Day-by-Day / September 3, 1803

September 3, 1803

Passing Fort McIntosh

Morning fog delays departure, but they eventually pass Fort McIntosh. Lewis is encouraged when men in two boats loaded with furs tell him that the Ohio River becomes deeper twenty-four miles down. The barge must be unloaded and dragged by horses before they stop near present Industry, Pennsylvania.

Fort McIntosh

Site of the Town of Beaver

Hand-colored lithograph of a stone-walled fort on a cliff above the river

Unknown artist. From Clarence M. Busch, Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania (State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896), 484–485.

Perched on a steep bank of the Ohio, Fort McIntosh overlooked the northernmost reach of the Ohio River. On 3 September 1803, a foggy morning delayed the departure of Meriwether Lewis’s barge until 9 am. After passing the mouth of today’s Beaver River, Lewis anchored and discharged one of the men under him.

Fort McIntosh

we set out at 9 this morning and passed a riffle just below us called Atkins’s got over with tolerable ease passed the mouth of big bever creek and came to ancor off Mackintosh being 2½ miles— discharge one of my hands.—
—Meriwether Lewis

The Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785) forced the Delawares to cede their Pennsylvania lands to the Commonwealth and established the first boundary in the Northwest. One of the commissioners representing the United States was William Clark’s older brother, George Rogers Clark.

Also related: The Personnel Plan | Ohio River Recruits

Guy Bryan

Mr. Gui Briant arrived with two boats loaded with firrs, he informs me that if I can reach, and get over the George-town barr 24 miles I can get on; this is some consolation.
—Meriwether Lewis

Guy Bryan was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who supplied goods to fur traders in Kaskaskia.[1]Moulton, Journals, 2:70n1. The Lewis and Clark Expedition would arrive in Kaskaskia on 29 November 1803.

Unloading the Boat

passed the riffle below Mackintosh.— about three miles from this we stuck on another riffle the worst I think we have yet passed were obliged to unload and drag over with horses.— staid all night having made only six miles.—
—Meriwether Lewis

Related: Down the Ohio | Shallow Water

 

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Notes

Notes
↑1 Moulton, Journals, 2:70n1.

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
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with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:

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).