The Lewis and Clark Expedition

14 May 1804 – 23 Sep 180653 items

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“A Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track, Across the Western Portion of North America,” copied by Samuel Lewis from William Clark’s drawing and engraved by Samuel Harrison, Philadelphia, 1814. Library of Congress. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
“A Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track, Across the Western Portion of North America,” copied by Samuel Lewis from William Clark’s drawing and engraved by Samuel Harrison, Philadelphia, 1814. Library of Congress. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Up the Missouri, over the mountains, down the Columbia and back

On 14 May 1804 more than forty men pushed off from Camp Dubois, across the Mississippi from St. Louis, to find the “most direct & practicable water communication” to the Pacific that Thomas Jefferson had asked for. They came back on 23 September 1806, having lost one man, with maps, specimens and journals, and with the news that no such water route existed.

The country they crossed was not empty. It was the home of dozens of nations, and the expedition lived on their food, horses, maps and goodwill: Otoe, Missouria, Yankton, Lakota, Arikara, Mandan, Hidatsa, Shoshone, Salish, Nez Perce, Walla Walla, Wanapam, Wishram, Chinook, Clatsop, Tillamook, Crow and Blackfeet all appear here, with what each of them wanted from the strangers.

we were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civillized man had never trodden — Meriwether Lewis, leaving Fort Mandan, 7 April 1805

How it is laid out

  • Legs of the journey are periods drawn on the map as routes, from Camp Dubois to the Pacific and back, with the 1806 split into Lewis’s and Clark’s separate routes.

  • Camps: the winters at Fort Mandan and Fort Clatsop, the Great Falls portage, the salt works and the wait for the snow to melt at Camp Chopunnish.

  • Events at the camps, councils and landmarks, each placed at the historic site.

Filter by indigenous for the nations the party met, diplomacy for the councils, sacagawea to follow her, slavery to follow York, and maps, mountains and trade for the geography and the commerce that followed.

Dates are Gregorian, to the day, from the journals in Gary Moulton’s edition, online at the University of Nebraska. Quotations keep the writers’ own spelling.

Items

  1. Up the Missouri

    5 months, 15 days · Camp Dubois to the Mandan villages

  2. Leaving Camp Dubois

    Camp Dubois, at the mouth of the Wood River

  3. Council with the Otoe and Missouria

    Council Bluff, near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska

  4. Sergeant Floyd dies

    Floyd’s Bluff, above the Missouri

  5. Council with the Yankton at Calumet Bluff

    Calumet Bluff, below today’s Gavins Point Dam

  6. Standoff with the Lakota at the Bad River

    Mouth of the Bad (Teton) River, on the Missouri

  7. York among the Arikara

    Arikara villages above the mouth of the Grand River

  8. Winter at Fort Mandan

    5 months, 6 days · Fort Mandan, below the Mandan villages

  9. Charbonneau and Sacagawea are hired

    Fort Mandan, below the Mandan villages

  10. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau is born

    Fort Mandan, below the Mandan villages

  11. Fort Mandan to the Great Falls

    2 months, 7 days · Fort Mandan to the Great Falls

  12. The keelboat turns back with Jefferson’s specimens

    Fort Mandan, below the Mandan villages

  13. Sacagawea saves the pirogue’s cargo

  14. Which fork is the Missouri?

    Confluence of the Marias and the Missouri

  15. Lewis reaches the Great Falls

    The Great Falls of the Missouri, now Ryan Dam

  16. The Great Falls portage

    29 days · The portage around the Great Falls

  17. Flash flood in the ravine

  18. The iron boat fails

    White Bear Islands camp, above the falls

  19. White Bear Islands to Camp Fortunate

    1 month, 3 days · White Bear Islands to Camp Fortunate

  20. The Three Forks of the Missouri

    Three Forks of the Missouri

  21. Sacagawea recognises Beaverhead Rock

    Beaverhead Rock

  22. Lewis crosses Lemhi Pass

    Lemhi Pass, on the Continental Divide

  23. Lewis meets Cameahwait’s Shoshone

    Lemhi River valley, below Lemhi Pass

  24. Sacagawea meets her brother

    Camp Fortunate, at the forks of the Beaverhead

  25. Camp Fortunate to Travelers’ Rest

    16 days · Camp Fortunate to Travelers’ Rest

  26. The Salish at Ross’s Hole

    Ross’s Hole, upper Bitterroot valley

  27. The Lolo Trail, westbound

    11 days · The Lolo Trail, westbound

  28. The Nez Perce at Weippe Prairie

    Weippe Prairie

  29. Down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia

    1 month, 9 days · Canoe Camp to Station Camp

  30. The Columbia at last

    Confluence of the Snake and the Columbia

  31. Celilo Falls

    Celilo Falls, now under Lake Celilo

  32. “Great joy in camp”: the ocean in view

    Camp opposite Pillar Rock, Columbia estuary

  33. The vote at Station Camp

    Station Camp, beside the Chinook’s Middle Village

  34. Winter at Fort Clatsop

    3 months, 16 days · Fort Clatsop, on the Netul (Lewis and Clark) River

  35. The salt works at Seaside

    1 month, 25 days · The salt cairn at Seaside, Oregon

  36. Sacagawea insists on seeing the whale

    Mouth of Ecola Creek, Cannon Beach

  37. The captains take a Clatsop canoe

  38. Up the Columbia

    1 month, 22 days · Fort Clatsop to Camp Chopunnish

  39. Yellept’s welcome on the Walla Walla

    Walla Walla village near the mouth of the Walla Walla River

  40. Camp Chopunnish

    27 days · Camp Chopunnish (Long Camp), Clearwater River

  41. The Lolo Trail, eastbound

    20 days · The Lolo Trail, eastbound

  42. Lewis: to the Marias and down the Missouri

    1 month, 10 days · Lewis: Travelers’ Rest by the Marias to the reunion

  43. Clark: down the Yellowstone

    1 month, 10 days · Clark: Travelers’ Rest down the Yellowstone to the reunion

  44. The captains split at Travelers’ Rest

    Travelers’ Rest, at the mouth of Lolo Creek

  45. Sacagawea points to Bozeman Pass

    Bozeman Pass

  46. Clark signs Pompeys Pillar

    Pompeys Pillar, on the Yellowstone

  47. The Two Medicine fight

    Two Medicine River, Blackfeet country

  48. Cruzatte shoots Lewis

  49. Down the Missouri to St. Louis

    1 month, 12 days · Down the Missouri to St. Louis

  50. The party reunites

    The Missouri below the Little Knife River, near old Sanish

  51. Farewells at the Knife River villages

    Mandan and Hidatsa villages at the Knife River

  52. John Colter turns back for the beaver country

    Mandan and Hidatsa villages at the Knife River

  53. Return to St. Louis

    St. Louis riverfront