Pencil, pen, and camera obscura
by Joseph A. Mussulman
“I wished for the pencil of Salvator Rosa, or the pen of Thompson, that I might be enabled to give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnifficent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man”
"Of highest national importance"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Why was it so important that Meriwether Lewis was willing to risk his life in a region occupied by the “Pahkees” or Minnetares, the Assiniboines, and other people whom he had been led—by their enemies, of course—to believe were “vicious and illy disposed”?
End of the Missouri
As the Missouri River flows south along the eastern edges of the Rocky Mountains, Clark lists each river constriction as a gate. Throughout this course, the river forks two times with each fork one-third the size than previous. The men are encouraged when Sacagawea starts seeing familiar landmarks. Scouting ahead, Lewis crosses the Continental Divide and meets the Shoshone. Meanwhile, Clark and the boats reach the end of the navigable river.
By 1800, the Potawatomi had successful traded with the French to the north and the Spanish in St. Louis. They resided in a large region surrounding the southern half of Lake Michigan between the Mississippi River and Lake Erie and extending south to the mouth of the Illinois River.
The travails of river travel
by Joseph A. Mussulman![](/media/bodmer-snags-on-missouri-sq.jpg")
“So far, we have experienced more difficulty from the navigation of the Missouri, than danger from the Savages. The difficulties which oppose themselves to the navigation of this immence river, arise from the rapidity of it’s current, it’s falling banks, sandbars, and timber”
(ca. 1776 - unknown), Private
by Barbara Fifer, Robert E. Gatten
Lewis wrote that “McNeal had exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri.”
Although Clark referred to the Pawnee often and included them in the Estimate of the Eastern Indians, the journals do not document any face-to-face encounters.
Sacagawea points to home
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Sacagawea informed Clark that “she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well,” that the creek they were following was a branch of the Big Hole River, and that “when we assended the higher part of the plain we would discover a gap in the mountains”
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.”
Symptoms of the ague, a disease that would later be called malaria, were recorded in the journals. Unknown to anyone at that time, this illness was carried by mosquitoes. What did they do to prevent bites and treat mosquito-born illnesses?
(1779–1814), Private
by Barbara Fifer, Joseph A. Mussulman
On 23 January 1806, Lewis dispatched Howard and Werner to the Salt Camp on the ocean beach, to bring back a supply of salt. When they had not returned by the 26th, Lewis feared they had gotten lost.
Hippelates sp.
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On 11 July 1805 while making canoes above the Falls of the Missouri, Clark wrote “Musquitors verry troublesom, and in addition to their torments we have a Small Knat, which is as disagreeable.”
An interview with Dr. Peck
by David J. Peck
An interview with David Peck, practicing physician and the author of Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In April 1804, trader Lewis Crawford was asked by Meriwether Lewis to be a diplomatic envoy to the Iowas and Yanktonai Sioux. Lewis gave Crawford a “parole and speech” and blank Indian vocabulary forms.
Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.
During a reconnaissance assignment eight miles up the Yellowstone River on 26 April 1805, Joseph Field became the first member of the Corps to glimpse a live bighorn sheep.
“Meriwether Lewis contributed importantly to the development of American Zoology by making the first faunal studies in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and by heeding Jefferson’s directive to observe ‘the animals of the country generally, & especially those not known in the U.S.'”
With his considerable experience with Native American Nations and the Missouri-Mississippi fur trade, John Hay provided the captains significant information and advice.
Lewis originally had only fifteen rifles specially prepared for the expedition at Harpers Ferry armory in Virginia in 1803. Therefore, these additional enlisted men were expected to bring with them their standard-issue arms.
Smoking on the expedition
by Joseph A. Mussulman
It is a remarkable fact that Lewis’s planning for the expedition resulted in a surplus of four essential commodities: lead for bullets and powder to fire them, ink to write with and paper to write on. It was equally significant, as far as most of the men were concerned, that they ran short of tobacco and whiskey.
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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).