The Trail / Gates of the Rockies

Gates of the Rockies

End of the Missouri

As the Missouri River flows south along the eastern edges of the Rocky Mountains, Clark lists each river constriction as a gate, gap, or narrows. Throughout this course, the river forks two times with each fork one-third the size than previous. The men are encouraged when Sacagawea starts seeing familiar landmarks. Scouting ahead, Lewis crosses the Continental Divide and meets the Lemhi Shoshones. Meanwhile, Clark and the boats reach the end of the navigable river.

Clark’s Rocky Mountain Gates[1]From Clark’s list of “Estimated Distances.”
Clark’s description Date Present-day name
1. Rockey Mountains at Pine Island rapid 16 July 1805 Tower Rock
2. Great Gate of the Rock Mouts. 19 July 1805 Gates of the Mountains
3. Little Gate of the Mountain 25 July 1805 Toston Dam, Lombard
three forks of Missouri 27 July 1805 Three Forks, Headwaters of the Missouri
4. Narrows of the 3d Mountain 1 August 1805 Jefferson Canyon
5. 4th Gap of the Mountain 15 August 1805 Rattlesnake Cliffs
6. Rapid at the narrows of 5th Mtn. 16 August 1805 Beaverhead Canyon Gateway
 

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    July 15, 1805

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    Holter Lake, MT Clark,York, J. Field, and Potts follow a well-traveled Indian road in an attempt to find Shoshones. Lewis commandeers the canoes as they paddle, tow, and pole up the Missouri River. He also describes Lewis’s blue flax.

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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.”

    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.”

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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.”

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    July 25, 1805

    The end of the Missouri River

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    July 28, 1805

    Sacagawea's capture

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    28–29 July 1805

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    July 30, 1805

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    On 1 August 1805, Clark and the expedition’s flotilla of eight dugout canoes pushed up the Jefferson River through “a verrey high mountain which jutted its tremendious Clifts on either Side for 9 Miles, the rocks ragide.” They emerged into a “wide exte[n]sive vallie.”

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    August 6, 1805

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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.”

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    Today the confluence of the Beaverhead River and Horse Prairie Creek is submerged at left of the large island (photo center) in Clark Canyon reservoir, beneath eighty feet of water when the reservoir is full.

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    End of navigable water

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    Lewis: “here I halted and examined those streams and readily discovered from their size that it would be vain to attempt the navigation of either any further.”

    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.”

    August 12, 1805

    Across the divide

    Lemhi Pass and Clark’s Lookout, MT Lewis’s small detachment crosses the Continental Divide following a good Indian trail and enters present-day Idaho. The men in the main party complain to Clark about the near-impossible task of dragging the heavy dugout canoes up the shallow and rapid Beaverhead River.

    Clark’s Lookout

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    Clark arrived at this “high Point of Limestone rocks” and strolled to its low summit. This was a convenient place from which to take at least three different bearings, making of it a surveyor’s “station” or triangulation point.

    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.

    The Rattlesnake Cliffs

    The 'other' Beaverhead Rock

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    This is the landmark that white settlers believed Sacagawea really meant to identify as Beaverhead Rock . . . .

    The Beaverhead Canyon Gateway

    Last gate of the Rockies

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    Lewis’s simple, orderly concept of the Rocky Mountains began to crumble. The truth was, this was not the easy portage to the Pacific Ocean they had expected from the beginning. Countless “chains” of mountains still intervened.

    August 17, 1805

    Fortunate Camp reunions

    Fortunate Camp, MT Clark brings the dugout canoes up the Beaverhead River and meets Lewis and the Lemhi Shoshone Indians at what they would later call Fortunate Camp. Sacagawea is reunited with old friends and family, and negotiations for horses commences.

    Fortunate Camp Observations

    18–21 August 1805

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    If, as suggested, Fortunate Camp was at 44°59’36″N, how did Lewis, after averaging four observations, come up with a latitude 24 minutes too far south?

    August 24, 1805

    Leaving Fortunate Camp

    Salmon River, ID and Shoshone Cove, MT Lewis barters for three horses and a mule, and Charbonneau buys a horse for Sacagawea. With the help of Shoshone women, they start carrying baggage over the continental divide. Clark considers three alternate plans for reaching the Pacific Ocean.

    Horse Packing

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    Loading and handling a packhorse is hard work. It demands not only a great deal of physical strength and endurance, but also an eye for balancing a load on the first try, a head full of horse sense, the patience of a saint, and lots of experience.

Notes

Notes
1 From Clark’s list of “Estimated Distances.”

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.