With violent rains at Long Camp in present-day Kamiah, Idaho, the captains lay in water most of the night. Labich brings in a mule deer and reports snow in the higher plains. The men have traded all their brass buttons for food, and Lewis prepares a specimen of Wilcox’s beardtongue, Penstemon wilcoxii.
Mule Deer
Odocoileus hemionus
© 2009 Gene Eastman Used with permission.
Laying in Water
It rained the greater part of last night and continued this morning untill noon when it cleared away about an hour and then rained at intervals untill 4 in the evening. our covering is so indifferent that Capt C. and myself lay in the water the greater part of the last night.
—Meriwether Lewis
Brass Buttons for Food
brass buttons is an article of which they people are tolerable fond, the men have taken advantage of their prepossession in favour of buttons and have devested themselves of all they had in possesson which they have given in exchange for roots and bread.
—Meriwether Lewis
Labiche’s Mule Deer
at 2 P. M. Labuish arrived with a large buck of the Mule deer speceis which he had killed on Collins’s Creek yesterday. he had left Cruzatte and Collins on the Creek where they were to wait his return. he informed us that it was snowing on the plain while it was raining at our camp in the river bottom.
—Meriwether Lewis
Wilcox’s Beardtongue
Penstemon wilcoxii (P. serrulatus, Menzies)
Location: Packer Meadows, Lolo Trail, Idaho, 7 June 2009. © by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Wilcox’s Beardtongue Specimen
Camp on the Kooskoosky [Clearwater River] May 20th 1806
—Meriwether Lewis[1]Moulton, ed. Herbarium, specimen 125.
Snow Obscures Tracks
Shannon and Colter came in unsuccessfull, they had wounded a bear and a deer last evening but the night coming on they were unable to pursue them, and the snow which fell in the course of the night and this morning had covered the blood and rendered all further pursuit impracticable
—Meriwether Lewis
Weather Diary
State of the Weather at rise
Wind at State of the Weather at 4 P.M. Wind at 4 P.M. State of the Kooskooskee rain after rain N W cloudy after rain S. E raised 2 in. rained violently the greater part of the night. air raw and cold. a nest of the large blue or sand hill crain was found by one of our hunters. the young were in the act of leaving the shell. the young of the partycoloured corvus begin to fly.—
—Meriwether Lewis[2]To assist the reader of this web page, the date column is not presented, the river columns have been merged, and some abbreviations have been spelled out.
Notes
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.
This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
- Montana Committee for the Humanities
- Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
- The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
- Yellowstone Public Radio
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).