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Period: to
Louisiana Territory
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Lewis picked as commander of expedition. Writes to ask William Clark to join him and share command. Clark accepts
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Announcement of Louisiana Purchase.
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Lewis oversees construction of big keelboat in Pittsburgh, then takes it down Ohio River, picking up Clark and some recruits along the way. With Lewis is a Newfoundland dog, Seaman, he has purchased for 20 dollars. Clark brings along York, a slave he has
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Camp Wood established upstream from St. Louis.
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The Expedition Begins
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Expedition marks first 4th of July west of the Mississippi by firing the keelboat's cannon, and naming Independence Creek.
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Expedition holds friendly council with Yankton Sioux (near what is now Yankton, South Dakota). According to Yankton oral tradition, when a baby is born, Lewis wraps him in a United States flag and declares him “an American.”
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We encountered immense animal herds and ate very well
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Expedition discovers earthlodge villages of the Mandan and Hidatsas Indians. The captains decide to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village.
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Clark notes a temperature of 45 degrees below zero. A week later, on Christmas Eve, Fort Mandan was considered complete and the expedition had moved in for the winter.
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Lewis and Clark dispatch the big keelboat and roughly a dozen men back downriver, along with maps, reports, Indian artifacts, and boxes of scientific specimens for Jefferson
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We became the first Americans to see the Pacific Ocean
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Lewis and another hunter kill a large grizzly bear, which had never before been described for science.
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The expedition comes to a stop at a fork in the river. All the men believe the northern fork is the true Missouri; Lewis and Clark think it’s the south fork. After several days of scouting, the captains are still convinced they’re right and name the other
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Scouting ahead of the rest of the expedition, Lewis comes across the Great Falls of the Missouri. He also discovers four more waterfalls farther upstream. The expedition will have to portage over eighteen miles, taking nearly a month, to get past them.
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July 24, 1805
The expedition reaches the three forks of the Missouri River, and name them the Gallatin, the Madison, and the Jefferson, after the Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of State, James Madison, and President Thomas Jefferson. The expedition continues southwest, up the Jefferson. -
The expedition reaches the Columbia River.
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By majority vote the expedition decides to cross to the south side of the Columbia River to build winter quarters.
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President Jefferson welcomes a delegation of Missouri, Oto, Arikara, and Yankton Sioux chiefs who had met with Lewis and Clark more than a year earlier.
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The expedition runs out of tobacco. They had run out of their whiskey ration the previous fourth of July.
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July 26-27
While making their way back to the Missouri, Lewis' party encounters eight Blackfeet warriors. They camp together, but the morning of the 27th the party catches the blackfeet attempting to steal their horses and guns. During a fight two of the Blackfeet were killed. -
All of the parties are reunited downstream from the mouth of the Yellowstone River.
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The Expedition Ends
