At sunrise, the boats move down the Ohio. They lift the barge over a few riffles and see a large flock of passenger pigeons, now extinct. Anchored opposite Marietta, Ohio, Lewis writes a letter to President Jefferson.
Muskigum and Ohio Rivers at Marietta
© 2021 by Robert Heacock. Used by permission.
Marietta
Marrietta is at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio and chiefly on the east side of Muskingum . . . . There appears to be several good brick buildings in the town and near it and several very cleaver frame buildings . . . . The streets run parrellel one way with the Ohio and the other way with the Muskingum, crossing at right angles.
—Thomas Rodney[1]September 23, 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, … Continue reading
Lewis and Reubin Field lunched on a few passenger pigeons at Camp Disappointment on 25 July 1806. That they and our forebears could eat an entire species into extermination, was not conceivable then. For that matter, extinction as a scientific concept was not yet proven either. See Thoughts on Extinction.
Letter to Jefferson
On board my boat opposite Marietta
September 13th 1803.I arrived here at 7. P.M. and shall pursue my journey early tomorrow. This place is one hundred miles distant from Wheeling, from whence in descending the water is reather more abundant than it is between that place and Pittsburgh, insomuch that I have been enabled to get on without the necessity employing oxen or horses to drag my boat over the ripples except in two instances . . . .
MERIWETHER LEWIS. Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[3]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 124.
Pigeons and Squirrels
observid many pigeons passing over us pursuing a south East course. The squirrels still continue to cross the river from N. W. to S. E.—
—Meriwether Lewis
Notes
| ↑1 | September 23, 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 67-69. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | William Bright, Native American Placenames of the United States (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 304. |
| ↑3 | Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 124. |
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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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).