Several sites along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail have been designated as High Potential Historic Sites by the U.S. National Park Service based on public nominations. The pages below tell the expedition’s story as they visited these areas.
Lewis and Clark Pass
A shorter way
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Sergeant Gass recorded that on 7 July 1806, Lewis’s detachment took a three-hour lunch break and then proceeded four miles, “when we came to the dividing ridge between the waters of the Missouri and Columbia.”
July 12, 1804
Willards' court martial
The expedition takes a day at the Big Nemaha River to rest and wash clothes. Pvt. Willard is tried and found guilty of sleeping while on guard duty. His sentence is “One hundred lashes on his bear back”.
May 23, 1804
Lewis escapes death
Lewis climbs the pinnacles of Tavern Rock, slips, and manages to escape with the help of his knife. In Tavern Cave, Clark adds his name among the graffiti left by earlier travelers. The enlisted men and engagés struggle to move the boats against a swift current, and Lewis collects a specimen of indigo.
May 8, 1805
The 'River that Scolds all Others'
In eastern Montana, Clark explores the Milk River and sees wide plains, large herds of bison, and distant smoke. While walking the shore with Clark, Sacagawea gathers breadroot, an important food source. Fears mount when Lewis discovers where a pronghorn hide was recently scraped, and he wishes to avoid an encounter with the Assiniboine People.
August 20, 1804
Burying Sgt. Floyd
The expedition stops near present Sioux City, Iowa to bury Sgt. Floyd with a full military ceremony. Elsewhere, Salcedo reports on several American expeditions in contested Spanish territory.
Bivouac at Tongue Point
A long and wet encampment
by Joseph A. Mussulman
As the Corps rounded Tongue Point the wind rose hard from the west, and heavy seas with torrential rain forced them back to the east shore of the narrow isthmus, where they huddled for ten miserable days.
December 12, 1803
Rivière à Dubois arrival
Lewis works in St. Louis, and Clark takes the boats to Riviére á Dubois—today called Wood River—just below the old confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Two canoes of drunk Potawatomis arrive.
June 23, 1804
Clark's night away
Winds prevent the boats from making more than 3½ miles up the Missouri. After a hard day with the boats, they finally arrive at the future site of Fort Osage. While hunting several miles ahead, Clark mires in mud and is forced to spend the night away from the boats.
Meeting the Columbia
A welcoming fanfare
by Joseph A. Mussulman
In the afternoon of 16 October 1805, the expedition portaged around “the last bad rapid as the Indians Sign to us”–the last on the Snake River, that is–and soon arrived at the “Great River of the West,” the Columbia.
August 13, 1804
The Omaha's Big Village
The expedition passes old Fort Charles, a starting point for a previous exploration of the upper Missouri. They camp east of present Homer, Nebraska and men are sent to invite the Omahas to a council.
St. Charles
Petites Côtes
by Joseph A. Mussulman
With Captain Clark in sole command, the Corps of Volunteers for North Western Discovery left the mouth of Wood River on 14 May 1804. The flotilla was comprised of the barge and two pirogues. Clark and the men “proceeded on under a jentle brease,” bound for St. Charles.
Station Camp
"the extent of our journey"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
“…this I could plainly See would be the extent of our journey by water, as the waves were too high at any Stage for our Canoes to proceed any further down ….”
Sulphur Springs
A cure for Sacagawea?
by David J. Peck, Joseph A. Mussulman
On his return to the mouth of the Marias, Lewis found Sacagawea gravely ill. He had his men cross the river “to procure the water of the Sulpher spring,” “the virtues of which,” Lewis asserted, “I now resolved to try on the Indian woman.”
August 11, 1804
Honoring Blackbird
The captains place a flag at the grave of Blackbird, an Omaha chief and prolific trader. They then continue up the Missouri River passing a creek where many Omaha people died from smallpox.
