Lewis and his crew reach Wheeling in present West Virginia, a common port of departure for Ohio River boats. Lewis inspects the cargo that had arrived by wagon over the Braddock Road. In the evening, he meets with Thomas Rodney who is also traveling down the Ohio.
Wheeling, (West) Virginia
by Victor Collot, A Journey in North America (1796)
Courtesy East Tennessee State University.
“Point of Embarkation”
[R]eached Wheeling 16 miles distant at 5 in the evening this town is remarkable for being the point of embarkation for merchants and Emegrants who are about to descend the river, particularly if they are late in getting on and the water gets low as it most commonly is from the begining of July to the last of September; the water from hence being much deeper and the navigation better than it is from Pittsburgh or any point above it—
—Meriwether Lewis
Mr. Caldwell and Col. Rodney
I went on shore waited on a Mr. Caldwell a merchant of that place to whome I had consigned a part of my goods which I had sent by land from Pittsburgh; found the articles in good order; her[e] met with Colo. Rodney one of the commissioners appointed by the government to adjust the landed claims in the Mississippi Territory.
—Meriwether Lewis
Wheeling
This little town is the Court of Ohio County in Virginia. The Court House stands [on] the east side [of] the Main Street and is but an ordinary stone building. The town appears to contain about a hundred houses, some pretty good framed houses, and a few of brick chiefly in one street and about half a mile long. It stands on the bank of the Ohio above Wheeling Creek and under a lofty hill or mountain. There is two or three boat yards here for building river boats and a number of taverns and merchantile shops and a variety of mechanics.
—Thomas Rodney[1]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), 48.
Notes
| ↑1 | 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), 48. |
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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).