Day-by-Day / June 9, 1804

June 9, 1804

Hitting a snag

After passing Arrow Rock, the barge hits a snag and turns sideways to the current exposing it to logs drifting in the strong Missouri current. The men struggle to get her off before she is injured. Camp is above present Richland Creek, Missouri.

Arrow Rock

by Yellowstone Public Radio[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

Up the Missouri River

The barge winds around logs in the river

Photographed from the private collection of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation by Kristopher K. Townsend. All rights reserved.

Arrow Rock

We passed the Prairie of Arrows, and Arrow creek on the south side. This is a beautiful country, and the land excellent. The Missouri here is only 300 yards wide, and the current very strong.
—Patrick Gass

Related: Arrow Rock

Hitting a Snag

we had like to have Stove our boat, in going round a Snag her Stern Struck a log under Water & She Swung round on the Snag, with her broad Side to the Current expd. to the Drifting timber, by the active exertions of our party we got her off in a fiew Mints. without engerey
—William Clark

Related: Missouri River Hazards | Driftwood Danger | The Barge (called the ‘boat’ or ‘barge’ but never the ‘keelboat’)

 

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.

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).