Chapter 12
Which River?
The mouth of the Marias River, near present-day Loma, Montana
In June 1805 the Corps reached a fork in the Missouri that no one had warned them about. Almost every man thought the muddy north fork was the Missouri. Lewis and Clark chose the clear south fork, and when Lewis found the Great Falls on 13 June they knew they had been right.
2–3 June 1805
On 2 June the Corps comes to a place where the Missouri splits in two. Nobody told them about this. The Hidatsa described the river all the way to the mountains, but they never mentioned a fork like this one.
The two rivers look very different. The north fork is muddy and brown, exactly like the Missouri they have followed for more than two thousand miles. The south fork is clear and fast, with a stony bottom, like a mountain stream. If they choose wrong, they could lose weeks, and miss the Shoshone and their horses before the snow comes.
The captains decide not to guess. They set up camp and send out scouts.
4–8 June 1805
Lewis takes a small party up the north fork. For days it rains. The men slide on wet clay bluffs and sleep in the mud. The river keeps heading north and north-east, towards British Canada. It cannot be the road to the Pacific.
Lewis decides it needs a name. He calls it after his cousin: “in honour of Miss Maria W—d. called it Maria’s River.” Today it is the Marias.
Clark, meanwhile, scouts the south fork, and comes to the same conclusion as Lewis. The clear water must come from the mountains. The south fork is the Missouri.
9 June 1805
The men do not agree. Lewis writes that “the whole of my party to a man except myself were fully pe[r]suaided that this river,” the muddy north fork, “was the Missouri.” Pierre Cruzatte, the best river man among them, is sure of it.
This is a real test of command. The captains could simply give an order. Instead they explain their reasons, and then they say they are going south. The men’s answer is one of the finest moments of the journey: they say “very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us any wher[e] we thought proper to direct but that they still thought that the other was the river.”
10–11 June 1805
Before going on, they lighten their load. Cruzatte digs caches, hidden pits in the ground, and they bury gunpowder, lead, tools and food. They haul the red pirogue onto an island, hide it among the trees, and cover it up. They will pick it all up on the way home.
Then Sacagawea falls very ill with pain and fever. For days she can hardly move, and Clark bleeds her and gives her medicines, which probably make things worse.
On 11 June Lewis sets out on foot up the south fork with four men, to find the proof they need. The Hidatsa told them there was a great waterfall on the Missouri. If Lewis finds it, they are on the right river. If he does not, they are lost.