Cumberland River islands
by Kristopher K. Townsend
On or near this date the expedition approaches the numerous islands above the Cumberland River. Fortescue Cuming and Thomas Rodney describe the islands and a Native family living in this area.
The Saline River
by Kristopher K. Townsend
On or near this date, the expedition passes the Saline River. In 1807, Fortescue Cuming would describe the river’s mouth and a salt works about 20 miles up the river.
Henderson hazards
by Kristopher K. Townsend
On or near this date, the expedition passes Henderson, Kentucky. The town and river hazards in the area leave an unfavorable impression with contemporaneous traveler Thomas Rodney.
Young islands
by Kristopher K. Townsend
Lewis travels between Big Bone Lick and the Falls of the Ohio where William Clark is expecting him. Fellow traveler Thomas Rodney describes that section of the Ohio River with its “young” islands.
The river narrows
by Kristopher K. Townsend
On or near this day, Lewis and the boats pass present Guyan Creek about 17 river miles below Gallipolis, Ohio. After this, the Ohio River narrows and the current speeds up. He may have stopped for the day above an “ugly” riffle at the mouth of the Guyandotte River at present Huntington, West Virginia.
Elsewhere, the future governor of the Territory of Orleans and governor of Louisiana promises its citizens an “inheritance of Freedom.”
Letart Falls
by Kristopher K. Townsend
Anchored on a large sandbar, the night is dry and the morning clear, and the crews set out before sunrise. The barge is safely piloted through the rapids at Letart Falls. Here, Lewis’s journal ends until November 11. Fortunately, Zadok Cramer and Thomas Rodney also describe the rapid they called Letart’s Falls.
Cutting a channel
by Kristopher K. Townsend
To get the large boat through a shallow spot in the Long Reach of the Ohio, the crew must cut a channel through the gravel. They anchor about nine miles upstream from Marietta, Ohio.
On his way to the Mississippi Territory, Thomas Rodney writes a letter to President Thomas Jefferson with news of Lewis’s trip down the Ohio.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with additional funding from the following:
