Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

"we passed a large Cave on the lbd. Side Called by the French the Tavern about 120 feet wide 40 feet Deep & 20 feet high many different images are Painted on the Rock at this place. The Inds & French pay omage. many names are wrote on the rock [mine among others.]. Stoped about one mile above for Capt. Lewis who assended the Clifts which is about at the Said Cave 300 fee[t] high, hanging over the Water...Capt. Lewis near falling from the Pencelia of rock 300 feet, he caught at 20 foot."
William Clark May 23, 1804.

May 23, 1804, was an eventful day for the Lewis and Clark party. early in the day they stopped at Boone's Settlement on Femme Osage Creek, though they did not meet Daniel Boone himself. A mile later, the boats passed along Tavern Rocks, a towering set of bluffs on the south side of the river that extended for several miles. Capt William Clark stepped ashore to explore Tavern Cave, a riverside landmark at the base of the bluffs, while the rest of the party proceeded upstream another mile before halting. On the walls of the sandstone shelter cave, Clark noticed Indian pictographs and the names of French travelers, and left his own name, although none of these inscriptions have ever been identified in today's cave.

Meanwhile, Capt. Meriwether Lewis clambered up the 300-foot-tall, pinnacle-like bluffs. At one point near the top he lost his grip and started to slide backward. Only Clark's journal and field note entries mention this near-disaster--"...he caught at 20 foot [and] Saved himself by the assistance of his Knife." Had Lewis died or been severely injured, the history the expedition might have been profoundly different.

Back on the river, the boats struggled through mats of driftwood, called embarras by the French. After covering nine miles for the day, the expedition camped at the base of the bluffs opposite here. That evening, the captains inspected the men's rifles and equipment. The Corps of Discovery was a military expedition and the men were expected to be in constant readiness for any situation, especially considering the rumors the captains had been hearing of an impending war between the Sauk-Fox and Osage Indian tribes.

Lewis and Clark sent two hunters ashore on May 23 to provide the 45 members of the expedition with fresh meat. While traveling up the Missouri River, small hunting parties set out each morning with two horses and moved upriver, paralleling the progress of the boats and searching for game. Reubin Fields shot a deer on this day, the first of many animals brought in for food.

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