Clark’s Appalachian Christmas
Martin’s Station
Wilderness Road
By Harold Jerrell, courtesy Virginia State Parks.
With proper planning, Clark would have timed his trip to stay at one of the better stations along the Wilderness Road.[1]In a letter to William Croghan, Clark stated that he intended to leave Louisville for Washington City on 15 December. He arrived at Fincastle by 8 January. (James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear Brother: … Continue reading Martin’s Station (above) began as a fort in the 1770s.
we would have Spent this day the nativity of Christ in feasting, had we any thing either to raise our Sperits or even gratify our appetites, our Diner concisted of pore Elk, So much Spoiled that we eate it thro’ mear necessity, Some Spoiled pounded fish and a fiew roots.
—William Clark, Fort Clatsop, Christmas 1805
Lewis’s Homecoming
our repast of this day tho’ better than that of Christmass, consisted principally in the anticipation of the 1st day of January 1807, when in the bosom of our friends we hope to participate in the mirth and hilarity of the day, and when the zest given by the recollection of the present, we shall completely, both mentally and corporally, enjoy the repast which the hand of civilization has prepared for us.
—Meriwether Lewis, Fort Clatsop, New Year’s Day 1806
At Locust Hill, Lewis is certainly enjoying the “mirth and hilarity” of his family and friends. By New Year’s Day, he was back in Washington City.
Notes
| ↑1 | In a letter to William Croghan, Clark stated that he intended to leave Louisville for Washington City on 15 December. He arrived at Fincastle by 8 January. (James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 122.) Given a pace of 20 to 30 miles per day, he would be in the vicinity of Cumberland Gap. |
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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.
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- 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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