Corps of Discovery

For this trip we intend to follow Lewis and Clark’s adventure up the Missouri River from St. Louis, MO to the Great Falls of the Missouri River.  The portage around those falls was an extremely laborious struggle for the crew of the expedition.

As reported in this blog at the end of our last trip, on June 24th we actually started this adventure when we crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis and then drove to the Martin Manor, a point near River Mile Marker 144 which was 131 highway miles.  Now on August 9, tomorrow, we will resume this adventure from this point and proceed to follow the river and the journey of the Corps of Discovery.

In preparation for this adventure I have read the actual journals of Lewis and Clark (quite an interesting read) as well as two other books with descriptions of their journey.

It all started on March 2, 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson (3rd president of the US) by authority of a secret act of Congress was authorized the appropriation of $2,500 to send a small expedition to be led by Capt. Meriwether Lewis, his secretary, to explore the Missouri River and whatever river that might then lead on to the western ocean.

Capt. Lewis began gathering supplies and sent a letter to his friend William Clark who lived in Louisville, KY asking him to join him as a partner in command of the Corps of Discovery.  The only other member of the troupe at this time was his young, recently acquired Labrador dog he named Seaman.

At Pittsburgh, PA he had a keel boat built that would be the main vessel for the beginning of the trip and purchased two pirogues (large flat bottomed canoes) and launched them into the Ohio River.  He recruited a small crew of military that would only be required to help take the boats down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to St. Louis and along the way he would hire/recruit the permanent crew that would then follow the trek to the Pacific Ocean and back.  The remarkable thing is that regardless of all the trials and hardships all of the original crew completed the full journey except for one man (Sgt. Floyd) that died from an appendix rupture on the route upward.

William Clark was a younger brother of General George Rogers Clark who had been instrumental in helping the war of independence to a successful end.  The brothers had settled in Louisville, KY.  When the boats made it to Louisville, William Clark joined the corps and brought along his negro man-servant York.  He had also enlisted a few men from Kentucky to be part of the final corps.

December 12, 1803 the boats and crew made it to the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near Wood River and directly across from the mouth of the Missouri River where they built their winter encampment.

sketch of the keel boat

 model of the red pirogue

 model of the white pirogue