The White Cliffs
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Under cloudy skies on the morning of 31 May 1805, the expedition “proceeded at an early hour,” and roped their flotilla of six cottonwood dugout canoes and two big pirogues into one of the most famous riverscapes on the Missouri.
Square Butte
Lewis's Fort Mountain
by Joseph A. Mussulman
“This mountain has a singular appearance. it is situated in a level plain, it’s sides stand nearly at right angles with each other and are each about a mile in extent … from it’s figure we gave it the name of fort mountain.”
Fort Clatsop Today
Reconstructing the fort
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Today’s Fort Clatsop stands at or near the site of the Corps’ winter encampment of 1805-06 was built on the same floor plan that Clark drew on the cover of the Elkskin-covered Journal. The rest of the present structure resembles the original only in a remote sense.
Celilo Falls
Great mart of the west
by Barbara Fifer
The Corps of Discovery reached a many-faceted barrier, Celilo Falls, which required a portage. The falls proved to be the beginning of fifty-some river miles that also held The Short and Long Narrows (jointly called The Dalles), and ended with the lengthy Cascades of the Columbia.
August 26, 1804
Pvt. Gass promoted
As they move up the Missouri River, they see a long cliff of white clay ‘marl’. They camp opposite Little Bow Creek near the abandoned Omaha village Petite Arch. Pvt. Gass is promoted to sergeant.
Three Forks of the Missouri
Essential geographic point
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Lewis and his canoes slowly approached the forks, “the current still so rapid that the men are in a continual state of their utmost exertion to get on, and they begin to weaken fast from this continual state of violent exertion.” He described the “extensive and beatifull plains and meadows.”
Bad ‘humered’ Island
Change of heart
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On the evening of 25 September 1804 after a negative encounter with the Lakota Sioux, the Corps camped on a nearby island Clark called “bad humered Island.” The next morning, the Indians had a change of heart.
St. Louis
Gateway to the west
by Frances H. Stadler
In 1804 and in the presence of the Lewis and Clark expedition the little village, built and designed to be an outpost of the fur trade, shed its ambiguous Spanish-French parentage and took on full American citizenship.
Hat Rock
The enlisted men must have recognized it at a glance, this pile of columnar basalt all together resembling a well-weathered gentleman’s hat with a work-worn brim. Two centuries later, it would be one of the few Lewis and Clark landmarks left above Columbia River.
Weippe Prairie Villages
Nez Perce camas grounds
by Joseph A. Mussulman
For countless generations, Weippe Prairie (prounouced WEE-yipe), like Travelers’ Rest, was a major node in the transportation, trade, and social networks of the Rocky Mountain West.
August 13, 1805
Shoshone diplomacy
In the Lemhi River valley, Shoshone and Lewis diplomacy includes greetings, a flag presentation, a pipe ceremony, and revelry late into the night. Clark takes bearings from what is now called Clark’s Lookout.
May 29, 1805
A bison terrorizes camp
In the Judith Basin, a frightened bison runs amok damaging York’s gun and the white pirogue’s swivel gun. Lewis’s dog Seaman saves the day by chasing it away from camp. They continue up the Missouri camping above the “slaughter river”—present Arrow Creek—where numerous dead bison have washed ashore.
Beacon Rock
A remarkable, high and detached rock
by Joseph A. Mussulman
“a remarkable high detached rock Stands in a bottom on the Stard [starboard, the navigator’s right] Side & about 800 feet high and 400 paces around”
April 25, 1805
Lewis on the Yellowstone
Lewis’s dog Seaman disappears during the night but fortunately returns in the morning. Lewis and a small detachment advance to the Yellowstone River. With water freezing to the paddles, Clark commands the boats. His group stops short of the Yellowstone.
Tower Rock
First Gate of the Rocky Mountains
by Joseph A. Mussulman, Robert N. Bergantino
“at this place there is a large rock of 400 feet high wich stands immediately in the gap which the missouri makes on it’s passage from the mountains.”
