Day-by-Day / September 6, 1804

September 6, 1804

Towing the barge

Near Greenwood, SD The barge hits several sandbars as the men tow it eight more miles up the Missouri. Colter returns without having found Shannon, and Pedro Vial reaches the Pawnees without having arrested Lewis.

Colter—At Last!—Returns[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading

Towing the Barge

Missouri River Sandbars

a small island surrounded by sandbars.

Near the Vermillion River. Courtesy U.S. National Park Service, Missouri National Recreational River.

We Set off eairly, got fast Several times on the Sand bars. could not make Much headway with the oars nor poles & were oblidged to cross over on N. S. & make use of the Towing line.—
—John Ordway

Related: The Barge (called the ‘boat’ or ‘barge’ but never the ‘keelboat’)

Still No Shannon

[Colter] had not found Shannon nor the horses But had killed one Buffelow, one Elk 3 Deer one wolf 5 Turkies & one Goose—
—John Ordway

Related: Hunters Lost and Found | The American Buffalo

Spanish Countermeasures

Having left Santa Fe on 1 August, Pedro Vial and José Jarvet—intent on arresting the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the name of Spain—reach a Pawnee village in Central Nebraska. There, Vial gives them the following warning:

. . . I learned how the Americans had taken over the government. . . . in every village they pass, large gifts are made to all chiefs and principal men and said chiefs are induced to surrender [peace] medals and patents [commissions] in their possession, given by the Spanish government. I have charged the aforementioned chiefs of the country not to give up the medals or patents, telling them they still do not know the Americans but in the future they will.
—Pedro Vial[2]Diario de Dn. Pedro Vial a la nación Panama, Santa Fe, 23 November 1804, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid Spain (Audiencia de Guadalajara. 398), fol. 3v-4, author translated in Warren L. Cook, … Continue reading

Related: Peace Medals | Spanish Opposition

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio.
↑2 Diario de Dn. Pedro Vial a la nación Panama, Santa Fe, 23 November 1804, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid Spain (Audiencia de Guadalajara. 398), fol. 3v-4, author translated in Warren L. Cook, Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543–1819 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973), 463.

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.

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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).