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The Journey Begins
In May of 1804, Lewis and Clark started their expedition traveling upstream up the Missouri River along with about four dozen other men. They were on small boats charting the course and making maps.They were also prepared for the attack of Indians but tried to make peace with all of them. By the end of July of 1804 they had traveled 600 miles up river with no sign of any Indians yet. -
Heading Into Danger
Lewis and Clark run into Oto and Missouri Indians on August 2nd of 1804. These Indians were friendly but they knew they were heading into trouble when they met the Sioux Indians. Then Sergeant Charles Floyd,a U,S soldier, died along the journey. After that they then ran into the Souix Indians. The indians were not pleased with the gifts they recieved and warned the American people of what will occur up river. -
Standoff with the Teton Souix
One of the Teton cheifs demanded a boat as a price for passage.The Indians then became threatening and Lewis and Clark prepared for battle. Luckily at the last minute they all pulled back and the Americans continued up river with the Indians behind them approaching the winter months. -
Racing Against Winter's Approach
Lewis and Clark were racing to travel as many miled as possible before the Missouri River froze. Towards December they reached Mandan tribes villages where they built a fort. The food supply began to decrese and they had to find a source of meat -
Winter Among the Mandan
They spent their winter keeping busy by hunting and learning. They then met Charbonneau, his wife Shoshone, Sacagewea, and their son Jean Baptiste who all joined the journey. When spring came and everyhthing melted, they moved on in their saliboats to a new unknown land. -
Into Grizzly Country
Lewis and Clark finally started going west into grizzly country. The Indians had warned the Americans about these creatures but they were not worried becuase they had their rifles. It was until they saw them in person and one running at Lewis, until finally someone killed the bear. -
Rockies in Sight
A sudden gust of wind knocked one of the sailboats on its side and almost caused a huge problem. But Sacagawea saved all the journals and documents that would have been lost. Then in the last week of May, Lewis finally caught a glimpse of the Rockies for the first time. -
A Fork in the River
During the expedition they found a fork in the river on June 3. They disagreed on which way would lead to the Rockies. They could not make the wrong decision. Lewis then took 3 men with him to find the Great Falls which the Indians assured he would find. He wouldn't know for sure that he was on Missouri until he reached the falls -
Around the Great Falls
On June 13th, Lewis saw the Great Falls. Traveling around the falls was going to take longer than they expected, On June 16th Lewis had returned to Clark. Six days later they began traveling againl. It took more than a month to travel around the Great Falls and beyond the Rocky Mountains. -
Toward the Continental Divide
The captains were getting closer to the snowy mountains. Once they crossed the Continental Divide they could ride westward down the Columbia River. From Missouri to Columbia was going to require horses and that was the problem. In order to get horses they had to find the Shoshone tribe.