Pompeys Pillar
Pompy's Tower
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On 25 July 1806, Clark and his contingent of nine men, plus York, Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and little Jean Baptiste, arrived at “a remarkable rock Situated in an extensive bottom, on the Star[boar]d. [south] Side of the river.”
Finding the Yellowstone
by Joseph A. Mussulman, Rick Newby
As he started over the mountains at today’s Bozeman they observed several Indian and buffalo roads heading northeast across the mountains. Clark reported, “the indian woman who has been of great Service to me as a pilot through this Country recommends a gap.”
Giant Springs
by Joseph A. Mussulman, William O'Keefe
Clark and his five men “proceeded on up the river a little more than a mile to the largest fountain or Spring I ever Saw, and doubt if it is not the largest in American Known.”
July 24, 1805
Turned side upwards
Scouting ahead, Clark sees hills “fallen half down & turned Side up-wards”. The boats pass the Crimson Bluffs, Sacagawea assures Lewis the river will remain navigable, and they camp at Yorks Islands.
Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge
Horrid noise
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On the night of 4 November 1805 the expedition camped near a pond now called Post Office Lake. The next morning a weary, groggy Clark complained that he “could not Sleep for the noise” made by the numerous waterfowl.
May 30, 1805
The White Cliffs
In the White Cliffs of the Upper Missouri River Breaks, the enlisted men struggle to tow the boats from slippery and narrow banks. Lewis tests the humidity by measuring the evaporation rate, and Pvt. Whitehouse describes an empty Atsina camp.
Gates of the Mountains
The second gate
by Joseph A. Mussulman, Robert N. Bergantino
Late in the day on 19 July 1805, Lewis and his party entered a canyon between “the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen.” They seemed to rise “from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet.”
Spirit Mound
An elevation of devilish spirits
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The visit to this prairie hill was among the more bizarre sidelights of the whole expedition, but evidently it was not entirely unexpected. Seventy-six years earlier, explorer Pierre La Véndrye called the place the “Dwelling of the Spirits.”
The Lost Trail Divide
Leaving the Indian road
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Continuing north up the North Fork Salmon River, they leave a good Indian road and must cut their own trail. Were they lost? Sergeant Gass’s laconic remark gives us a hint: “This was not the creek our guide wished to have come upon.”
June 4, 1804
Climbing Sugar Loaf Rock
A “nightingale” sings all during the night. During the day, a rope catches on a tree and breaks the barge’s mast. Clark ascends a high hill—now called Sugar Loaf Rock—with hopes to find lead ore.
April 30, 1806
Crossing the sandy plain
After spending considerable time collecting horses, the expedition sets out on the Travois Road passing through plains abundant with sagebrush and sand dunes. They camp on the Touchet River north of present Walla Walla. Lewis describes eating dog, river otter, and horse among Walla Walla People.
July 22, 1804
White Catfish Camp
Near present Bellevue, Nebraska, the expedition sets up a camp that would be known as White Catfish Camp. The captains find a shady place near to rest and arrange a council with the Otoes.
Packer Meadows
"A pretty little plain"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Lewis acknowledged it was “a pretty little plain of about 50 acres plentifully stocked with quawmash” and “one of the principal stages or encampments of the indians”
July 21, 1804
Passing the Platte
At midday, the boats arrive at the mouth of the Platte where they remark on the sandy river’s effect on the Missouri. Before continuing, the captains take a pirogue one mile up the Platte.
July 14, 1805
Launching the new canoes
Lewis remarks on the view of “Fort Mountain”—present Square Butte—from their canoe camp near present Ulm, Montana. Sgt. John Ordway‘s detachment brings the remaining dugouts and baggage, the two new canoes are launched, and all is made ready for departure.
In Washington City, Lewis’s letters and Clark’s journals arrive, sent from Fort Mandan 6 April 1805.
June 1, 1804
Mouth of the Osage
After a hard day, the expedition stops at the mouth of Osage River where the captains make celestial observations late into the night. Lewis also collects a specimen of wild ginger, Asarum canadense.
