As they travel up the Missouri, the journalists have taken notice of images painted and carved on the limestone bluffs. Today, Clark finds a den of rattlesnakes and observes that the cliffs are inlaid with “white red & blue flint”.
First Mention of Buffalo
by Yellowstone Public Radio[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading
Colored Chert in Limestone
Photo © John Jengo 2020. Used with permission.
This exposure of Burlington–Keokuk Limestone chert accurately matches Clark’s description on this day.
Moniteau Creek
[W]e Come to a Creek Called the Big Devil. we Stayed to Breakfast.
—John Ordway
“white red & blue flint”
a Short distance above the mouth of this Creek, is Several Courious Paintings and Carveing in the projecting rock of Limestone inlade with white red & blue flint, of a verry good quallity, the Indians have taken of this flint great quantities.
—William Clark
Rattlesnakes
we passed a pointed part of a projecting Rock we found this to be a den of rattle Snakes, we killed three.
—John Ordway
Moniteau Creek at Manitou Bluffs is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The Manitou Bluffs can be accessed via the Katy Trail State Park at Rocheport. The pictographs are no longer there, but preserved specimens can be views at nearby Torbett Spring.
Notes
| ↑1 | Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio. |
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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).