On or near this date, the expedition reaches the region where the hills recede, and the Ohio River lowlands commence. One week earlier, Thomas Rodney‘s batteaux ran aground in a channel with only three inches of water.
Ohio River Lowlands near Grandview, Indiana
© Richard Hunt. Used by permission.
Cramer’s Description
Between Hardin’s creek and Yellow banks the low lands commence. The hills which higher up the river are uniformly to be met with either on one side or the other, now entirely disappear, and their is nothing to be seen on either hand but an extensive level country[1]Zadok Cramer, The Ohio and Mississippi Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers . . . (Pittsburgh: Zadok Cramer, Bookseller & … Continue reading
Rodney Runs Aground
[F]ound a sandy riffle on our right between us and NW shore, and after gitting 2/3 through the reach grounded. Got off and went forward again. Got near the lower end the riffle which was only soft sand and ground again. All hands turned out to git her off but found we could not git her over, there not being more than 3 inches water. All hands spread round to hunt a channel, and [we spent] an hour before we discovered a passage. We had to go back about 200 yards.
—Thomas Rodney[2]23 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
Notes
| ↑1 | Zadok Cramer, The Ohio and Mississippi Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers . . . (Pittsburgh: Zadok Cramer, Bookseller & Stationer, 1802), 37. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | 23 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), 133. |
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).