At Maysville, Kentucky, John Colter likely asked Lewis if he could join the expedition. Soon after, contemporary traveler Thomas Rodney described the town and a boat being built there. He also expressed his low opinion of Ohio River settlers.[1]Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas … Continue reading
Maysville, Kentucky
Old Swimming Hole
Courtesy https://www.nkyviews.com. Used with permission.
Maysville
The town of Limestone is called Maysville. I do not know why. This place is a great thorofare and more might be expected of it than it seen. There is about 50 houses in the town and a few large good houses but I observed but one of brick.
—Thomas Rodney[2]3 October 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), … Continue reading
Mr. Gallahar’s Boat
Mr. Gallahar has a very fine ship of about 2450 tuns on the stocks and will be done by the swell of the river. We viewed her and she appears to be well built and of excellent stuff such as mulberry, locust, white oak. etc.
—Thomas Rodney[3]Ibid.
Low Opinion
[T]he present disposition of the people on this beautiful river is very unfavorable to its improvement. They mostly seem as if they were only waylayers to take advantage of travelers intead of aiding and incurraging the navigation of the river.
—Thomas Rodney[4]Ibid., 94.
Colter Joins Up
John Colter was born about 1775 and family tradition has him leaving the family farm in Staunton, Virginia and settling in Limestone on the Ohio River—after 1785 officially known as Maysville, Kentucky—sometime prior to the arrival of Lewis and the boats in late September 1803.[5]Stallo Vinton, John Colter: Discoverer of Yellowstone Park (New York: Edward Eberstadt, 1926), 27–29. The blue-eyed young man, 5’10” tall, approached Captain Lewis about joining the expedition. His enlistment in the U.S. Army’s First Regiment was recorded as 15 October 1803, a day the expedition was at the Falls of the Ohio.[6]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 2:378. See also Thwaites, Reubin G. Original … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas Rodney’s journal of his similar trip down the Ohio and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that Lewis stopped for a night or two at Maysville. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | 3 October 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), 93,94. |
| ↑3 | Ibid. |
| ↑4 | Ibid., 94. |
| ↑5 | Stallo Vinton, John Colter: Discoverer of Yellowstone Park (New York: Edward Eberstadt, 1926), 27–29. |
| ↑6 | Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 2:378. See also Thwaites, Reubin G. Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804–1806 (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1905), 360–361. |
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- 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).