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Starting point: St. Louis, Missouri
The expedition set off from Camp Dubois -
A spot where the expedition experiences a causality
The only fatality on the entire transcontinental expedition of Lewis and Clark was that of Sergeant Charles Floyd, who died near present-day South Sioux City, most likely of a ruptured appendix. -
Experience with a Sioux Tribe
Lewis and Clark encountered them near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, the Teton branch of the Sioux Nation were masters of the plains on both sides of the Missouri River. -
Experience at Fort Mandan
North of what is now Bismarck, North Dakota, the Corps of Discovery reaches the earth-lodge villages of the Mandans and Hidatsas. Some 4,500 people live there – more than live in St. Louis or even Washington, D.C. at the time. The captains decide to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village. -
Experience with the Shoshone Tribe
The captains hire Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trader living among the Hidatsas, as an interpreter. His young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, had been captured by the Hidatsas several years earlier and then sold to Charbonneau (along with another Shoshone girl). Having been told that the Shoshones live at the headwaters of the Missouri and have many horses, the captains believe the two will be helpful when the expedition reaches the mountains -
An experience that occurred in present day Idaho
A winter campground for their famed 1805 expedition across the continent, northern Idaho is still a natural resting point for travelers. Facing bitter winter cold and dwindling supplies, the Lewis & Clark expedition was befriended and saved by the Nez Perce tribe, who were ultimately vital to the expedition’s success. Markers point out the exact path the team took across the state, and the adventurous can still follow in their footsteps. -
A spot where a baby is born
Sacagawea gives birth to a baby boy, Jean Baptiste. Lewis assists in speeding the delivery by giving her a potion made by crushing the rings of a rattlesnake’s rattle into powder. -
A spot where an animal profoundly affected the expedition
This day, past the mouth of the Yellowstone River, Lewis and another hunter kill an enormous bear – a grizzly, never before described for science. At first, Lewis believes that Indian accounts of the bears’ ferocity were exaggerated, but in the days to come, as grizzly after grizzly chases the men across the Plains and prove nearly impossible to kill, he writes that the “curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect to this animal.” -
A spot where a member of the expedition becomes ill
In June 1805, Sacagawea was very ill for nearly one week. Her symptoms included a high fever, weak pulse, irregular breathing, and alarming twitching of her fingers and arms. -
An experience at Fort Clatsop
For their fort, Lewis and Clark picked a site three miles up Netul Creek (now Lewis and Clark River), because it had a ready supply of elk and deer and convenient access to the ocean, which the men used to make salt. The men finished building a small log fortress by Christmas Eve; they named their new home Fort Clatsop, in honor of the local Indian tribe. -
A spot where the expedition was significantly aided by the help of a native tribe.
After debating what to do about the strangers who have suddenly arrived in their homeland, the Nez Percé (on the advice of an old woman named Watkuweis) decide to befriend them. The men get sick from gorging themselves on salmon and camas roots. A chief named Twisted Hair shows them how to use fire to hollow out pine trees and make new canoes. -
A spot where a plant or tree profoundly affected the expedition
Having previously run out of whiskey, the expedition now runs out of tobacco. Patrick Gass reports that the men use crab tree bark as a substitute. -
A spot where weather profoundly influences the expedition.
The expedition arrives back with the Nez Percé but have to wait for the snows to melt on the Bitterroots before trying to cross them. They play a game of “base” with the Indians, who once again provide the explorers with food. -
An incident where someone from the expedition killed a person from a native tribe.
To the Blackfeet, American plans represented a direct threat. As far as the Indians were concerned, giving guns to their adversaries only could result in a weakening of Blackfeet power. That night, the Blackfeet attempted to steal the expedition’s guns. Their plans went awry, and in the chaos that ensued, Lewis and Reuben Field each killed a Blackfeet warrior. The incident marked the first act of bloodshed between the western Indians and representatives of the United States.
