Lewis and Clark’s Log

The Corps of Discovery · up the Missouri to the Pacific and back · 1804–1806

Summary of the Lewis and Clark expedition

In May 1804 about forty-five men set out from near St. Louis to cross the West to the Pacific Ocean. Two years and four months later they came back, having travelled about 8,000 miles. This is their journey in brief, and chapter by chapter.

The expedition in brief

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought Louisiana from France and sent his secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to explore it. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to share the command. Their orders were to follow the Missouri River to its source, find the best water route across the continent to the Pacific, make peace and trade with the nations they met, and record the land, plants and animals along the way. (Chapter 1)

The Corps of Discovery left Camp Dubois, on the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the Missouri, on 14 May 1804. They rowed, poled and hauled their boats up the Missouri, held their first council with the Oto and Missouria, lost Sergeant Charles Floyd to illness, faced down the Lakota, and wintered among the Mandan and Hidatsa in present-day North Dakota. There they hired Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, who gave birth to a son in February 1805.

In spring 1805 they pushed on into country no American had mapped: past the Great Falls of the Missouri and the Three Forks to Lemhi Pass, where Lewis saw that there was no easy way across the mountains, then on Shoshone horses over the Bitterroot Mountains, nearly starving. The Nez Perce fed them, and they paddled down the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific in November 1805. They spent a wet winter at Fort Clatsop, near present-day Astoria, Oregon.

On the way home in 1806 the Corps split in two to explore more country. Lewis’s small party had the expedition’s only deadly fight, with Piegan Blackfeet on the Two Medicine River, and Lewis was shot by accident by one of his own hunters. The parties met again on the Missouri, said goodbye to Sacagawea’s family at the Mandan villages, and reached St. Louis on 23 September 1806. Only one member of the Corps had died.

The expedition at a glance

Leaders
Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark
Sent by
President Thomas Jefferson
Set out
Camp Dubois, Illinois, 14 May 1804
Wintered
Fort Mandan, North Dakota, 1804–05; Fort Clatsop, Oregon, 1805–06
Reached the Pacific
November 1805
Returned
St. Louis, 23 September 1806
Distance
About 8,000 miles
People
About 45 set out; the permanent party that went to the Pacific and back was 33 (who they were)
Deaths
One: Sergeant Charles Floyd, probably of a burst appendix, 20 August 1804

Chapter by chapter

Part I · Up the Missouri

  1. The President’s SecretWashington, Philadelphia and the Ohio River · 18 January 1803

    President Thomas Jefferson wanted a water route across North America for trade. In 1803 he quietly asked Congress for money to send Captain Meriwether Lewis up the Missouri River and on to the Pacific, and Lewis asked his friend William Clark to lead it with him.

  2. Setting OutCamp Dubois, Illinois, and the lower Missouri River · Winter 1803–1804

    The expedition spent the winter of 1803–04 training at Camp Dubois, across the Mississippi from the mouth of the Missouri, and set out up the Missouri on 14 May 1804 in a keelboat and two smaller boats called pirogues.

  3. Council BluffCouncil Bluff, near present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska · 21 July 1804

    On 3 August 1804, at a bluff in present-day Nebraska, Lewis and Clark held their first council with leaders of the Oto and Missouria nations, handed out peace medals and flags, and told them the United States now claimed their country.

  4. Sergeant FloydFloyd’s Bluff, present-day Sioux City, Iowa · 19 August 1804

    Only one member of the Corps of Discovery died on the whole expedition: Sergeant Charles Floyd, who fell suddenly ill and died on 20 August 1804, probably of a burst appendix. He was buried on a bluff above the Missouri near present-day Sioux City, Iowa.

  5. Lost in a Land of PlentyThe Great Plains, present-day Nebraska and South Dakota · 23 August 1804

    On the Great Plains in late summer 1804 the Corps saw huge herds of buffalo and animals new to science, such as the pronghorn and the prairie dog, while the youngest soldier, George Shannon, was lost for sixteen days and nearly starved.

  6. The Teton StandoffThe mouth of the Bad River, near present-day Pierre, South Dakota · 24 September 1804

    On 25 September 1804, near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, a council with the Lakota, whom the captains called the Teton Sioux, turned into an armed standoff over whether the boats could pass. The chief Black Buffalo stepped in, and after several tense days the Corps went on.

