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Starting Point: St. Lewis, Missouri
Having started upstream on the Missouri River from their St. Louis-area camp where they had been preparing for the expedition since the fall of May 14,1803. William Clark and nearly four dozen other men met up with Meriwether Lewis on May 20 -
Plants and Trees Discovered
Lewis and clark throughout there expedition discovered many many plants and trees.The known ‘discoveries’ of Lewis and Clark include 178 plants and 122 animals not previously recorded for science.The present day Idaho flower was discovered by Lewis and Clark. -
Seargent Charles Floyd become ill.
Seargent Charles Floyd becomes ill. Seargent Charles gets sick with apendicitis. He is the first and only one to get sick. There is now a monument in honor of him. -
Seargeant Charles Floyd dies.
On August 20, 1804, the Corps experienced its first and only casualty when Sergeant Charles Floyd died of appendicitis. He was the first U.S. soldier to die west of the Mississippi River. Shortly after Floyd's death, the Corps reached the edge of the Great Plains and saw the area's many different species, most of which were new to them. -
Experience with a Sioux Tribe
The Sioux Tribe were most known in that are for thier violence and control or power in the area. When Lewis and Clark got there they didn't get along well with the indians and it almost led to an armed conlfict. After this the chief brought things to a more diplomatic level. -
Experience at Fort Mandan
captains ordered work to begin on the Corps of Discovery's winter fortification on the second of November, 1804; they completed it on the 27th. The mens' quarters, the storage rooms, and the 16-foot pickets front and back, were designed for defense against hostile Indians, especially the Sioux, who were quite troublesome that winter, but they never attacked the fort. "This place we have named Fort Mandan," Lewis recorded, "in honour of our Neighbours"—their kind and congenial Mandan Indians -
Sacagawea has a baby!
Sacagawea gives birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. On this day in 1805, Sacagawea went into labor. Lewis would often act as the expedition’s doctor in the months to come. He was called on for the first and only time during the journey to assist in a delivery. Lewis was anxious to insure his new Shoshone interpreter was in good shape for the journey to come, and he later worriedly reported “her labour was tedious and the pain violent.” Her baby was born happy and healthy. -
Peacful Trade With Missouri Indians
During the council, the Indians were told they were the “children” of a new “great father” who would provide them with trade and protection in place of their unreliable commerce with the French and the Spanish. It was a speech Lewis would deliver to numerous tribes throughout the journey.The Missouris were advised to make peace with other Indian tribes in order to bring the trade Lewis promised. He also urged the chiefs to send a delegation east to visit President Jefferson. -
The Grizzly Bear!
It was the largest bear they'd ever seen, a great grizzly bear that weighed an estimated 600 pounds. A "most tremendous looking animal, and extreemly hard to kill," wrote Lewis in his journal on May 5, 1805. Clark described the grizzly as "verry large and a turrible looking animal." Clark and another member of the expedition fired 10 shots at it before it died.Several tribes of Native Americans had told Lewis and Clark about grizzly bears. -
Experience with Shoshone Tribe
On August 13, some Shoshone women getting food a few miles from their village saw four strangers coming near. It was Lewis and three of his men.The women were scared until they saw that the men were friendly after Lewis laid down his gun, gave them trinkets and painted their faces with vermilion, a symbol of peace. The women convinced an arriving war party of 60 Shoshones that the strangers were friendly, and Lewis confirmed this with more gifts for the warriors, including an American flag. -
Experience tha occured in present day Idaho
Lewis made a cache for the superfluous baggage. He recorded information on the Shoshoni and their clothing. Gass stated that "they are the poorest most miserable nation I ever beheld, scarcely anything to subsist on except berries & fish." Clark was at Baker, Idaho, guided by Old Toby, a Shoshoni man. Clark "asked Camehewait by what rout the pierced nose indians, who he informed me inhabited this river below the mountains, came over to the Missouri. -
Arrival at Fort Clatsop
The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery arrived at Fort Clatsop on December 7, 1805. -
Fort Clatsop
The explorers celebrated Christmas; all the men were in their huts and tradedgifts; they had a bad Christmas dinner. Clark recorded: "at day light this morning we we[re] awoke by the discharge of the fire arms of all our party and a Selute, Shouts and a Song which the whol party joined in under our windows. after which they retired to their rooms were chearfull all the morning. after breakfast we divided our Tobacco. -
Cold Weather
When the winter came it got extremely cold! The expedition got harder and harder as the temparature decreased. No one died but the captain. -
New Years at Fort Clatsop
This New Years day was miserable for the Corps.They could look forward only to New Years 1807 and hope it was better. Soaked with rain and plagued with fleas, with little fresh meat and less edible food, they were miserable. Even the feast of New Years consisted of the usual elk meat with wapato root washed down with water. With little to do except try to obtain the necessities of life, Lewis' journal entries turned more and more to long descriptions of the Indians and plant and animal life. -
Blackfeet Indians
Eight Blackfeet warriors met Meriwether Lewis and a party of the Corps of Discovery in July 1806. The surviving Blackfeet returned to their tribe, and communicated what they had learned of America’s goals for the region. From that point forward, the Blackfeet regarded the Americans with hostility, and acted toward them similarly, in the years that followed, Blackfeet war parties would be responsible for the deaths of three former members of the Corps of Discovery. Meriwether shoots an indian.
