From the Ohio to the Pacific, fish played an important role not only for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but the peoples they met on their journey.
September 23, 1803
Dangerous riffles
On or near this date, Lewis travels between present Portsmouth, Ohio and Maysville, Kentucky. Fellow traveler Thomas Rodney describes the rapids, high hills, and river carpsuckers in this area.
Eulachon
Thaleichthys pacificus
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On 24 February 1806, Meriwether Lewis recorded that the Clatsop Indian chief, Coboway, came to the fort to sell some hats, some sturgeon, and “a species of small fish which now begin to run, and are taken in great quantities.”
August 16, 1804
800 'fine fish'
At Fish Camp near present Homer, Nebraska, Lewis bests yesterday’s catch when they pull out nearly ‘800 fine fish’ from a nearby beaver pond. In the evening, Clark appreciates the cooling breeze which ‘blows off the mosquitoes’. The two deserters—and the men chasing them—remain at large.
Salmon
Four 'new' species
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark observed and described four fish belonging to the Salmonid family that were previously unknown to scientists, and that were basic foods for thousands upon thousands of Indians west of the Rockies.
Westslope Cutthroat
Salmo clarkii
When Private Silas Goodrich caught half a dozen at the Falls of the Missouri, Lewis observed that these fish: “precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout…but the specks on these are of a deep black instead of the red or goald colour of those common to the U.’ States.”
Salmon Spirit and Sustenance
Salmon and His People
by Barbara Fifer
Salmon said, “When we come up the river we will die, so the human beings will have to catch us before that happens. I’ll come up only on certain times of the year and that’s when they’ll have to catch me.”
Eulachon Eulogy?
A species in decline
by Adam Lewis
Eulachon have always played a critical role in the survival and commerce of First Nations, who give them important cultural status. The eulachon literally saved lives, earning them the name “salvation fish.”
August 15, 1804
Dragging for fish
At Fish Camp near present Homer, Nebraska, Clark has a fish net made, and when they drag it through a nearby beaver pond, they catch over 300 fish. When smoke appears in the distance, fur trader Pierre Dorion leaves to find Indians.
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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