On or near this date, the expedition passes Shawneetown and the mouth of the Wabash River.[1]No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Shawneetown on this date is an estimate based on information from travelers of the … Continue reading Ohio River traveler Fortescue Cuming would later describe the town. One week prior, Thomas Rodney found wrecked boats in a channel below the Wabash.
In Washington City, the State Department prepares “An Account of Louisiana” for the press.
Wabash Wrecks
There is a French family settled just above the mouth of the Wabash. We saw the wrecks of a great number of arks there and like to have run on one in the middle of the river below the mouth of Wabash.
—Thomas Rodney[2]29 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
Changing River
Perhaps when the Pilot wrote, the channel as he says was on the NW shore by the first and then across between the two to the Kentucky shore. They look as if the channel had run so but it now filled with sand, and a good and wide channel on Kentucky side.
—Thomas Rodney[3]Ibid., 147.
Old Shawneetown
The United States’ general government having reserved to itself the property of the scite of this town; the salt licks, and all the intermediate tract from Saline river, the inhabitants have no other tenure than the permission of the governour of the territory to reside there during his pleasure, so they make no comfortable improvements, although they appear to be in a very prosperous situation from their trade; so much so, that they say, that it would immediately become one of the most considerable towns on the river, if they could purchase lots in fee simple.—There were several trading boats at the landing, and more appearance of business than I had seen on this side Pittsburgh.
—Fortescue Cuming[4]Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: Through the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi territory, and … Continue reading
Ohio Boating Song
Some rows up, but we floats down
Way down the Ohio to Shawnee TownChorus:
And it’s hard on the beach oar, she moves too slow
Way down to Shawneetown on the OhioNow the current’s got her, And we’ll take up the slack
Float her down to Shawneetown and we’ll bushwhack her backWhiskey’s in the jug, boys; wheat is in the sack
We’ll trade them down in Shawneetown and bring the rock salt backI got a wife in Louisville, and one in New Orleans
And when I get to Shawnee Town gonna see my Indian QueenThe water’s might warm boys, the air is cold and dank
And the cursed fog it gets so thick you cannot see the bankSome rows up, but we floats down
Way down the Ohio to Shawnee Town[5]https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/10095-the-falls-of-the-ohio-mostly-maps-amp-diagram-for-history-buff-only accessed on 15 January 2019.
An Account of Louisiana
James Madison informs Thomas Jefferson that “An Account of Louisiana” is on its way to the press.
The Louisiana documents did not come from Mr. Gallatin till a day or two ago. I have this morning delivered 38 revised pages, which will go to the press, a few of which have been some time in the ty⟨pes⟩. There will be abt. ⅓ or ½ as many more. No time will be lost. The bulk of the work will apologize to the House for the delay.[6]“From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, [5 November] 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-06-02-0025. [Original source: The … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Shawneetown on this date is an estimate based on information from travelers of the period and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | 29 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), 146. |
| ↑3 | Ibid., 147. |
| ↑4 | Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: Through the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi territory, and part of West Florida, commenced at Philadelphia in the winter of 1807 . . . (Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear, & Eichbaum, 1810). |
| ↑5 | https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/10095-the-falls-of-the-ohio-mostly-maps-amp-diagram-for-history-buff-only accessed on 15 January 2019. |
| ↑6 | “From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, [5 November] 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-06-02-0025. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 6, 1 November 1803–31 March 1804, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Ellen J. Barber, Anne Mandeville Colony, and Angela Kreider. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002, pp. 18–19.] |
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.
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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).