Progress of the Expedition
The expedition got under way May 14, 1804. It proceeded up the Missouri River, occasionally passing groups of fur traders or parties of Indians, who at this time were usually friendly to white men. The Sioux tribe, however, demanded more trade goods than Lewis and Clark were willing to give them, and threatened to attack the expedition. Violence was narrowly averted, and the party continued upriver. One soldier, Charles Lloyd, became ill and died, the only death on the entire trip.
By late October they had arrived at the Mandan Indian villages, about 40 miles (64 km) north of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. Here they built Fort Mandan and camped for the winter. The boatmen built a dugout canoe and returned to St. Louis. During the long winter months much information about the Missouri and its tributaries was obtained from the Indians. The party hired a French guide, Charbonneau, whose wife Sacajawea (“Bird Woman”) was a Shoshoni Indian from a tribe far to the west. Her baby, born during the winter, was carried on her back papoose-fashion throughout the long trip.
In the spring the temporary detachment of soldiers was sent back in the keelboat, carrying a report of the journey to date for President Jefferson. They also delivered to him five boxes containing Indian articles, plants, furs, and other specimens, and cages of live animals.
On April 8, 1805, the expedition set off again in the two pirogues and six newly made dugout canoes. The Missouri became increasingly more difficult to navigate. A month-long portage was required to bypass the Great Falls, the site of present-day Great Falls, Montana. Finally the expedition reached the point where the Missouri divides into three forks. They followed the northern branch, which they named the Jefferson, to its headwaters in the mountains. Here Lewis and three others went through the Lemhi pass. The four were the first white men to cross the Continental Divide north of New Mexico and south of Canada.
In August, the expedition met a band of Shoshoni Indians. By a dramatic coincidence, the chief turned out to be the brother of Sacajawea, who as a child had been captured from her tribe. Lewis and Clark traded goods for horses and, with an Indian guide, the party made its way through mountains of the Bitterroot Range by way of a pass near present-day Lolo, Montana.
The trail was difficult, the weather bitterly cold, and the food supply short. But coming out of the mountains they again found navigable water and hunting grounds. Dugout canoes were made, the horses left with friendly Indians, and the explorers were afloat once more. Descending the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, they came to the Pacific Ocean on November 15, 1805.
A winter camp was built on a small river west of present-day Astoria, Oregon, and named Fort Clatsop, after the dominant Indian tribe in the area. Here the explorers spent a miserable winter, suffering from unending rain, a monotonous diet, and lack of trade goods for buying food and supplies from the Indians. Trading ships were known to come to the Columbia, and the party hoped for the arrival of a United States vessel, but none appeared while they were there. After reviewing their notes on the country they had crossed, Lewis and Clark decided their route had not been the shortest and easiest, and that others must be explored on the return trip.
The expedition left Fort Clatsop on March 23, 1806. Traveling up the river was much harder than coming down had been. After five weeks they reached the Indian tribe with which they had left the horses. The snow was still too deep in the mountains for them to start overland, so they spent two months with their Indian friends. Well rested and with ample food and horses, the party was in good condition when it started on its journey again.
After crossing the Continental Divide, the party separated, Lewis taking one group on a new northern route, and Clark's group exploring to the south. Lewis established a short route between the Clearwater River and the Great Falls on the Missouri. He also explored the Marias River, where his party had a skirmish with Blackfeet Indians. Clark's group, guided by Sacajawea, who was in familiar country, returned by way of the Yellowstone River. The expedition reassembled where the Yellowstone joins the Missouri.
At the Mandan Indian villages, one member of the party, John Colter, obtained permission to leave the expedition for the life of a trapper. He returned to the mountains and is believed to have been the first white man to set foot within what is now Yellowstone National Park. At Mandan, also, Sacajawea, whose loyal service had been invaluable, left the party with her family.
The expedition reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806. This was two years, four months, and nine days after it had left. No word had been received from its members since the return of the keel-boat a year and a half before, and they had been given up for lost. Word of their safe and successful journey was received with joy and pride by President Jefferson and the whole United States.
