County of marker: Franklin County
Location of marker: Main St., Levee House Bed & Breakfast lawn, Miller's Landing, New Haven
Map prepared by James D. Harlan, University of Missouri Geographical Resources Center, for Lewis and Clark Historic Landscape Project, funded by the Office of Secretary of State
Marker erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State parks
Marker Text:
Set out at 7 oClock after a hard rain & Wind, & proceed on verry well under sale...
The wind favourable today ... we made 18 miles ... wind & rain Closed the Day..."
William Clark, May 26, 1804
The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by New Haven on May 26, 1804, and Sept. 20, 1806. On the upriver journey, the expedition camped on May 25 at the mouth of La Charrette Creek. Just above the creek was the small French settlement of La Charrette, which was the westernmost white settlement on the river at that time.
Not long after the Corps set up camp, a boatload of trappers and traders led by Régis Loisel arrived from a post "Situated in the countrey of the Suxex [Sioux] 400 leagues up." These voyagers (the first among several the expedition would encounter) had useful intelligence about eh Indian tribes farther up river.
Early on the morning of May 26th the Corps set out at 7 after a hard rain and wind. A favorable wind enabled the expedition to "prodeed on verry well under Sale." according to William Clark. Before departing, the captains established a routine of sending out hunters to search the woods for fresh game. Two of the hunters sent out this day, George Drouillard and John Shields, were instructed to walk a day and then hunt a day. As it turned out they lost contact with the boats and would not rejoin the expedition for six days.
The flotilla passed Beef Island [Boeuf] and Creek just below present-day New haven, and "Shepherd's Creek," today's Big Berger Creek ("berger" is French word for "shepherd"). The The expedition then camped on an island near the southern extreme of Loutre Island just below present-day Hermann.
The expedition passed the site of New haven again on Sept. 20, 1806, on their return voyage to St. Louis. They once more stopped at the village of La Charrette where they were given beef, flour and pork, and purchased two gallons of whiskey from a local citizen.
JOHN COLTER
John Colter was one of the "nine young men from Kentucky" who joined the Corps of Discovery in October 1803. He proved useful to the expedition as a hunter. In the years following the expedition, Colter led a remarkable life as a trapper and trader. His discovery of "Colter's Hell" (Yellowstone Park) and his amazing escape from the Blackfeet Indians in 1809 made him a legend. About 1810, he married and settled down on a farm near New haven where the English naturalist John Bradbury met him in 1811 while on a river expedition. Bradbury said that Colter accompanied them for several miles up the river and "seemed to have a strong inclination to join the expedition but having been lately married, he reluctantly took leave of us." Colter died of jaundice in 1813 and was buried somewhere near New Haven. His actual burial place is still somewhat of a mystery.
[Ed. Note: Family members and historians believe they have discovered his burial site, and have placed a marker there. Some reports say he died of jaundice, some say gangrene. He was a private (once again) in the Missouri Rangers. This being active under the command of Nathan Boone during the War of 1812. That headstone photo is included in the gallery.]
RÉGIS LOISEL
"Régis Loisel was apparently born in the Parish of L'Assomption, Montreal, and came to St. Louis in about 1793. By 1796 he had formed a partnership with Jacques Clamorgan, which in 1798 became the reorganized Missouri Company. After this combination broke up, he formed a new partnership with Hugh Heney on July 6, 1801. The date on which he founded his fort on Cedar Island is uncertain; it may have been in 1800, or perhaps two years later. For the post, in present Lyman County, South Dakota, September 22, 1804. Loisel wintered there with his partner, Pierre-Antoine Tabeau, in 1803 -04. After his meeting with Lewis and Clark, he carried to New Orleans a copy of his report on the Missouri River tribes, which he delivered to the Marquis of Casa Calvo, the former Spanish governor of Louisiana. The latter forwarded it to Madrid, with a recommendation that Loisel be made an Indian agent to secure the friendship of the tribes for Spain and forestall American ambitions in the West. Loisel, however, died in New Orleans in October 1804, at the age of thirty-one. " ~ Lewis and Clark Trail: Journal Entries