September 17, 1803

An Early Stop

The morning was foggy but bing informed by my pilot that we had good water for several miles I ventured to set out before the fog disappeared; came on seven miles to the old Town Bar, which being a handsome clean place for the purpose I determined to spend the day and to open & dry my goods . . . .
—Meriwether Lewis

Rusty Iron

I found on opening the goods that many of the articles were much Injured; particularly the articles of iron, which wer rusted very much my guns, tomehawks, & knives were of this class; I caused them to be oiled and exposed to the sun the clothing of every discription also was opened and aired, we busily employed in this business all hands
—Meriwether Lewis

Injured Biscuits

my bisquit was much injurd I had it picked and put up in these baggs—this work kept so busy that I ate not any thing untill after dark, being determined to have every thing in readiness for an early start in the morning;
—Meriwether Lewis

Lewis’s soggy biscuits were likely what we call today hardtack. Hardtack can last for several years—as long as it doesn’t get wet or become infested with vermin. Lewis doesn’t tell us which type of injury the biscuits received, but it appears he was picking out vermin until after dark.

Upstream Winds

between the riffles and in many places for several miles together there is no preseptable courent, the whole surface being perfectly dead or taking the direction only which the wind may chance to give it, this makes the passage down this stream more difficult than would at first view be immageoned, when it is remembered also that the wind so frequently sets up the river the way the traveler makes in descending therefore is by the dint of hard rowing—or force of the oar or pole.
—Meriwether Lewis

Related: Boats of the Expedition

Floating Mill

When passing this same stretch of river just a few days behind Lewis, Rodney mentions a floating mill between the Little Sandy and Ravenswood:

[W]e passed a floating mill anchored in the river. She was placed on a flat or scow and a canoe without it for the axes of the water wheel to lodge on; and both were connected and held together by a frame of square logs above and below.
—Thomas Rodney (26 September 1803)^[1]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), 76.

Griffin Greene, who helped establish Marietta, had seen floating mills in France and Holland, and thought they could solve the problem of pioneers unable to safely reach mills during the Indian war of 1791. Captain Jonathan Devoll, when given their description, constructed such a mill. Besides the Ohio, they were known to be on the Little Miami, Scioto, Hocking, and Muskingum Rivers.^[2]International Society for Landscaping, Place & Material Culture. “Cruising Down the River . . . in a Gristmill.” Pioneer America (1980), 115.