Lewis & Clark

The journal entries found here are not the complete records of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Spellings have not been updated. Author is noted when known.

All the preparations being completed, we left our encampment. This spot is at the mouth of the Wood River,

a small stream which empties itsef into the Mississippi, opposite to the entrance of the Missouri...

...Not being able to set sail before four o'clock P.M., we did not make more than four miles, and encamped on the first island opposite a small creek called Cold Water.

May 16, 1804

... [we ar]rived at St. Charls.

and passed the evening with a [gr]eat deal of Satisfaction, all chearful and in good spirits. this place is an old french village Situated on the North Side of the Missourie and are dressy polite people and Roman Catholicks.

June 7th, 1804

Multiple carvings and paintings

decorate the limestone a short distance abouve the mouth of the creek. It is inlade with quality red, white, and blue flint, which has been harvested by a great number of Indians. We landed as three large snakes emerged. The insription was home to a den of rattle snakes.

...observed artifical mounds (or as I may more Justly term Graves) which to me is a Strong indication of this Country being once Thickly Settled....observed Some Indian marks, went to the rock which jutted over the water and marked my name & the day of the month and year.

This Great river being much more rapid than the Missourie forces its current against the opposit Shore . . . we found great dificuelty in passing around the Sand at the mouth of this River. Capt Lewis and My Self with 6 men in a perogue went up this Great river Plate about 1 miles... I am told by one of our Party who wintered two winters on This river that it is much wider above, and does not rise more than five or Six feet.... The Indians pass this river in Skin Boats which is flat and will not turn over.

July 22, 1804

... This being a good Situation and much nearer the Otteaus town than the Mouth of the Platt, we Concluded to delay at this place a fiew days and Send for Some of the Chiefs of that nation, to let them know of the Change of Government the wishes of our government to Cultivate friendship with them, the Objects of our journy and to present them with a flag and Some Small presents.

July 27, 1804

...butifull Breeze from the N W. this evening which would have been verry agreeable, had the Misquiters been tolerably Pacifick, but thy were rageing all night.

July 30, 1804

The Situation of this place which we Call Council Bluff which is handsom ellevated a Spot well Calculated... for a fort to Command the Countrey and river the low bottom above high water & well Situated under the Command of the Hill for Houses to trade with the Natives.

August 3, 1804

... mad up a Small preasent for those people in perpotion to their Consiqunce also a package with a meadile to accompany a Speech for the Grand Chief after Brackfast we collected those Indians under an orning of our Main Sail... Delivered a long Speech to them expressive of our journey and the wirkes of our Government, Some advice to them and Directions how They were to Conduct themselves.

August 11, 1804

... we kept under way till ten, when we came to a high bluff, where an Indian chief had been buried, and placed a flag upon a pole, which had been set up at his grave. His name was Blackbird, kind of the Mahas; an absolute monarch while living, and the Indians suppose can exercise the power of one though dead.

August 13, 1804
John Ordway

we broke our way through them till we came to where their had been a village of about 300 Cabbins called the Mahar village. it was burned about 4 years ago immediately after near half the Nation died with the Small pox, ... we found none of the natives about the place

...we had the misfortune to lose one of our sergeants, Charles Floyd. He was yesterday seized with a bilious colic, and all our care and attention were ineffectual to relieve him... He was buried

on the top of the bluff with the honours due to a brave soldier...

a Creek Coms in which passes thro Clifts of red rock which the Indians make pipes of, and when the different nations Meet at those queries all is piece.

August 22, 1804

In order to supply the place of sergeant Floyd, we permitted the men to name three persons, and Patrick Gass having the greatest number of votes was made sergeant.

August 24, 1804

a blue Clay Bluff of 180 or 190 feet high. . . . Those Bluffs appear to have been laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot for a man to bear his hand in the earth at any debth.

Capt. Lewis & Myself concluded to go and See the Mound

which was Viewed with Such turror by all the different Nations in this quarter, ... believing this place to be the residence of some unusial Sperits...

Capt Lewis & my Self walked up to the top which forms a Cone and is about 70 feet higher than the high lands around it.

As we descended from this dome,... discovered a Village of Small animals that burrow in the grown (those animals are Called by the french Petite Chien) Killed one and Caught one live by poreing a great quantity of Water in his hole we attempted to dig to the beds of one of those animals, ...

... Contains great numbers of holes on the top of which those little animals Set erect make a Whistleing noise and whin allarmed Step into their hole.

We this day moved into our huts which are now completed. This place which we call Fort Mandan, is situated in a point of low ground, on the north side of the Missouri, covered with tall and heavy cotton wood. The works consist of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an angle where they joined each other; each row containing four rooms, of fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling, and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of which is eighteen feet from the