Day-by-Day / September 30, 1803

September 30, 1803

Resting in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, OH We have no record of Lewis’s activities on this day, but we do know he remained in Cincinnati instead of leaving as previously planned. The crew is likely resting and Lewis may be making arrangements to collect fossils at Big Bone Lick.

Lewis’s Original Plans

Cincinnati Sept. 28th 1803.

Dear Clark,

It is probable before the receipt of this letter that I shall be with you; I shall leave this day after tomorrow [30 September]. Adieu and believe me your very sincere friend and associate,

MERIWETHER LEWIS.[1]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 125.

Clark’s Find

Tooth of Mastodon americanum, from Big Bone Lick, Kentucky.

Mastodon tooth: a large molar

Jefferson Collection, Department of Vertebrate Zoology. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

Elephant Teeth

Cincinnati, October 3rd 1803.

Dear Sir,

The Elephants teeth which I saw in the possession of Dr. Goforth weigh from four to eleven pounds, and appear to me precisely to resemble a specimen of these teeth which, I saw in the possession of Dr. Wister [Caspar Wistar] of Philadelphia . . . .

MERIWETHER LEWIS. Capt.
1st. U.S. Regt. Infty.[2]Lewis to Jefferson. Ibid. 130.

Wistar was one of Lewis’s mentors from Philadelphia.
Also related: Big Bone Lick | Mastodons | Fossils | Paleontology

Above: This specimen was collected for Thomas Jefferson by William Clark in 1807. It was once part of Jefferson’s display at Monticello, and later in the President’s House in Washington City.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 125.
↑2 Lewis to Jefferson. Ibid. 130.

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.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).