Part II · The Mandan Winter

  1. The Mandan VillagesThe Mandan and Hidatsa villages, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota · October 1804

    In November 1804, while building Fort Mandan for the winter near present-day Washburn, North Dakota, the captains hired a French-Canadian trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, as an interpreter. His young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, came too, because she could talk with the Shoshone people of the Rocky Mountains.

  2. Forty BelowFort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota · December 1804

    Sacagawea’s son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was born at Fort Mandan on 11 February 1805, in a winter so cold the thermometer fell to 40 degrees below zero. Clark later nicknamed the boy “Pomp.”

  3. Gifts for the PresidentFort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota · March 1805

    On 7 April 1805 the keelboat went back down the Missouri with reports, maps, plants, animal skins and bones, and live animals for President Jefferson, including four magpies and a prairie dog. The prairie dog reached him alive.

Part III · Into the Unknown

  1. White BearsThe upper Missouri, present-day eastern Montana · 26 April 1805

    Yes. On the upper Missouri in the spring of 1805 the Corps met grizzly bears for the first time. Some took ten bullets to kill and chased men into the river, and Lewis admitted he would rather fight two Indians than one bear.

  2. The Journals OverboardThe upper Missouri, present-day central Montana · 14 May 1805, evening

    Sacagawea was not the expedition’s guide, but she was much more than a passenger. On 14 May 1805, when a boat nearly capsized, she calmly rescued the papers, books and medicines floating out of it, and Lewis praised her courage. She also interpreted with the Shoshone and gathered food.

  3. Which River?The mouth of the Marias River, near present-day Loma, Montana · 2–3 June 1805

    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.

  4. The Great FallsThe Great Falls of the Missouri, present-day Great Falls, Montana · 13 June 1805

    The Great Falls of the Missouri turned out to be five waterfalls spread over ten miles of river. From late June to early July 1805 the Corps carried their canoes and baggage about eighteen miles overland on wheels cut from a cottonwood tree, through cactus, hail and a flash flood.

  5. Three ForksThe Three Forks of the Missouri, near present-day Three Forks, Montana · 19 July 1805

    The Missouri River begins at Three Forks, Montana, where three rivers meet. Lewis and Clark reached it in late July 1805 and named the rivers the Jefferson, the Madison and the Gallatin. Sacagawea recognised it as the place where she had been captured as a girl.

Part IV · The Mountains

  1. The DivideLemhi Pass, on the Montana–Idaho border · 11 August 1805

    No. On 12 August 1805 Lewis reached the source of the Missouri and crossed the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass, hoping to see a river running down to the Pacific. Instead he saw range after range of snow-topped mountains. There was no easy water route across the continent.

  2. CameahwaitCamp Fortunate, near present-day Dillon, Montana · 17 August 1805

    Sacagawea’s brother was Cameahwait, chief of the Lemhi Shoshone band the Corps met in the Rocky Mountains. When they met on 17 August 1805, five years after she had been taken from her people, the reunion helped the captains get the horses they needed to cross the mountains.

  3. The Starving TrailThe Lolo Trail over the Bitterroot Mountains, present-day Idaho · 4–9 September 1805

    Crossing the Bitterroot Mountains on the Lolo Trail in September 1805, the Corps ran out of food. They ate horses and colts, a dried “portable soup” they had carried from Philadelphia, bear oil and even candles, until the Nez Perce fed them on the far side.

  4. The Nez PerceWeippe Prairie and Canoe Camp, present-day Idaho · 22 September 1805

    When the starving Corps came out of the Bitterroot Mountains in September 1805, the Nez Perce fed them salmon and camas bread, drew them a map of the rivers to the Pacific, helped them make canoes, and looked after their horses all winter until they came back.

Part V · Down the Columbia

  1. The Great RiverThe Snake and Columbia rivers, present-day Idaho, Washington and Oregon · 7–10 October 1805

    From the Nez Perce country the Corps paddled down the Clearwater and Snake rivers to the Columbia, which they reached on 16 October 1805, then ran the rapids of Celilo Falls and the Dalles on the way to the Pacific. The Columbia was lined with fishing villages and was one of the great trading routes of North America.

  2. Ocian in ViewThe Columbia River estuary and Station Camp, present-day Washington · 7 November 1805

    Clark wrote “Ocian in view! O! the joy” on 7 November 1805, though what he saw was the wide estuary of the Columbia, still about twenty miles from the sea. Storms trapped the Corps on the rocks for days, and they finally reached a camp looking out on the Pacific on 15 November 1805.

