Fort Mandan



The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Mandan-Hidatsa Indian villages on the Upper Missouri River on October 25, 1804. They found the Mandan people very hospitable and decided to remain at this wintering site until the spring thaw when they would resume their up-river journey.


	A replica near Washburn, North Dakota was built in in 1972. The original site was a little west.
		It was here they met Sakakawea (Sacajawea, Sacagawea or Sakakawea - they were all the same person), the Indian woman who would be essential to the success of the expedition. For more than five months, Fort Mandan was the site of considerable activity. During this time, preparations were made to head west to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark interviewed Indians who had been west and sketched maps. This was all critical to the next leg of their journey. The Mandan-Hidatsa villages were a center of inter-tribal trade and this figured into Lewis and Clark's efforts at diplomacy.