The mistake should never be made that the two men were friends. They were master and slave, owner and property, superior and inferior. As close as that relationship was for the many years and countless miles they were by each other’s side, for all the dangers and hardships they shared their relationship always was based on William as master and York as servant.
After a brief service as Alcalde of San Luis Rey, Jean Baptiste moved to the gold fields around Auburn, California where he lived for 19 years.
The man and his 'almost expedition'
by Lee A. Dugatkin
In 1792, André Michaux approached members of the American Philosophical Society informing his potential sponsors that he was “ready to go to the sources of the Missouri and even explore the rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean.”
Secretary of War
by Sherman L. Fleek
As Secretary of War during the expedition, Henry Dearborn made several decisions critical to the it’s success, and he was the one who gave Clark’s the military rank of lieutenant.
Four attempts to stop the expedition
by Dan Sturdevant, Jay H. Buckley
“…it is surprising how close the Spanish came to intercepting Lewis and Clark, in 1804, and again in 1806. A matter of several days’ march… prevented an encounter that could have resulted in a major incident between the two nations.”
By Yellowstone Public Radio
Originally aired by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial observance in 2004-2006, these 627 episodes parallel the expedition dates starting 14 May 1804 and ending 25 September 1806.
Up the Blackfoot River
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The continuation of the Northern Nez Perce Trail led from their camp at Travelers’ Rest to the plains near the Great Falls of the Missouri, saving hundreds of miles from the expedition’s 1805 route.
An interview with an elder
by W. Otis Halfmoon
We call ourselves Ni-mee-poo, which means “The People.” We also call ourselves Tsoopnitpeloo, and Tsoopnitpeloo means “The Walking-Out People”—people from the mountains come to the plains, to hunt buffalo.
Tough going
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Although none of the journalists mentioned it, the very presence of last winter’s snow on those mountains in late September must have aroused the feeling that crossing the Rockies was going to be even tougher than they had figured.
The falls of the Missouri comprised the most remarkable of all the “remarkeable points” that Clark described and mapped in conscientious obedience to an order from Thomas Jefferson to take observations “with great pains & accuracy.”
"Our old guide Toby"
by Charles R. Knowles, John Puckett
Toby, the name used by Lewis and Clark for the Shoshone guide who took them across the Bitterroot Mountains on their journey to the Pacific, was one of the more important, if enigmatic, of the many Native Americans who assisted the explorers on their epic trip.
Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844), the first editor of the Lewis and Clark journals, was a seventeen-year-old college graduate and student of law in 1803. The work was published seven years after the return of the expedition.
Portrait painting pointed to better prospects than saddle-making. Leaving Rachel and their young son, with high hopes for his new profession and eager to see that the inheritance promised his father was secure, Peale sailed for England in December 1766.
The discovery continues
by Gary Gooch, Joseph A. Mussulman
The quest for that ultimate understanding still goes on. Revolutionary is the new means of expanding the worldwide scope at new levels of analysis—the orbiting space platform represented by the Landsat program. The discovery continues.
The first published accounts
by Doug Erickson
Publications that attempted to tell the story of Lewis and Clark were being printed before Lewis and Clark had even returned from their trans-Mississippi exploration. Their popularity continued for approximately ten years after they returned to St. Louis.
The need for five separate details
by Joseph A. Mussulman
There was no Northwest Passage by water; and the portage they found took much longer than a day. The political repercussions from that alone could be immensely embarrassing to Jefferson. Something had to be done….
The story behind Russell's painting
by Patricia M. Burnham
The story behind Charles M. Russell’s 1912 painting of the expedition meeting the Bitterroot Salish at Ross’ Hole, one of the great works of Western American art.
The Marias River to the Lemhi Valley
by Harry W. Fritz
The captains were worried. The expedition was quickly running out of time and space: time to cross the Rockies before winter, and space to find the Shoshones, with their horses and guides. Another month of increasingly toilsome river travel would ensue.
The author proposes a few metaphors for the Lewis and Clark story, not in any definitive way, but merely to help us all think about the legacy of the expedition.
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.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
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).