  3. The VoteStation Camp, near present-day McGowan, Washington · 22 November 1805

    Yes. On 24 November 1805 the captains asked every member of the Corps where to spend the winter and wrote down each choice, including those of York, a man enslaved by Clark, and Sacagawea. Neither of them could have voted anywhere in the United States at the time.

Part VI · Fort Clatsop

  1. Fort ClatsopFort Clatsop, near present-day Astoria, Oregon · December 1805

    Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805–06 at Fort Clatsop, a small log fort they built near present-day Astoria, Oregon, and named after their neighbours, the Clatsop people. It rained on all but twelve days of the winter, and they left for home on 23 March 1806.

  2. The Great FishTillamook Head and Ecola Creek, present-day Cannon Beach, Oregon · 5 January 1806

    Yes. In January 1806 a whale washed up on the Oregon coast near present-day Cannon Beach. Clark went to see it with a small party that included Sacagawea, who insisted on going. By the time they arrived, the Tillamook people had stripped it down to a skeleton 105 feet long, and Clark traded for about three hundred pounds of blubber.

Part VII · The Way Home

  1. HomewardThe Columbia River, from Fort Clatsop to the Walla Walla · March 1806

    Seaman, Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, made the whole journey to the Pacific and back. In April 1806 he was stolen on the Columbia River, and Lewis sent three armed men after the thieves, who let him go. The last mention of him in the journals is in July 1806, when the mosquitoes made him howl.

  2. Waiting for the SnowCamp Chopunnish, near present-day Kamiah, Idaho · Early May 1806

    On the way home the Corps stayed with the Nez Perce for about a month, from mid-May to 10 June 1806, near present-day Kamiah, Idaho, waiting for the snow to melt on the Lolo Trail. They got their horses back, raced and played games with the Nez Perce, and Clark treated the sick in return for food.

  3. Two Roads HomeTravelers’ Rest, Montana, to the Yellowstone River · 3 July 1806

    Pompeys Pillar is a sandstone butte beside the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana. On 25 July 1806 Clark climbed it, named it “Pompy’s Tower” after Sacagawea’s son, and carved his name and the date beside Native carvings of animals. His signature is the only mark of the expedition that can still be seen along its route.

  4. Two MedicineThe Two Medicine River, northern Montana · 17–26 July 1806

    Yes, once. At dawn on 27 July 1806, on the Two Medicine River in northern Montana, a fight broke out between Lewis’s small party and eight young Piegan Blackfeet men who tried to take their guns and horses. Reubin Field stabbed one of the Piegan men, and Lewis shot another. Both died. It was the only deadly fight of the expedition.

  5. The Fiddler’s ShotThe Missouri River, present-day western North Dakota · 28 July–10 August 1806

    On 11 August 1806, Pierre Cruzatte, the expedition’s fiddler, who had only one eye and was near-sighted in it, mistook Lewis for an elk in the willows and shot him through the backside. The wound was very painful but not dangerous, and Lewis recovered.

Part VIII · Home

  1. FarewellsThe Mandan and Hidatsa villages, present-day North Dakota · 14 August 1806

    When the Corps reached the Mandan villages again in August 1806, Sacagawea, Charbonneau and their son stayed behind. Charbonneau was paid about five hundred dollars; Sacagawea was paid nothing. Clark offered to raise and educate their son, and a few years later the family brought him to St. Louis.

  2. St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri · 4 September 1806

    The Corps arrived back in St. Louis on 23 September 1806, two years, four months and ten days after setting out from Camp Dubois. They had travelled about 8,000 miles, and most people in the United States had given them up for dead.

  3. AfterSt. Louis, Washington and beyond, 1806–1838 · Meriwether Lewis, 1807–1809

    Lewis became governor of the Louisiana Territory and died of gunshot wounds in Tennessee in 1809, probably by his own hand. Clark became the government’s chief official for Indian affairs in the West and lived until 1838. York was refused his freedom for about ten years. Sacagawea probably died in 1812, though Shoshone tradition says she lived until 1884.

Why it matters

The expedition gave the United States its first real knowledge of the West: its rivers and mountains, its plants and animals, and the nations who lived there. It strengthened the young country’s claim to the Oregon country and opened the way for fur traders and then settlers. For the nations who had fed, guided and sheltered the Corps, what followed was the loss of their lands. (Chapter 31)

Read the full retelling →

More about the expedition: Timeline · The route · Who was on the expedition · Sacagawea · What they discovered