Blog Did You Know

Was Lewis Wrong

7/26/2022

When Lewis left the Great Falls on July 17, 1805 heading north to the upper reaches of the Marias River, he saw immense herds of buffalo. The next day he said a single herd covered the entire plain for 12 miles. The ensuing three days presented fewer of these animals until on the 23rd at Camp Disappointment he said there were no buffalo at all.
There was some evidence of Indian hunters in the area so Lewis concluded that the hunters had killed and driven all the buffalo out of the area.
Did Lewis actually witness the early part of great migration of buffalo on their journey from northern feeding grounds to their winter pastures on the Great Plains?
The movements he recorded would be in keeping with the great herds disappearing from the Great Falls area in 1805 and 1806 as well as what Clark witnesses on the Yellowstone River in 1806.

Maps or Sketches

6/18/2022

Most of the maps we see that Clark made during the trip to the Pacific and back were only sketches. Clark would to use those sketches, along with his survey notes, later to make his final maps. His map that was completed in the years following the Expedition was amazingly accurate and complete.
Consequently, we can’t read most of his maps drawn in the field and take them literally. Those maps are like much of the writing in the journals. Before they can be used as “the authority” they must be reviewed and used along with Clark’s survey notes and distances to understand them.

The Overlooked Food

6/4/2022

            When the Lewis and Clark Expedition was going hungry, or existing only on meat, they bypassed a readily available food.
            Yucca grows throughout much of the western plains. The root is edible by simply boiling it in oil. Just cut it in pieces and drop it in the oil. After a minute or so the pieces pop to the top with a nice golden-brown color, kind of like potato chips They are ready to eat.
            But they were bypassed because everyone thought they were only good for soap. Frontiersmen as well as the natives of the prairies boiled their foods in water. Yucca roots boiled in water are not edible, they just foam away. But if oil is used instead of the water, they are a good vegetable to eat.

Sacajawea and Science

5/27/2022

On April 30, 1805 Clark wrote that Sacajawea showed him several different kinds of currant bushes. Today we recognize them as the Missouri, golden, and black currants. This entry helped to establish the growing range for these plants.
It is one of the few times Sacajawea was credited by name with helping advance the scientific data collected on the Expedition.

Routes Used

5/11/2022

            When people attempt to retrace the Expedition’s complete, exact route, they usually give up in many places because “civilization” has overrun the trail—homes, industry, dams, etc. They will try to get as close as possible then bypass the civilized area. The other big obstacle is the difficulty for many people to read Clark's survey notes.
            But there are other places where “boots on the ground” prove that what might have been surveyed, was actually modified when the Expedition used it, because of the topography. Surveys go in a series of straight lines and can plot a course through a steep canyon or other obstacle the users must reroute around.
            Nothing gives a better understanding of the details of history than an accurate re-creation of it.

Comedy at Dubois

4/27/2022

   Early into the new year at Camp Dubois Capt. Clark sent two men out to hunt grouse. When they returned, they had half of a hog they had found skinned and hanging in a tree. These two did their best to convince the Corps that it was a bear.
            Apparently, they were not convincing enough because the next day Clark sent another man out to check with the neighboring farmers as to who had lost a hog. He found nothing, but two days later a farmer came to the Camp complaining about losing a hog. The men involved were not in camp so things were postponed until the next day.
            Clark had the guilty man take him to the wooded area where he found the hog. They found the spot, but crows had eaten most of the remaining meat. As they were returning, Clark attempted to cross a frozen pond but fell through the ice getting his feet soaking wet. By the time they reached the Camp his feet were frozen to his shoes. Clark reported being sick all the next day after his ice adventure. The hog/bear matter was dropped.

            Just imagine a frontiersman who had spent his entire life hunting for his food trying to convince a group of others who are like him that a skinned hog is actually a skinned bear?

Grog Spring

4/15/2022

Clark first used the name grog spring in his “Courses and Distances” for 6/12/1805. That was one of his survey points on his trip with the main party up the Missouri to the Great Falls.
            Lewis just referred to the area as the place where the Rose River [Tansy, Teton] comes close to the Missouri. This was 6/11/1805 when Lewis was taking the advance party up the Missouri to the Great Falls.
            Lewis used the name grog spring on 7/28/1806 during his flight from the Two Medicine. He said the men propose to pass the Missouri at grog spring.
            The location for grog spring was never marked on any map. It sounds like both Captains just made a passing reference to it. So, who named Grog Spring?
            If we turn to the other journal keepers we find out. Sgt Gass wrote on 6/4/1805, when he was exploring which river was the Missouri with Clark, that they refreshed themselves with a drink of grog at a spring they found where the two rivers come close together, hence Grog Springs.

River Confusion

4/7/2022

When Clark was leaving his canoe camp on the Yellowstone, he assigned Pryor to take the remaining horses downriver to the mouth of the Bighorn River where they would cross the Yellowstone. Clark and the rest of the party were in the canoes. Just above the entrance to “Clark’s Fork or Bighorn River” they ran into a difficult riffle.
Clark got confused between these two rivers. He was actually near the mouth of the Clark’s Fork River while the Bighorn River was almost 90 miles farther downriver. Sometime later he figured out his errors then went back in his journal entries and made several corrections. These corrections could have been made as late as after the Expedition returned and Clark was working with Biddle to get the Journals published.
He apparently wanted his historical record to be as accurate as he could make it.

Oh, Pryor finally crossed the Yellowstone with his horses some 33 miles farther downriver from Clark's Fork, in the townsite of Billings.

Deadly Rattlesnakes

3/31/2022

From Decision Point to the Great Falls portage and Canoe Camp rattlesnakes added to the Expedition's difficulties. The snakes were numerous and very troublesome requiring constant care to avoid them.
Both Captains recorded several very close calls with them as well as other members of the Corps. But only Pvt. Whitehouse records being bitten.
He said he was walking in the prairie below Canoe Camp one afternoon when he stepped on a very large rattlesnake. Thankfully the snake only bit into Whitehouse's leather leggin.

Little is Known

3/17/2022

Not much is known about nearly half of the 33 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition after the journey to the Pacific. Their lives may have been as simple as returning to a life on the farm or solitary living on the frontiers east of the Mississippi.
Several continued in service to their country while some returned to the western frontiers and life as mountain man.
The only thing known about a few is their service as members of the Corps of Discovery--nothing before and nothing after.