 Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz
Expedition Highlights: December 7, 1803 thru July 18, 1804.
Dec.7-9, 1803.
CAHOKIA
-Lewis, riding on horse from Kaskaskia, arrives in Cahokia the same day as the keelboat. He proceeds to St. Louis, to meet Carlos Dehault Delassus, Spanish governor of Louisiana.
Dec.12, 1803 - May 14, 1804.
CAMP RIVER DUBOIS
-The expedition party spends the winter at the mouth of Wood River (Riviere a Dubois). They refit the keelboat, acquire supplies and gather information and maps of the Missouri River.
May 16-21, 1804.
ST. CHARLES
-The expedition waits in this village of 450 people for four days while Lewis completes last-minute business in St. Louis. In St. Charles, Clark hires several more boatmen and adjusts the boat loads.
May 23, 1804.
FEMME OSAGE CREEK
-The boats stop at Boone Settlement to buy fresh food. For unknown reasons, Daniel Boone is not present.
May 23, 1804.
TAVERN CAVE
-Clark explores Indian pictographs inside Tavern Cave. Lewis falls 20 feet down a 300-foot-tall bluff, but saves himself.
May 24, 1804.
"RETRAGRADE BEND"
-The boats are forced to backtrack after the keelboat grounds on a sandbar and is spun around in the fast, shallow current. Though he would repeat the expression in the coming days on the lower Missouri, Clark calls the stretch "the worst I ever saw."
May 25, 1804.
LA CHARRETTE
-Lewis and Clark receive valuable information from Regis Loisel, one of the most experienced Missouri River traders.
June 2, 1804.
CLARK'S HILL
-Clark climbs today's Clark's Hill at the confluence of the Osage and Missouri rivers and has "a Delightfull prospect" of both rivers.
June 4, 1804.
"MAST CREEK"
-Sgt John Ordway steers the keelboat too close to shore, and the mast breaks under a sycamore tree.
June 4, 1804.
SUGAR LOAF ROCK
-Clark explores today's Sugar Loaf Rock, while Lewis establishes camp along the river below.
June 5, 1804.
LITTLE MANITOU ROCK
-Clark sketches an Indian pictograph prominent on a "projecting rock." The rock was later destroyed in railroad construction. The day's hunters find evidence of about 10 Indians on the move, whom Clark believes to be a Sauk was party crossing the river to fight the Osage.
June 6, 1804.
ROCHE PERCEE NATURAL ARCH
-The expedition passes a well-known river landmark, a natural arch on the bluff top.
June 7, 1804.
MONITEAU CREEK
-Lewis and Clark observe Indian pictographs on the bluff, see signs of bison and explore salt springs. Construction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad tunnel destroyed the pictographs in the 1890's.
June 8, 1804.
LAMINE RIVER
-Clark and Sgt. Charles Floyd walk overland to the mouth of the Lamine and meet the boats. Shortly after, the expedition meets three fur traders returning from upriver.
June 9, 1804.
BLACKBIRD CREEK
-The keelboat is caught on snags, and the crew quickly saves the boat. Clark, impressed, writes "I can Say with Confidence that our party not inferior to any that was ever on the waters of the Missoppie."
June 10, 1804.
CHICOT ISLAND
-Lewis and Clark walk on the south shore through rolling prairie. The expedition is leaving the rugged, wooded landscape of the Ozark Border.
June 12, 1804.
BOWLING GREEN BEND
-At 1 p.m.,the expedition meets a party of French traders with furs and buffalo grease. Lewis and Clark persuade interpreter Pierre Dorion Sr. to accompany them to the Sioux nations.
June 13, 1804.
GRAND RIVER
-The party camps at the Grand River mouth. Sgt. Patrick Gass writes "This is as handsome a place as I ever saw in an uncultivated state."
June 14, 1804.
"WILLOW PRAIRIE"
-The boat crew endure a day of fast, rising current on the Missouri. The keelboat strikes a sandbar and is saved "by Some extrodany exertions of our party."
June 15, 1804.
LITTLE OSAGE VILLAGE SITE
-The expedition camps across from the abandoned village sites of the Missouri and Little Osage Indians. This stretch is "Said to be the worst part of the river."
June 16, 1804.
FORT ORLEANS
-Clark looks for traces of a French fort, built and abandoned in the 1720's. He also scouts for timber to make new oars. "the misquitoes and Ticks are noumerous & bad."
June 17-18, 1804.
ROPE WALK CAMP
-The crew stops over a day to make oars from nearby ash trees and replace their worn-out tow rope. Some men are suffering from boils and dysentery.
June 21, 1804.
CAMDEN BEND
-The keelboat crew struggles against strong currents by a combination of rowing, poling, and using the towrope and even anchor.
June 23, 1804.
JACKASS BEND
-A strong headwind halts the boats after 3½ miles. The expedition camps opposite a hill where Clark would later build Fort Osage.
June 24, 1804.
LITTLE BLUE RIVER
-Deer herds are so plentiful that the expedition kills eight.
June 26, 1804.
KANSAS RIVER
-Clark observes an "emence number" of now-extinct Carolina Parakeets. Clark's is the first recorded sighting west of the Mississippi for this once-common bird.
June 26-29, 1804.
KANSAS RIVER
-The expedition halts to make observations of this important Missouri River tributary, and to rest the exhausted men after the most difficult stretch of the entire river. The Kansa Indians are away to the west hunting bison.
June 30, 1804.
LITTLE PLATTE RIVER
-Clark reports "the men becom verry feeble" from the 96° heat. Deer tracks "ar as plenty as Hogs about a farm." The keelboat mast breaks for the second time.
July 1, 1804.
ISLE DES PARQUES
-A French boatman says the two islands here were pasture for the livestock of Fort de Cavagnial (1744-64). They may also have been farmed by the Kansa, whose old village lay just up stream.
July 4, 1804.
INDEPENDENCE CREEK
-Before setting out, the expedition celebrates the 28th anniversary of the United States by firing the swivel gun. At today's Lewis and Clark Lake, Clark sees many geese and goslings, which "induce me to Call it the Gosling Lake." This lake is now in Lewis and Clark State park.
July 8, 1804.
NODAWAY ISLAND
-The captains assign mess duties to ensure "a prudent and regular use of all provisions." The three cooks are exempted from guard duty and other chores.
July 11, 1804.
LITTLE TARKIO CREEK
-In the morning, Clark follows horse tracks and finds a horse alone on a beach, probably left accidentally by Indians. Sgt. Floyd writes: "the men is all Sick."
July 12, 1804.
BIG NEMAHA RIVER
-The men are wore down by a succession of hot days and halt to rest. Clark and five others explore the Big Nemaha Valley.
July 14, 1804.
SAND ISLAND
-A 40-minute-long "Dredfulle hard storme" (Sgt. Floyd's description), strikes suddenly after the boats set out. Clark writes "the exerssions of all our Men...was Scrcely Sufficent to Keep the boat from being thrown up on the Sand Island, and dashed to peices."
July 16, 1804.
FAIR SUN ISLAND
-Around noon, Lewis stops to make observations to reset his chronometer, which stopped the day before even though "she had been wound up the preceding noon as usual." The chronometer is essential for determining longitude.
July 18, 1804.-The expedition leaves the present-day boundaries of Missouri after 66 days of travel since leaving Wood River. Sgt. Gass writes that "This is the most open country I ever beheld, almost one continued prairie."
Lewis and Clark Historic Landscape Project, funded by Office of Secretary of State.
N. Riverside Dr. & Madison St., Frontier Park, St. Charles, Saint Charles County Missouri
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