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High Potential Historic Sites

Several sites along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail have been designated as High Potential Historic Sites by the U.S. National Park Service based on public nominations. The pages below tell the expedition’s story as they visited these areas.

    June 4, 1804

    Climbing Sugar Loaf Rock

    A “nightingale” sings all during the night. During the day, a rope catches on a tree and breaks the barge’s mast. Clark ascends a high hill—now called Sugar Loaf Rock—with hopes to find lead ore.

    May 30, 1805

    The White Cliffs

    The men find that towing the boats among the white cliffs of the Upper Missouri River Breaks is harder than usual. Lewis tests the humidity, and Pvt. Whitehouse describes an empty Atsina camp.

    The Lochsa River

    Packer Meadows to Colt Killed Creek

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    Snow was falling in the high country above them on the morning of 14 September 1805 when, after striking camp two miles downstream from Packer Meadows, the Corps slogged down the Glade Creek canyon through rain and sleet.

    Mouth of the Yellowstone

    When Captain Lewis arrived at the mouth of the great river in late April 1805, he saw a “rich, delightful land, broken into valleys and meadows, and well supplied with wood and water.”

    July 12, 1804

    Willards' court martial

    Big Nemaha River, NE-MO The expedition uses the day to rest, wash clothes, and make celestial observations. Willard is tried and found guilty of sleeping while on guard duty, and in Washington City, President Jefferson welcomes an Osage delegation.

    Pompeys Pillar

    Pompy's Tower

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    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.”

    Station Camp

    "the extent of our journey"

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    “…this I could plainly See would be the extent of our journey by water, as the waves were too high at any Stage for our Canoes to proceed any further down ….”

    July 14, 1805

    Launching the new canoes

    Ulm Canoe Camp, MT Ordway’s detachment brings the old canoes and last of the baggage to canoe camp. They launch the new canoes, and all is made ready for tomorrow’s departure. In Washington City, Lewis’s letters and Clark’s large map arrives.

    The Lost Trail Divide

    Leaving the Indian road

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    Continuing north up the North Fork Salmon River, they leave a good Indian road and must cut their own trail. Were they lost? Sergeant Gass’s laconic remark gives us a hint: “This was not the creek our guide wished to have come upon.”

    October 26, 1804

    Mitutanka Village

    Mitutanka Village, Knife River, ND The expedition arrives as the first Mandan village, Mitutanka. Due to his sore neck, Clark is unable to join Lewis on his visit to the village. Many Indians visit, and they meet Hugh McCracken, a free fur trader.

    August 13, 1804

    The Omaha's Big Village

    Fish Camp, Homer, NE The expedition passes old Fort Charles, a starting point for a previous exploration of the upper Missouri. They camp on a sandbar east of present-day Homer, Nebraska naming the camp Fish Camp. Men are sent to invite the Omahas to council.

    May 29, 1805

    Bison terrorizes camp

    When a bison runs amok, Lewis’s dog Seaman saves the day by diverting it away from camp. They pass “Judieths River” and camp above the “slaughter river” where numerous dead bison have washed ashore.

    Bad ‘humered’ Island

    Change of heart

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    On the evening of 25 September 1804 after a negative encounter with the Lakota Sioux, the Corps camped on a nearby island Clark called “bad humered Island.” The next morning, the Indians had a change of heart.

    Packer Meadows

    "A pretty little plain"

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    Lewis acknowledged it was “a pretty little plain of about 50 acres plentifully stocked with quawmash” and “one of the principal stages or encampments of the indians”

    August 20, 1804

    Burying Sgt. Floyd

    Sioux City, IA Clark spends most of the night attending to Sergeant Floyd who is gravely ill. The expedition leaves Fish Camp, but soon stops near present-day Sioux City, Iowa to intern Sergeant Floyd with a full military ceremony. The former Spanish governor of Louisiana reports on several American expeditions in contested Spanish territory.

    The Knife River Villages

    Marketplace

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    Reaching the mouth of the Knife River on 27 October 1804, the expedition arrived in the midst of a major agricultural center and marketplace for a huge mid-continental region. The five permanent earth lodge communities there offered a panorama of contemporary Indian life.

    Celilo Falls

    Great mart of the west

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    The Corps of Discovery reached a many-faceted barrier, Celilo Falls, which required a portage. The falls proved to be the beginning of fifty-some river miles that also held The Short and Long Narrows (jointly called The Dalles), and ended with the lengthy Cascades of the Columbia.

    July 21, 1804

    Passing the Platte

    Above the Platte River At midday, the boats arrive at the mouth of the Platte. They remark on the sandy river’s effect on the Missouri. Before continuing up the Missouri, the captains take a pirogue one mile up the Platte.

    Building Fort Clatsop

    A rush job

    December 10, 1805 marked the beginning of work on the Corps’ third winter garrison. They worked as fast as they could, and the daily, mostly intermittent rain showers punctuated by gale-lashed torrents, strengthened their resolve.

