Fur Traders
The captains met many fur traders who provided help and information. Several were enlisted as interpreters and diplomatic envoys.
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The Faces of Sacagawea
Interpretations of an unknown image
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Because the Shoshone woman has been the subject of so many sculptures and paintings, especially since about 1900, we have a rich heritage of artists’ conceptions to contemplate.
Larocque at Fort Mandan
by Joseph A. Mussulman
In the fall of 1804, Larocque’s job was to take a supply of North West Company merchandise to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages and trade for furs. While there, he asked the captains if he could join the expedition.
René Jusseaume
One the many traders encountered at the Knife River villages, free trader René Jusseaume offered his services as an interpreter. He also accompanied Sheheke’s delegation to Washington City and thus traveled with the expedition on the final leg between the Knife River Indian Villages and St. Louis.
Seaman’s Creek
Clues to his name
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Twenty-eight and one-half miles upriver from their camp of 4 July 1806 the Indian road crossed a stream Lewis named after William Werner. At mile 31, they camped near the mouth of a stream the captain named after his dog, Seaman.
Seaman’s Fate
Loyal to the end?
by James J. Holmberg
What happened to this famous Newfoundland dog? Did he complete the expedition? Or did he perish somewhere along the Missouri River? Was he with Lewis when at Grinder’s Stand?
Clark’s Umbrella
A matter of melanins?
by David J. Peck, Joseph A. Mussulman
There may have been one good personal reason why Clark carried an umbrella. Beneath our skins we’re all supposed to be pretty much alike, but at the epidermal level there are some conspicuous differences that we owe to melanin.
Portraits of William Clark
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Four portraits and one statue by five different artists show a diverse interpretation of the likeness of William Clark.
The President’s Secretary
by Arlen J. Large
It was 4 March 1801, Inauguration Day for the third president. Nine days previously Jefferson had asked Meriwether Lewis to serve as his private secretary in the raw new mansion called the President’s House.
Lewis’s Birthday Meditation
A "sadly interesting passage"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
It has been remembered as “the most gloomy self-examination of the entire journal,” and “a passage of unreasonable melancholy,” of poignant sadness and self-doubt.
Mental Mapping
How we get around
by John Logan Allen
In traveling across the landscape of the real world between the Mississippi and the Pacific, Clark constructed his mental maps before his actual maps. He looked at the west side of landmarks as well as the east side, and fit everything into an imaginary grid system before ever putting it down on paper.
Jefferson’s Geographic Directive
by John Logan Allen
Mapping is the human equivalent of an animal marking its territory by leaving scent, spoor, or other traces. Jefferson’s instructions to fix the trading route to the Pacific by observation meant that Lewis and Clark should mark territory.
Clark’s Maps
An index of articles on this site that provide detailed analysis from many of the maps made by William Clark.
A Solitary Hero
Excerpt from River of Promise
by David L. Nicandri
Lewis had made a habit of abandoning Clark in quests for exploratory triumph. It was no coincidence that Lewis was the first to see the Great Falls or the Continental Divide; he engineered those moments.
Lakota Sioux Difficulties
Tough times at the Bad
by James P. Ronda
Ignorant of plains politics, Lewis and Clark barely averted disaster in their encounter with Black Buffalo’s people—an article by James P. Ronda from a keynote address to the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Pierre, South Dakota, August 2002.
Pierre by Air
Standoff
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Lewis and Clark first met the Teton Sioux on 25 September 1804. One of Jefferson’s primary political objectives for the expedition was to create a peace treaty and trade agreement them, the most potent military and economic force on the lower Missouri.
Flea Country
A multitude of fleas
by Joseph A. Mussulman
During the portage around the Falls of the Columbia River, as Biddle paraphrased it, “we found that the Indians had camped there not long since, and had left behind them multitudes of fleas.”
Bugs
Worthy of notice
by Joseph A. Mussulman
President Jefferson directed Lewis to observe seasonal transitions as they are marked by the “times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles or insects.”
Early American Entomology
by Joseph A. Mussulman
There were only four notable 18th century naturalists who showed much interest in America’s insects: a young Englishman named Mark Catesby, Finnish botanist Peter Kalm, Philadelphian William Bartram, and Reverend Frederick Melsheimer of New Hampshire.
The Vermillion River
The stream near Spirit Mound
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The Corps left the white pirogue at the mouth of this stream and followed it part of the way to the storied Spirit Mound. During the years between the day the Corps passed it and today, its mouth has migrated about 2.5 miles southeast.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
- Montana Committee for the Humanities
- Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
- The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
- Yellowstone Public Radio
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).