On a dark and sultry day at Camp River Dubois across from St. Louis, Clark has his sword and dirk fixed. In Washington City, President Thomas Jefferson receives disappointing news about the fossils that Lewis collected at Big Bone Lick on his way down the Ohio.
Sword or Hanger
Clark’s Sword and Dirk
I have my Sword, Durk [dirk] &c. fixed rain all day, assort Papers &c. dark Sultrey weather (took out of the Bag 32$ &[)] Some Thunder
—William Clark
Lewis’s Specimens Lost
Also on this day, Thomas Jefferson receives this letter informing him how the fossils collected by Meriwether Lewis at Big Bone Lick were lost.
New Orleans 6 March 1804
Dear Sir,
Captain Lewis by letter from [Fort] Massac under date 10 November last, informed me, that he had address’d to my care at Fort Adams three Boxes, requesting two of them to be forwarded you, and the other to Mr Peale in Philadelphia . . . . Unfortunately however the owner of the Boat in which they were sent, on his arrival at Natchez, was put in prison, and in consequence of his giving no information to any person relative to the Boxes, two of them were sunk in the river, & the third broken open, & the Contents stolen or destroyed . . . . I have been prevented gratifying you with these curiosities, which in all probability would have thrown some additional light upon the natural history of our Country . . . . I have requested however that no exertions may be spared to recover them if possible.
With perfect esteem and respect I offer for your happiness my most sincere wishes.
Hore Browse Trist[1]Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-42-02-0520. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 42, 16 November 1803–10 March 1804, ed. … Continue reading
Weather Diary
Thermometr. at rise
Weather Wind at Sunrise Thermometr. at 4 oClock Weather Wind at 4 oClock River 42 above 0 rain S. E 45 above 0 rain S E fall 3 ½ in. —William Clark[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.
Winter Camp at Wood River (Camp Dubois) is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site, near Hartford, Illinois, is managed as Lewis and Clark State Historic Site and is open to the public.
Notes
| ↑1 | Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-42-02-0520. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 42, 16 November 1803–10 March 1804, ed. James P. McClure (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 589]; 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), 687. |
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| ↑2 | 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.
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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).