The Trail / Clark on the Yellowstone

Clark on the Yellowstone

Travelers' Rest to North Dakota

Parting with Lewis at Travelers’ Rest, Clark leads a large group back to the Beaverhead River to pick up the supplies and canoes cached there. At the Three Forks of the Missouri, Sgt. Ordway continues down the Missouri to join Sgt. Gass at the Great Falls of the Missouri. Clark travels by horse to the Yellowstone and continues downriver to find cottonwood trees large enough to make canoes.

After making two small canoes, Clark tasks Sgt. Pryor to take the horses to the Knife River Villages. Crow Indians steal all the horses, and Pryor’s group makes two bull boats, in which they journey down the Yellowstone. Everyone reunites on the Missouri River several miles below present-day Williston, North Dakota.

For Lewis’s return journey, see On the Road to the Buffalo and Lewis on the Marias.

    Synopsis Part 5

    Fort Clatsop to St. Louis

    by

    On 23 March 1806, once again battling the rising spring runoff, as it had each of the two previous years on the Missouri, the Corps of Discovery started up the Columbia River towards home.

    Dividing Forces at Travelers’ Rest

    Their daring tactical plan

    by

    Dividing into as many as five separate details was part of a bold, diplomatic plan to achieve three of the objectives set by President Jefferson.

    Big Hole to Three Forks

    Sacagawea points to home

    by

    Sacagawea informed Clark that “she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well,” that the creek they were following was a branch of the Big Hole River, and that “when we assended the higher part of the plain we would discover a gap in the mountains”

    Stolen Horses

    Crow horse culture

    by ,

    Pryor and six privates had successfully driven forty-one horses all the way to the Yellowstone Valley, apparently without any trouble. Then, smoke on the horizon. Twenty-four horses stolen on the twentieth. Seventeen taken on the twenty-fifth.

    July 8, 1806

    Many returns

    Sun River and Fortunate Camp, MT Clark’s group returns to last year’s Fortunate Camp, and the men immediately dig up a cache of tobacco. Lewis returns to the plains crossing the Dearborn and passing Haystack Butte, a landmark on the Old North Trail. Ordway’s group is still in the Big Hole Valley.

    July 13, 1806

    Flooded caches

    White Bear Islands and Gallatin River, MT At the headwaters of the Missouri, Sgt. Ordway takes the canoes down the Missouri, and Clark takes the horses up the Gallatin River valley. At the Falls of the Missouri, Lewis finds that his cache of specimens had flooded.

    Finding the Yellowstone

    by ,

    As he started over the mountains at today’s Bozeman they observed several Indian and buffalo roads heading northeast across the mountains. Clark reported, “the indian woman who has been of great Service to me as a pilot through this Country recommends a gap.”

    Crow Signs

    Smoke signals a discovery

    by

    “This smoke must be raisd. by the Crow Indians in that direction as a Signal for us, or other bands. I think it most probable that they have discovered our trail.”

    Yellowstone Canoe Camp

    by

    One week and a hundred miles after starting down the Yellowstone River, Clark finally found cottonwood trees large enough for building canoes. That night some Indians made off with half their horses.

    July 21, 1806

    Many missing horses

    Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and Cut Bank Creek, MT On the Yellowstone, half of Clark’s horses appear to be stolen by Crow Indians. At the White Bear Islands, missing horses delay the portage. Lewis turns up Cut Bank Creek hoping it take him to the 50th parallel.

    Clark’s Crow Indian Speech

    A speech never given

    by

    While stinging from having so many of his horses stolen, Clark wrote a speech to the Crow Indians imploring them to return the booty. After all, he needed those horses to complete the captain’s bold diplomatic plan.

    July 24, 1806

    Pryor's mission begins

    Camp Disappointment, Great Falls and Yellowstone River, MT After helping Sgt. Pryor swim the horses across the Yellowstone, Clark heads downriver in canoes. Pryor’s mission to take the horses by land to the Knife River Villages begins. At Camp Disappointment on Cut Bank Creek, Lewis waits for the weather to clear. Gass and Ordway portage canoes around the Falls of the Missouri.

    Crossing the Yellowstone

    Parting ways

    by

    Pryor was to proceed downriver to the mouth of the Bighorn River, where Clark, with the canoes, would help him and his detail across the Yellowstone to its south bank. But they happened upon a good fording place at today’s Billings, and seized the opportunity.

    Pompeys Pillar

    Pompy's Tower

    by

    On 25 July 1806, Clark and his contingent of nine men, plus York, Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and little Jean Baptiste, arrived at “a remarkable rock Situated in an extensive bottom, on the Star[boar]d. [south] Side of the river.”

    Trail Graffiti

    by

    Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition carved, burned, or painted their names or initials and the dates when they did so, more than fourteen times according to the journals. They were practicing what had long been European explorers’ legitimate means for claiming dominion over other people’s land.

    The Yellowstone Badlands

    by

    Around midday he passed the mouth of a tributary “40 yards wid Shallow and muddy,” the banks of which can be faintly discerned near the horizon in the picture, and identified it as the stream the Mandan chief Sheheke had called Oak-tar-pon-er.

    The Lower Yellowstone

    A promising location

    by

    On 30 July 1806 Clark and his party camped near the mouth of the War har sah, or Powder River. He summarized the Yellowstone’s attractions, directing most of his attention toward opportunities for immediate expansion of the fur trade.

    August 1, 1806

    Waiting for buffalo

    Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, MT On the Yellowstone, Clark waits for a large herd of buffalo to cross. On the Missouri, Lewis passes the Musselshell River and stops to dry bighorn sheep skins. Pryor’s group paddles bull boats somewhere behind Clark. Everybody is slowed by the weather.

    August 8, 1806

    Sergeant Pryor arrives

    Williston and Tobacco Garden Creek, ND In the morning, Pryor arrives at Clark’s camp having paddled two bull boats down the Yellowstone River. Lewis sets up a camp near present-day Williston to make clothes, repair boats, hunt, and make jerky.

    Reunion

    Lewis and Pryor catch up

    by

    After splitting up into five separate details over five weeks earlier, all the members of the Corps of Discovery were finally reunited 142 miles downriver from the mouth of the Yellowstone.

    August 12, 1806

    Reunion

    Bear Den Creek, ND Below the Little Knife River, Lewis’s and Clark’s two groups enjoy a reunion. They share stories, abandon Sgt. Pryor’s bull boats, and proceed on as one group, something they have not done since 30 June 1806. Lewis writes his last daily journal entry.

    Mapping the Yellowstone

    by

    Clark’s map of 1814 shows his post-expeditionary conclusions regarding the lay of the land from just west of the Three Forks of the Missouri River, roughly 230 air miles eastward along the Yellowstone to the Tongue River.

    Wheeler on the Yellowstone

    Bozeman Pass and Pompeys Pillar

    by ,

    In 1902, Wheeler followed the Northern Pacific’s course over Bozeman Pass and the Yellowstone River promoting both the railroad and the Lewis and Clark Centennial.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.