What Lewis was describing
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The Corps’ journalists, in their accounts of new species of mammals they encountered on the expedition, would occasionally call to mind comparable features of domestic canids whenever it was appropriate—in terms of their sizes, morphology, and “notes” or barks.
Populus sp.
by Joseph A. Mussulman, Mark Behan
On the day before he reached the Great Falls of the Missouri, Meriwether Lewis wrote his own brief description of a species previously unknown to science: “The narrow leafed cottonwood grows here in common with the other species of the same tree with a broad leaf.”
Hopes dim and rise
Lewis sees the Marias watershed and hopes for extending the Louisiana Territory dim. Clark builds dugouts on the Yellowstone and hopes Hugh Heney will accept a commission. Ordway and Gass are at the Falls of the Missouri.
Reaching Travelers' Rest
The expedition reaches Travelers’ Rest, a well-used camping area near present Lolo, Montana. Their guide, Toby, tells them about the Road to the Buffalo—a good pass heading east to the Missouri River.
Prunus pensylvanica
by Kristopher K. Townsend
Before signing off in his last journal entry, Lewis had to botanize one last time. He concludes with an accurate description of the pin cherry, Prunus pensylvanica.
Wapati
by Kenneth C. Walcheck
One of the animals recorded by Lewis and Clark—and which became one of the staples of their mostly carnivorous diet—was the wapiti, or American elk (Cervus elaphus).
Before the resort town of Cannon Beach, Oregon, a Tillamook tribal village—NeCus’—sat along the tiny brackish bay where Ecola Creek crosses the sandy beach. The Lewis and Clark Expedition journals provide a tantalizing but fragmentary glimpse of this community.
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.
Short tempers and long knives
by Jay H. Buckley
Next to grizzly bears and Mother Nature, the most feared enemy of American fur trappers traveling along the upper Missouri River were the Niitsítapi or Blackfeet, the “Original People” or “Prairie People.” Was that Lewis’s fault?
Target shooting contests were an important part of American frontier life from the late 17th century until the end of the 19th. Competition was also an important part of Lewis and Clark’s plans to hone the marksmanship of the Corps’ most promising hunters.
Prairie of the knobs
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On 6 July 1806, Lewis’s eleven-man party had broken camp at the mouth of a Blackfoot River tributary they named Seamans Creek, after, and headed on up the river along the “road” that Indians living in the Rocky Mountains called the Cokahlahrishkit—the Road to the Buffalo.
Of great service
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Clark reported, “the indian woman who has been of great Service to me as a pilot through this Country recommends a gap in the mountain more South which I shall cross.” This was one of the few times Sacagawea acted as the guide.
"Tryumph"
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.
Lewis and Pryor catch up
by Joseph A. Mussulman
After splitting up into five separate details over five weeks earlier, all the members of the Corps of Discovery were finally reunited 142 miles downriver from the mouth of the Yellowstone.
Clark’s map of 1814 shows his post-expeditionary conclusions regarding the lay of the land from just west of the Three Forks of the Missouri River, roughly 230 air miles eastward along the Yellowstone to the Tongue River.
One week and a hundred miles after starting down the Yellowstone River, Clark finally found cottonwood trees large enough for building canoes. That night some Indians made off with half their horses.
Fur, oil, and wheat
Lewis’s two trips on the Marias River were in an area called by early Montana pioneers the golden triangle consisting of fur, oil, water, wheat, and dinosaur bones.
Clark's interpretation of Lewis's shortcut
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Clark produced this map of Lewis’s route sometime after the Corps was reunited on 12 August 1806, near today’s New Town, North Dakota.
Known as Shishequaw Mountain
Today’s iconic Haystack Butte was a landmark already known to Lewis and Clark as Shishequaw Mountain. Seeing it from Lewis and Clark Pass, 7 July 1806, provided Lewis with a reference point on Nicholas King’s 1803 map.
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.
This page was funded in part by a grant from the Montana Cultural Trust.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
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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).