himself last winter on very extensive information from Indians & traders, in which he expresses a good deal of confidence. you will have percieved that my suggestion of a method of finding the longitude at land without a time piece was that of a theorist only, not a practical astronomer. . . . I inclose you a method deemed by mr Joshua Moore of this place. Colo. Freeman will communicate to you one of mr Patterson’s.
Th: Jefferson[3]“Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-2999; also in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. … Continue reading
Weather Diary
aspect of the weather at rise
Wind at Weather at 4 OC. P.M. Wind at 4 OC. P.M. fair after clouds N. W. cloudy N. W. cool this morning but no ice nor frost at miday sand flies and insects in motion the wind from any quarter off the land or along the N. W. Coast causes the air to become much cooler. every species of waterfowl common to this country at any season of the year still continue with us.
—Meriwether Lewis[4]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of the month” column and spelled out some abbreviations.
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.
Plan a trip related to January 12, 1806:
Fort Clatsop is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the Lewis and Clark National and State Historic Parks.
Notes
| ↑1 | Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Paul Allen, ed., History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark (Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814), 2:136. |
| ↑3 | “Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-2999; also in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 290. |
| ↑4 | To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of the month” column and spelled out some abbreviations. |
