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As the Corps recovered, they built dugout canoes, then left their horses with the Nez Perce and braved the Clearwater River rapids to Snake River and then to the Columbia River. They reportedly ate dog meat along the way instead of wild game. A bedraggled and harried Corps finally reached the stormy Pacific Ocean in November of They decided to make camp near present-day Astoria, Oregon , and started building Fort Clatsop on December 10 and moved in by Christmas.
It was not an easy winter at Fort Clatsop. Everyone struggled to keep themselves and their supplies dry and fought an ongoing battle with tormenting fleas and other insects. Almost everyone was weak and sick with stomach problems likely caused by bacterial infections , hunger or influenza-like symptoms.
On March 23, , the Corps left Fort Clatsop for home. They retrieved their horses from the Nez Perce and waited until June for the snow to melt to cross the mountains into the Missouri River Basin. The two groups planned to rendezvous where the Yellowstone and Missouri met in North Dakota. Department of the Interior. Two days later, at Marias River near present-day Cut Bank, Montana, Lewis and his group encountered eight Blackfeet warriors and were forced to kill two of them when they tried to steal weapons and horses.
The location of the clash became known as Two Medicine Fight Site. It was the only violent episode of the expedition, although soon after the Blackfeet fight, Lewis was accidentally shot in his buttocks during a hunting trip; the injury was painful and inconvenient but not fatal.
On August 12, , Lewis and Clark and their crews reunited and dropped off Sacagawea and her family at the Mandan villages. They then headed down the Missouri River—with the currents moving in their favor this time—and arrived in St.
Lewis and Clark returned to Washington, D. While they had failed to identify a coveted Northwest Passage water route across the continent, they had completed their mission of surveying the Louisiana Territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and did so against tremendous odds with just one death and little violence. The Corps had traveled more than 8, miles, produced invaluable maps and geographical information, identified at least animal specimens and botanical samples and initiated peaceful relations with dozens of Native American tribes.
Both Lewis and Clark received double pay and 1, acres of land for their efforts. Clark remained well-respected and lived a successful life. Lewis, however, was not an effective governor and drank too much. He never married or had children and died in of two gunshot wounds, possibly self-inflicted. Building Fort Clatsop. Corps of Discovery. National Park Service: Gateway Arch. Expedition Timeline. Flagship: Keelboat, Barge or Boat? Fort Clatsop Illnesses. Fort Mandan Winter. Indian Peace Medals.
Lemhi Valley to Fort Clatsop. Lolo Trail. Louisiana Purchase. The Journey. The Native Americans. Lewis and Clark put the decision to a vote as to where to build Fort Clatsop, their home for the next five months. They were stuck in cramped, smoky quarters subsisting on lean elk meat.
They were ready to start the return journey as soon as they thought possible, and they actually left too soon. The month spent with the Nez Perce waiting for the snow to melt is one of the most enjoyable and leisurely of the entire two-year journey. And by night, they stay up late dancing and playing the fiddle around the fire. The natives told us that their object in seting those trees on fire was to bring fair weather for our journey. A map depicting the route taken by Lewis and Clark on their first expedition from the Missouri River near St.
Louis, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in Oregon , and their return trip, – After easily crossing the Bitterroots with the help of Nez Perce guides, the Corps split into four different groups for the next leg of the journey. Clark leads a group to explore the Yellowstone River. Lewis takes another up the Marias River, which includes the northernmost edge of the Louisiana Territory. Without any way to communicate with each other, they plan to reunite at Fort Mandan.
After camping together overnight, Lewis catches the Blackfeet trying to steal their guns and horses, and kills a young brave. A month after Lewis and Clark reunite at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone, and weeks after saying goodbye to Sacagawea at Fort Mandan, the Corps of Discovery arrive back in St. Louis, where the exhausted explorers are greeted as heroes. But if you see something that doesn’t look right, click here to contact us!
Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. An additional group of men would travel only to the Mandan country for the first winter, and these included six soldiers and several French boatmen.
Travel up the Missouri River was difficult and exhausting due to heat, injuries, insects, and the troublesome river itself, with its strong current and many snags. The expedition used a keelboat and two small boats called pirogues to carry their supplies and equipment, averaging 15 miles per day. During this phase of the journey the group suffered the only casualty of the expedition. Sergeant Charles Floyd, who was buried near modern-day Sioux City, Iowa, died on August 20 from what is believed to be a ruptured appendix and consequent peritonitis.
Relations with the tribes were generally good, and councils were held with the Otos, Missourias, and Yankton Sioux. However, a September , council with the Teton Sioux near modern-day Pierre, South Dakota, almost resulted in disaster for the expedition.
They built their second winter quarters Fort Mandan a few miles below the mouth of the Knife River, on the east bank of the Missouri River. During that cold winter of , Lewis and Clark made copious notes in their journals, drew maps, and learned of the geography which lay ahead from American Indians in the area of their camp.
They recruited an interpreter named Toussaint Charbonneau, who brought along his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, and her newborn baby boy, Jean Baptiste. On April 7, , Lewis and Clark sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with an extensive collection of zoological, botanical, and ethnological specimens as well as letters, reports, dispatches, and maps, and resumed their westward journey in two pirogues and six dugout canoes. They traveled north to Lolo Pass where they crossed the Bitteroot Range on the Lolo Trail; this was the most difficult part of the journey.
Lewis and Clark reached the country of the Nez Perce on the Clearwater River in Idaho, and left their horses for dugout canoes. From there they made their way down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, reaching the Pacific Ocean by November In December the expedition members built Fort Clatsop on the south side of the Columbia River near present-day Astoria, Oregon , and settled in for the winter.
