On the Trail

August 25, 1803

Media leaks

In Louisville, Kentucky, a newspaper leaks a story that "Capt. William Clark and Mr. Lewis, (private secretary to the President)" will soon lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. In Pittsburgh, the expedition's barge nears completion.

August 25, 1804

Mountain of evil spirits

The captains take a large party to explore Spirit Mound—rumored to a mountain of evil spirits and little devils. They suffer from excessive heat and see birds eating swarms flying ants. Lewis collects a specimen of the Rocky Mountain bee plant.

August 25, 1805

A change of plans

While taking the expedition’s baggage over Lemhi Pass, Charbonneau informs Lewis that he and Sacagawea will soon return home and that Cameahwait’s People will also leave without completing the portage. On the Salmon River, Clark and his small group retrace their steps to reach their old campsite at Tower Rock. They subsist on berries and a small portion of fresh [...]

August 25, 1806

Empty Lakota encampment

Heading home on the Missouri River, they expedition stops at the Cheyenne River so that the captains can take celestial observations, and the men can hunt. Later in the day, they pass an empty Lakota encampment and recall the 'Troublesome Tetons' experienced on their way up the river in 1804.

Two army officers at Harpers Ferry ponder an iron frame in the shape of a large canoe

Eastern Beginnings

10 January–30 August 1803

The Lewis and Clark Expedition ostensibly began in February 1801 when President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Army commander General James Wilkinson requesting that Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis become the President’s personal secretary. Exploration of North America’s western half had long been a goal of the president, and now he had a young protégé who might lead such an expedition.

Read more ↓

Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


Yankton Sioux encampment with tepees and scaffold graves

Among the Yanktons

21 August–8 September 1804

Moving along the present border between Nebraska and South Dakota, the expedition turns its ‘enlightened‘ attention to several features in the upper Missouri River mythology.

Read more ↓

Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


York leads a horse, Sacagawea and the Captains ride

Down the Western Valleys

11 August–10 September 1805

Having reached the end of the navigable Missouri, the captains—aided by Lemhi Shoshone Chief Cameahwait, Sacagawea‘s brother—begin acquiring horses, making pack saddles, and caching supplies they can no longer take with them.

Read more ↓

Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles


The white pirogue ad dugout canoes arrive at the French village of St. Charles.

The Final Leg

11 August–26 September 1806

While hunting on the Missouri River below present Williston, North Dakota, Lewis is accidentally shot through the flesh of his buttocks. The next day, they catch up to Clark’s party at Reunion Bay. As one united force, they are ready to sprint down the river to St. Louis.

Read more ↓

Day-by-Day Pages In-depth Articles

Featured Members

    William Clark (1784–1838)

     

    Clark was a highly intelligent man, and in terms of the practical knowledge required to make his way in the wilderness, to lead men, and to succeed in the world of frontier politics, he was highly educated and consummately effective.

    Silas Goodrich

    Private

    Silas Goodrich was the expedition’s principal fisherman. He also did well when trading for food with Indians from time to time.

    William Bratton

    Private

    On 11 May 1805, Bratton appeared, running toward the river and yelling to be taken aboard quickly. He had shot a grizzly through the lungs, and the wounded bear had chased him for half a mile. The bear had lived at least two hours after first being shot.

Quick Links

Meriwether Lewis William Clark Sacagawea York Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Seaman All Members

Featured Artist: Alfred Jacob Miller

John Mix Stanley Chromo Lithograph of the Bears Tooth

Pierre and the Buffalo in Jean Baptiste, Mountain Man.

Watercolor of a Shoshone warrior standing if front of an encampment

Snake Indian Camp in August 19, 1805.

Two Indians on horseback, one leaning far back

Blackfeet on the Warpath in The Blackfeet Confederacy

Miller’s reputation rests on his single Green River Rendezvous trip from which he transformed his original sketches and notes into a lifetime of images. His work preserves details of clothing, equipment, camps, transport, and performance. At the same time, his images were made for patrons who valued romance and spectacle. For that reason, Miller should be read carefully.

More…

More

    Calendar

    Expedition Calendar

    Links to every day-by-day page in a calendar format spanning 31 August 1803 to 26 September 1806. A page every day!

    OPEN

     

    The Arts

    Because of the literate journalists, historians and visual artists can tell the Expedition’s story. When they celebrated with song and dance, we too can share in the experience.

    OPEN

     

    Hunting and Fishing

    Although hunting and fishing were often considered a ‘gentleman’s sport’ especially in Europe, hunting and fishing for Native Americans and Americans alike were a matter of survival. The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition depended on the success of its hunters.

    OPEN

     

    The Trail

    Starting with its genesis in Jefferson’s Monticello, Lewis’s training and preparations in Philadelphia, and the barge’s excursion down the Ohio River, the route they took, often called the Lewis and Clark Trail, crosses the continent weaving an epic tale of western exploration treasured by many today.

    OPEN

     

    Legacies

    Legacy is a very slippery sort of term. If we could erase our myth concepts of Lewis and Clark … it might reawaken something really extraordinary in our national consciousness.

    OPEN

     

    Louisiana’s Purchase

    The President’s representatives in Paris had bargained successfully with Napoleon’s bureaucrats not only to buy the port of New Orleans, then the keystone of the continent, but also to acquire, at three cents an acre, an area extending from the Mississippi River to . . . where? No one knew until Meriwether Lewis stood at the crest of the Rocky Mountains at a place known today as Lemhi Pass, on 12 August 1805.

    OPEN

     

    People

    The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was due to its many members and the people they met, including politicians, Eastern gentleman scientists, traders, and the many people already living in the American west.

    OPEN

     

    The Boats

    Starting at Pittsburgh, traveling to the Pacific Ocean, and then returning to St. Louis, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled approximately 10,600 miles. Of that, 85%—over 9,000 miles—was by boat. To understand travel in the early 1800 American West is to understand the boats and challenges of river navigation.

    OPEN

     

    The Fur Trade

    Given President Jefferson’s directive to establish commerce, the captains worked extensively within a long-established network of North American fur trade. Part of their mission was to help establish the United States of America’s position within that industry.

    OPEN

     

    Horse Travel

    To cross the Rocky Mountains, the Lewis and Clark Expedition needed horses and the skills to manage them. Despite their seemingly constant struggle to find missing and stolen horses, as a kind of calvary unit, they left hoof prints on approximately 1,500 miles of western terrain.

    OPEN

     

    Native American Nations

    The Lewis and Clark Expedition benefited from the Indians’ knowledge and support. Maps, route information, food, horses, open-handed friendship—all gave the Corps of Discovery the edge that spelled the difference between success and failure.

    OPEN

     

    Medicine on the Trail

    From major crisis such as the death of Sgt. Floyd, Lewis’s gunshot wound, and the illness of Sacagawea to minor events such as sexually transmitted diseases, mosquito-born illnesses, and deep cuts, the medical aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition provide an interesting topic of study.

    OPEN

     

Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail

The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Logo: Lewis and Clark.travel

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.