December 7, 1803
Cahokia arrivals
Lewis travels by land and Clark by river to arrive at Cahokia, Illinois. Lewis meets John Hay and Nicholas Jarrot who help him negotiate with the Spanish Lt. governor of Upper Louisiana.
September 7, 1804
Prairie dog town
The captains climb Old Baldy—The Tower in present South Dakota. Everybody but the camp guard visits a prairie dog town, and they eventually catch one as a specimen. Pvt. Shannon is still missing.
June 7, 1804
"white red & blue flint"
As they travel up the Missouri, the journalists have noticed images painted and carved on the limestone bluffs. Today, Clark finds rattlesnakes and cliffs inlaid with “white red & blue flint”.
Mouth of the Yellowstone
When Captain Lewis arrived at the mouth of the great river in late April 1805, he saw a “rich, delightful land, broken into valleys and meadows, and well supplied with wood and water.”
Camp Disappointment
The northernmost extent
by Joseph A. Mussulman
In 1806, Lewis, Drouillard, Joe Field, and Reubin Field made a second excursion up the Marias, this time on horseback. The four men reached the northernmost point of the Expedition’s exploration on 22 July 1806, camping on the south side of today’s Cut Bank Creek.
Fort Rock
Refuge at The Dalles
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The party “Came too, under a high point of rocks on the Lard. Side below a creek”—Quenett (“salmon”), now Mill Creek—a “Situation well Calculated to defend our Selves,” and duly named their bivouac “Fort Rock Camp.”
October 26, 1804
Mitutanka
The expedition arrives at Mitutanka—a Mandan village at the Knife River Village complex. Lewis visits the village while Clark entertains visiting Mandans who are “much pleased with the Corn mill”.
Across the Great Divide
Over Lemhi Pass
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Below the summit of today’s Lemhi Pass, Lewis said that he had reached “the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights.”
The Mouth of the Missouri
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The Missouri River still contributes its tint a few miles north of St. Louis. It is difficult to determine exactly how much, and how often, the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers changed during the nine decades after the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Lochsa River
Packer Meadows to Colt Killed Creek
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Snow was falling in the high country above them on the morning of 14 September 1805 when, after striking camp two miles downstream from Packer Meadows, the Corps slogged down the Glade Creek canyon through rain and sleet.
August 25, 1804
Spirit Mound
The captains take a large party to explore Spirit Mound. Instead of finding its rumored devils, they suffer from excessive heat and witness birds eating swarms of flying ants.
Lower Portage Camp
Good news, bad news
by Joseph A. Mussulman
By the evening of 15 June 1805, Clark had gotten the canoes and the white perogue as close to the Great Falls as possible, and the next afternoon Lewis joined him at the “lower portage camp,” a mile below the mouth of Belt Creek.
The Big Bend of the Missouri
Around the 'Grand Detour'
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The huge meander called the Big Bend, or Grand Detour, had been a well-known Missouri River landmark for many years when the Corps of Discovery arrived at its lower bend on 19 September 1805.
The Knife River Villages
Marketplace
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Reaching the mouth of the Knife River on 27 October 1804, the expedition arrived in the midst of a major agricultural center and marketplace for a huge mid-continental region. The five permanent earth lodge communities there offered a panorama of contemporary Indian life.
Building Fort Clatsop
A rush job
December 10, 1805 marked the beginning of work on the Corps’ third winter garrison. They worked as fast as they could, and the daily, mostly intermittent rain showers punctuated by gale-lashed torrents, strengthened their resolve.
Beaverhead Rock
Sacagawea's landmark?
by Joseph A. Mussulman
“The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right . . . . This hill she says her nation calls the beaver’s head from a conceived resemblance of its figure to the head of that animal.”
The Portage Route
Around the Falls of the Missouri
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The shuttling of all the baggage and six canoes across the prairie to the upper portage camp opposite White Bear Islands began on 21 June 1805 and was completed on 2 July 1805. All in all, it was one of the most grueling undertakings on the entire expedition.
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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