Lewis and Clark accomplished considerable scientific work, gathering and recording information regarding the country and its inhabitants, despite near-constant rain and plaguing insects. In addition to establishing a salt camp, the men hunted elk and 20 deer and made pairs of moccasins. The return trip began on March 23,
Lewis and Clark Expedition – Wikipedia – Navigation menu
Meriwether Lewis was an intelligent and literate man who also possessed skills as a frontiersman. Lewis solicited the help of William Clark due to Clark’s abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman, which were even stronger than Lewis’s. Lewis so respected Clark that he made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, even though Clark was never recognized as such by the government.
Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark would find a water route linking the Columbia and Missouri rivers. This water link would connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River system, thus giving the new western land access to port markets out of the Gulf of Mexico and to eastern cities along the Ohio River and its minor tributaries.
At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail up the Missouri several miles to the trapper headquarters at Fort Mandan and up the Columbia just a bit over a hundred miles to a point a little beyond present-day Portland, Oregon.
Louis, in the summer of That summer and fall the company of explorers paddled and pulled themselves upstream, northwest on the Missouri River to Fort Mandan, a trading post, where Corps of Discovery set up camp, wintered, and prepared for the journey to the Pacific. When the spring of brought high water and favorable weather, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on the next leg of its journey.
They traveled up the Missouri to present-day Three Forks, Montana, following the western-most tributary, the Jefferson River. This route delivered the explorers to the doorstep of the Shoshone tribe, who were skilled at traversing the great rock mountains with horses. They also told the Indians that America owned their land and offered military protection in exchange for peace.
Others were wary of Lewis and Clark and their intentions and were openly hostile, though seldom violent. But they were no match for the military weapons of the Corps, and soon moved on. In early November, the Corps came across villages of friendly Mandan and Minitari Indians near present-day Washburn, North Dakota , and decided to set up camp downriver for the winter along the banks of the Missouri River.
The Corps spent the next five months at Fort Mandan hunting, forging and making canoes, ropes, leather clothing and moccasins while Clark prepared new maps. They allowed his pregnant Shoshone wife, Sacagawea , to join him on the expedition. Sacagawea had been kidnapped by Hidatsa Indians at age 12 and then sold to Charbonneau. On February 11, , Sacagawea gave birth to a son and named him Jean Baptiste. She became an invaluable and respected asset for Lewis and Clark. On April 7, , Lewis and Clark sent some of their crew and their keelboat loaded with zoological and botanical samplings, maps, reports and letters back to St.
Louis while they and the rest of the Corps headed for the Pacific Ocean. The group next headed out of Lemhi Pass and crossed the Bitterroot Mountain Range using the harrowing Lolo Trail and the help of many horses and a handful of Shoshone guides. This leg of the journey proved to be the most difficult. Many of the party suffered from frostbite, hunger, dehydration, bad weather, freezing temperatures and exhaustion.
Still, despite the merciless terrain and conditions, not a single soul was lost. The Indians took in the weary travelers, fed them and helped them regain their health. As the Corps recovered, they built dugout canoes, then left their horses with the Nez Perce and braved the Clearwater River rapids to Snake River and then to the Columbia River.
They reportedly ate dog meat along the way instead of wild game. A bedraggled and harried Corps finally reached the stormy Pacific Ocean in November of They decided to make camp near present-day Astoria, Oregon , and started building Fort Clatsop on December 10 and moved in by Christmas. It was not an easy winter at Fort Clatsop. Everyone struggled to keep themselves and their supplies dry and fought an ongoing battle with tormenting fleas and other insects.
Almost everyone was weak and sick with stomach problems likely caused by bacterial infections , hunger or influenza-like symptoms. On March 23, , the Corps left Fort Clatsop for home.
They retrieved their horses from the Nez Perce and waited until June for the snow to melt to cross the mountains into the Missouri River Basin. The two groups planned to rendezvous where the Yellowstone and Missouri met in North Dakota. Department of the Interior. Two days later, at Marias River near present-day Cut Bank, Montana, Lewis and his group encountered eight Blackfeet warriors and were forced to kill two of them when they tried to steal weapons and horses. The location of the clash became known as Two Medicine Fight Site.
It was the only violent episode of the expedition, although soon after the Blackfeet fight, Lewis was accidentally shot in his buttocks during a hunting trip; the injury was painful and inconvenient but not fatal. On August 12, , Lewis and Clark and their crews reunited and dropped off Sacagawea and her family at the Mandan villages. They then headed down the Missouri River—with the currents moving in their favor this time—and arrived in St.
Lewis and Clark returned to Washington, D. While they had failed to identify a coveted Northwest Passage water route across the continent, they had completed their mission of surveying the Louisiana Territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and did so against tremendous odds with just one death and little violence. The Corps had traveled more than 8, miles, produced invaluable maps and geographical information, identified at least animal specimens and botanical samples and initiated peaceful relations with dozens of Native American tribes.
Both Lewis and Clark received double pay and 1, acres of land for their efforts. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Native Nations Encountered. Northwest Coast. More Hunting and Fishing. Medicine on the Trail. Native American Nations. Calendar Expedition Calendar. Scientific Explorations. Explore the methods they used to get stuff done—from building canoes to making rope. Learn about the people—and one dog—who were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Synopsis of the Expedition. The entire story is told in these five webpages. Moulton University of Nebraska Press, The story in prose, 14 May —23 September Selected journal excerpts, 14 May —23 September