    April 30, 1806

    Crossing the sandy plain

    The expedition sets out on the Travois Road passing through sagebrush and sand dunes. They camp on the Touchet River north of present Walla Walla. Lewis describes eating dog, river otter, and horse.

    Clark and his five men “proceeded on up the river a little more than a mile to the largest fountain or Spring I ever Saw, and doubt if it is not the largest in American Known.”

    Weippe Prairie Villages

    Nez Perce camas grounds

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    For countless generations, Weippe Prairie (prounouced WEE-yipe), like Travelers’ Rest, was a major node in the transportation, trade, and social networks of the Rocky Mountain West.

    Square Butte

    Lewis's Fort Mountain

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    “This mountain has a singular appearance. it is situated in a level plain, it’s sides stand nearly at right angles with each other and are each about a mile in extent … from it’s figure we gave it the name of fort mountain.”

    Three Forks of the Missouri

    Essential geographic point

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    Lewis and his canoes slowly approached the forks, “the current still so rapid that the men are in a continual state of their utmost exertion to get on, and they begin to weaken fast from this continual state of violent exertion.” He described the “extensive and beatifull plains and meadows.”

    Lower Portage Camp

    Good news, bad news

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    By the evening of 15 June 1805, Clark had gotten the canoes and the white perogue as close to the Great Falls as possible, and the next afternoon Lewis joined him at the “lower portage camp,” a mile below the mouth of Belt Creek.

    Spirit Mound

    An elevation of devilish spirits

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    The visit to this prairie hill was among the more bizarre sidelights of the whole expedition, but evidently it was not entirely unexpected. Seventy-six years earlier, explorer Pierre La Véndrye called the place the “Dwelling of the Spirits.”

    The White Cliffs

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    Under cloudy skies on the morning of 31 May 1805, the expedition “proceeded at an early hour,” and roped their flotilla of six cottonwood dugout canoes and two big pirogues into one of the most famous riverscapes on the Missouri.

    Tower Rock

    First Gate of the Rocky Mountains

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    “at this place there is a large rock of 400 feet high wich stands immediately in the gap which the missouri makes on it’s passage from the mountains.”

    September 7, 1804

    Prairie dog town

    Old Baldy [The Tower], SD The expedition encounters its first village of prairie dogs. They pour barrels of water down burrow holes eventually catching one as a specimen. Hunter George Shannon is still missing.

    May 8, 1805

    The 'River that Scolds all Others'

    Clark explores the Milk River, and Sacagawea brings him breadroot, an important Indian food source. After finding recent Assiniboine activity, Lewis wishes to avoid any encounter with that Tribe.

    May 23, 1804

    Lewis escapes death

    Lewis climbs the pinnacles of Tavern Rock, slips, and manages to escape with the help of his knife. In Tavern Cave, Clark adds his name among the graffiti left by earlier travelers.

    August 26, 1804

    Promoting Private Gass

    Opposite Bow Creek, NE Patrick Gass is promoted to sergeant. Camp is across from an old Omaha village.

    Fort Rock

    Refuge at The Dalles

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    The party “Came too, under a high point of rocks on the Lard. Side below a creek”—Quenett (“salmon”), now Mill Creek—a “Situation well Calculated to defend our Selves,” and duly named their bivouac “Fort Rock Camp.”

    Hat Rock

    The enlisted men must have recognized it at a glance, this pile of columnar basalt all together resembling a well-weathered gentleman’s hat with a work-worn brim. Two centuries later, it would be one of the few Lewis and Clark landmarks left above Columbia River.

    Bivouac at Tongue Point

    A long and wet encampment

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    As the Corps rounded Tongue Point the wind rose hard from the west, and heavy seas with torrential rain forced them back to the east shore of the narrow isthmus, where they huddled for ten miserable days.

    December 7, 1803

    Cahokia arrivals

    Meramec River, MO to Cahokia, IL
    Lewis traveling by land, and Clark by river, arrive at Cahokia. Lewis meets two useful locals, John Hay and Nicholas Jarrot who help him negotiate entering Spanish territory.

    April 25, 1805

    Lewis on the Yellowstone

    Seaman disappears during the night but fortunately returns in the morning. Lewis and a small detachment then advance to the Yellowstone River while Clark commands the boats.

    Sulpher Spring

    A cure for Sacagawea?

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    On his return to the mouth of the Marias, Lewis found Sacagawea gravely ill. He had his men cross the river “to procure the water of the Sulpher spring,” “the virtues of which,” Lewis asserted, “I now resolved to try on the Indian woman.”

    August 25, 1804

    Visiting Spirit Mound

    Spirit Mound, SD The captains take a large party to explore Spirit Mound. Instead of finding devils, they suffer from excessive heat and witness birds eating swarms of flying ants.

    August 11, 1804

    Honoring Blackbird

    Near Badger Lake, IA The captains climb a high hill where they place a flag at the grave of Blackbird, an Omaha chief and prolific trader. They then continue up the Missouri River camping near Badger Lake, Iowa.

