Day-by-Day / November 8, 1803

November 8, 1803

Tower Rock on the Ohio

On or near this date, the expedition passes Tower Rock near present Elizabethtown, Illinois—a tall rock facing the Ohio River, described by other travelers as having a “reddish colour”.[1]No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Tower Rock and present Elizabethtown, Illinois on this date is an estimate based on … Continue reading

Tower Rock (Indiana)

High rock cliff

Photo by Jacob Wheeler, August 2019.

Tower Rock

[O]n the right, is a hill with a remarkable face to the river, of perpendicular rocks of a reddish colour
—Fortescue Cuming (winter of 1807)[2]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

They dissolve to a kind of redish clay colord dust . . . . The foot of these rocks are 150 or 200 ft. above the water, and the space between composed of the broken rocks that have fallen from the mountain. The top of the perpindicular wall is not less than 400 ft. above the water in appearance.
—Thomas Rodney (1 November 1803)[3]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), 157.

Related: Louisville to Fort Massac | Grand Tower (Mississippi River) | Tower Rock (Missouri River)

 

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Notes

Notes
↑1 No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Tower Rock and present Elizabethtown, Illinois on this date is an estimate based on information from travelers of the period and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator.
↑2 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). 249
↑3 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), 157.

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.

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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).