Day-by-Day / December 13, 1804

December 13, 1804

Corn and beans

At Fort Mandan, Sgt. Ordway sends two men to Mitutanka to trade for corn and beans. Pvt. Joseph Field kills two buffalo, and a trader from the North West Company comes to collect one of Charbonneau‘s horses.

Temperatures Keep Dropping

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

A Fine Day

The Thermotr. Stands this morning at 20° below 0, a fine day. find it imposible to make an Observation with an artifical Horsison Joseph Fields kill a Cow and Calf to day one mile from the fort
William Clark

Corns and Beans

2 of my mess went up to the 1st village of the Mandans to day and bought Some corn and beans with a little paint and a fiew rings &.C.
—John Ordway

Mr. Morrison Visits

one of the men belonging to the N. W. Compy. came down from the Grovantares [Hidatsa] upper village to See us.
John Ordway

Spoke to Charbonneau about his debt telling him that as he had two horses, he might send one in part payment &c. He consented, & Early in the morning I sent [William] Morrison to Fort Mandan for the horse, Wrote a few lines to Capt. Lewis & to Mr. McK.
François-Antoine Larocque[2]W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen, Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738–1818 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 142.

 

Weather Diary

Ther. at sun symbol rise Weather Wind at sun symbol rise Thert. at 4 P.M. Weather Wind at 4 P.M. River
20 below fair S. E. 4 cloudy S. E.  

Meriwether Lewis[3]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

Notes

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 W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen, Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738–1818 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 142.
3 To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

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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.