    June 1, 1804

    Mouth of the Osage

    After a hard day, the expedition stops at the mouth of Osage River where the captains make celestial observations late into the night. Lewis also collects a specimen of wild ginger, Asarum canadense.

    Fort Clatsop Today

    Reconstructing the fort

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    Today’s Fort Clatsop stands at or near the site of the Corps’ winter encampment of 1805-06 was built on the same floor plan that Clark drew on the cover of the Elkskin-covered Journal. The rest of the present structure resembles the original only in a remote sense.

    The Portage Route

    Around the Falls of the Missouri

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    The shuttling of all the baggage and six canoes across the prairie to the upper portage camp opposite White Bear Islands began on 21 June 1805 and was completed on 2 July 1805. All in all, it was one of the most grueling undertakings on the entire expedition.

    The Big Bend of the Missouri

    Around the 'Grand Detour'

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    The huge meander called the Big Bend, or Grand Detour, had been a well-known Missouri River landmark for many years when the Corps of Discovery arrived at its lower bend on 19 September 1805.

    July 22, 1804

    White Catfish Camp

    White Catfish Camp, Bellevue, NE The captains find a shady place near to rest and arrange a council with the Otoe Indians. Lewis describes his astronomical instruments.

    Lewis and Clark Pass

    A shorter way

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    Sergeant Gass recorded that on 7 July 1806, Lewis’s detachment took a three-hour lunch break and then proceeded four miles, “when we came to the dividing ridge between the waters of the Missouri and Columbia.”

    December 12, 1803

    Rivière à Dubois arrival

    Winter Camp at Wood River, IL Clark takes the boats past Florissant village, now a suburb of St. Louis, and then arrives at the Riviére á Dubois just below the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Lewis is in St. Louis collecting data.

    Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

    Horrid noise

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    On the night of 4 November 1805 the expedition camped near a pond now called Post Office Lake. The next morning a weary, groggy Clark complained that he “could not Sleep for the noise” made by the numerous waterfowl.

    Across the Great Divide

    Over Lemhi Pass

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    Below the summit of today’s Lemhi Pass, Lewis said that he had reached “the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights.”

    St. Louis

    Gateway to the west

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    In 1804 and in the presence of the Lewis and Clark expedition the little village, built and designed to be an outpost of the fur trade, shed its ambiguous Spanish-French parentage and took on full American citizenship.

    July 24, 1805

    Turned side upwards

    York Islands and Clarkston, MT Lewis describes the great fatigues and discomforts of the men as they tow and pole the canoes against the Missouri River. Scouting ahead by land, Clark sees hills “fallen half down & turned Side up-wards.”

    Gates of the Mountains

    The second gate

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    Late in the day on 19 July 1805, Lewis and his party entered a canyon between “the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen.” They seemed to rise “from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet.”

    Finding the Yellowstone

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    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.”

    The Mouth of the Missouri

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    The Missouri River still contributes its tint a few miles north of St. Louis. It is difficult to determine exactly how much, and how often, the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers changed during the nine decades after the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

    St. Charles

    Petites Côtes

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    With Captain Clark in sole command, the Corps of Volunteers for North Western Discovery left the mouth of Wood River on 14 May 1804. The flotilla was comprised of the barge and two pirogues. Clark and the men “proceeded on under a jentle brease,” bound for St. Charles.

    Meeting the Columbia

    A welcoming fanfare

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    In the afternoon of 16 October 1805, the expedition portaged around “the last bad rapid as the Indians Sign to us”–the last on the Snake River, that is–and soon arrived at the “Great River of the West,” the Columbia.

    June 23, 1804

    Clark's night away

    Winds prevent the boats from making more than 3½ miles, but they finally arrive at the future site of Fort Osage. While hunting , Clark mires in mud and is forced to spend the night away from the boats.

    August 13, 1805

    Shoshone diplomacy

    Shoshone Village, ID and Clark’s Lookout, MT In the Lemhi River valley, Shoshone diplomacy includes greetings, a flag presentation, a pipe ceremony, and revelry late into the night. Back on the Beaverhead River, Clark takes bearings from Clark’s Lookout, and several men fish.

    Beacon Rock

    A remarkable, high and detached rock

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    “a remarkable high detached rock Stands in a bottom on the Stard [starboard, the navigator’s right] Side & about 800 feet high and 400 paces around”

    June 7, 1804

    "white red & blue flint"

    As they travel up the Missouri, the journalists have noticed images painted and carved on the limestone bluffs. Today, Clark finds rattlesnakes and cliffs inlaid with “white red & blue flint”.

    Camp Disappointment

    The northernmost extent

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    In 1806, Lewis, Drouillard, Joe Field, and Reubin Field made a second excursion up the Marias, this time on horseback. The four men reached the northernmost point of the Expedition’s exploration on 22 July 1806, camping on the south side of today’s Cut Bank Creek.

    Beaverhead Rock

    Sacagawea's landmark?

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    “The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right . . . . This hill she says her nation calls the beaver’s head from a conceived resemblance of its figure to the head of that animal.”

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.