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The Journey Begins
Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis across the Missouri River with four dozen other men and 3 ships. Clark sent the time aboard the main ship making maps and charting their course while Lewis spent his time ashore along the river examining the wildlife and searching for Indians. -
Indian Encounters
The Expedition makes contact with Indians for the first time when Oto and Missorui Indians wander into their camps in August. The two sides exchange gifts and greetings. They later come into contact with the Sioux, a powerful tribe who President Jefferson warned them about. The Yankton SIoux are unimpressed with their gift and warn Lewis and Clark that their sister tribe, the Teton Sioux will you be far less pleased. -
Teton Sioux
The Expection makes contact with the Teton Siooux who become hostile over the meager gifts. Lewis and Clark cool the encounter down just beofre it comes to blows and the Teton cheif demands one of their boats as the price of passage. They proceed up the river as winter approaches. -
Winter Approaching
Four days after the first snow they reach the Mandan Tribe's village where they hope to ride out the winter. They construct a fort for protections from the rapidly dropping temperatures and the Sioux. The fors tis finished before the end of Novemeber. The expeditions food supplies begin to dwindle. -
Mandan Winter
Lewis and Clark live amongst the Mandan and their neighbors the Hidasta forthe Winter and learn much about the West through trading and hunting with the natives. At the Fort they meet French-Canadian interpreter and fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, and their baby son, Jean Baptiste. In April the Missouri River thawed and it was time for the Expedition to move on while some went back to St. Louis to share what they had already discovered. -
Due West
Lewis and Clark were finally headed west. Here they discovered Grizzly Country. The Indians warned them about the Grizzlies but they shrugged them off as nothng their rifles couldnt handle. After one dangerous encounter with teh animals Lewis and Clark changed their minds. -
Rocky Mountains
After a dangerous accident that costs them one of their ships, the Expedition finally reaches the long anticiapted Rocy Mountians. Lewis and Clark are in awe of the Western barrier but begin the long process of crossing them. -
Fork in the Road
The Expedition reaches a Fork in the Missouri River. Scouting parties fail to uncover which branch is the true continuation of the Missouri. This leads Lewis to set off with 3 men to discover the Great Falls wihich the natives told them about, this would assure him that that branch was the Missouri. -
Great Falls
Lewis reaches the Great Falls and becomes the first white man to ever see them. Lewis rejoins Clark and it takes them a month to portage around the 5 Great Falls and move on with the expedition. -
The Continental Divide
After crossing the Continental Divide the Expedition reaches the westward Columbia River. Back at Fort Mandan the Natives had told Lewis and Clark to meet up with the Shoshone Tribe to aquire horses to follow the Columbia River west.
