County of mark: St. Charles County
Location of mark: Riverfront Dr., Frontier Park, Katy Trail, St. Charles
Mark erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources & The Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Heritage Trail
Map prepared by: James D. Harlan, University f Missouri Resources Center
Funded by: Office of the Secretary of State for Lewis and Clark Historic Landscape Project
Marker text:
Missouri was a beginning and end for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Planned by President Thomas Jefferson and carried out by the tow captains and a large crew, the expedition is a keystone American event. When the United States took ownership of the Louisiana Territory--during a ceremony in St. Louis in March 1804 probably attended by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark--the country doubled in size, and expansion to the Pacific Ocean seemed possible. Two months later, the "Corps of Discovery" traveled up the Missouri River toward the Pacific and, they hopped, a new American era in trad, diplomacy and settlement.
Text for the paragraphs titled:
"Corps of Volunteers on an Expedition of North Western Discovery"
The River Master
What They Saw
&
The Meaning of Return
can be read on BruceS' Missouri Historic Markers submission.
It can also be read in the photo galley, but is not as comfortable to read.
This is necessary because of space and the large nature of this timeline.
EXPEDITION HIGHLIGHTS
DEC. 7-9, 1803
CAHOKIA
-Lewis, riding on horse from Kaskaskia, arrives in Cahokia the same day as the keelboat. He proceeds to St. Louis to meet Carlos Dehault Delassus, Spanish governor of Louisiana.
DEC. 12, 1803- MAY 14, 1804
CAMP RIVER DUBOIS
-The expedition party spends the winter at the mouth of Wood River (Rivière à Dubois). They refit the keelboat, acquire supplies and gather information and maps of the Missouri River.
MAY 16-21, 1804
ST. CHARLES
-The expedition waits in this village of 450 people for four days while Lewis completes last-minute business in St. Louis. In St. Charles, Clark hires several more boatmen and adjusts the boat loads.
MAY 23, 1804
FEMME OSAGE CREEK
-The boats stop at Boone Settlement to buy fresh food. For unknown reasons, Daniel Boone is not present.
MAY 23, 1804
TAVERN CREEK
-Clark explores Indian pictographs inside Tavern Cave. Lewis falls 20 feet down a 300-foot-tall bluff, but saves himself.
MAY 24, 1804
"RETRAGRADE BEND"
-The boats are forced to backtrack after the keelboat grounds on a sandbar and is spun around in the fast, shallow current. Though he would repeat the expression in the coming days on the lower Missouri, Clark calls the stretch "the worst I ever Saw."
MAY 25, 1804
LA CHARRETTE
-Lewis and Clark receive valuable information from Régis Loisel, one of the most experienced Missouri River traders.
MAY 26, 1804
LOUTRE ISLAND
-Captains Lewis and Clark sign orders outlining duties for the members of the party. Fearing war between the Osage and Sauk-Fox, the expedition is on military alert.
MAY 31, 1804
GRINDSTONE CREEK
-Lewis identifies the eastern wood rat, first of 300 plant and animal species described for the first time by Lewis and Clark.
JUNE 2, 1804
CLARK'S HILL
-Clark climbs tody's Clark's Hill at the confluence of the Osage and Missouri Rivers and has "a Delightfull prospect" of both rivers.
JUNE 4, 1804
"MAST CREEK"
-Sgt. John Ordway steers the keelboat too close to shore, and the mast breaks under a sycamore tree.
JUNE 4, 1804
SUGAR LOAF ROCK
-Clark explores today's Sugar Loaf Rock, while Lewis establishes camp along the river below.
JUNE 5, 1804
LITTLE MANITOU ROCK
-Clark sketches an Indian pictograph prominent on a "projecting rock." The rock was later destroyed in railroad construction. The day's hunters find evidence of about 10 Indians n the move, whom Clark believes to be Sauk war party crossing the river to fight the Osage.
JUNE 6, 1804
ROCHE PERCÉE NATURAL ARCH
-The expedition passes a well-known river landmark, a natural arch on the bluff top.
JUNE 7, 1804
MONITEAU CREEK
-Lewis and Clark observe Indian pictographs on the bluff, see signs of bison and explore salt springs. Construction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad tunnel destroyed the pictographs in the 1890s.
JUNE 8, 1804
LAMINE RIVER
-Clark and Sgt. Charles Floyd walk overland to the mouth of the Lamine and meet the boats. Shortly after, the expedition meets three fur traders returning from upriver.
JUNE 9, 1804
BLACKBIRD CREEK
-The keelboat is caught on snags, and the crew quickly saves the boat. Clark, impressed, writes "I can Say with Confidence that our party not inferior to any that was ever on the waters of the Missoppie."
JUNE 10, 1804
CHICOT ISLAND
-Lewis and Clark walk on the south shore through rolling prairie. The expedition is leaving the rugged, wooded landscape of the Ozark Border.
JUNE 12, 1804
BOWLING GREEN BEND
-At 1 p.m., the expedition meets a party of French traders with furs and buffalo grease. Lewis and Clark persuade interpreter Pierre Dorion Sr. to accompany them to the Sioux nations.
JUNE 13, 1804
GRAND RIVER
-The party camps at the Grand River mouth. Sgt. Patrick Gass writes "This is as handsome a place as I ever saw in an uncultivated state."
JUNE 14, 1804
"WILLOW PRAIRIE"
-The boat crews endure a day of fast, rising current on the Missouri. The keelboat strikes a sandbar and is saved "by Some extrodany exertions of our party."
JUNE 15, 1805
LITTLE OSAGE VILLAGE SITE
-The expedition camps across from the abandoned village sites of the Missouri and Little Osages Indians. This stretch is "Said to be the worst part of the river."
JUNE 16, 1804
FORT ORLEANS
-Clark looks for traces of a French fort, built and abandoned in the 1720s. He also scouts for timber to make new oars. "The misquitoes and Ticks are numerous & bad."
JUNE 17, 1804
ROPE WALK CAMP
-The crew stops over a day to make oars from nearby ash trees and replace their worn-out tow rope. Some men are suffering from boils and dysentery.
JUNE 21, 1804
CAMDEN BEND
-The keelboat crew struggles against strong currents by a combination of rowing, poling, and using the towrope and even anchor.
JUNE 23, 1804
JACKASS BEND
-A strong headwind halts the boats after 3½ miles. The expedition camps opposite a hill where Clark would later build Fort Osage.
JUNE 24, 1804
LITTLE BLUE RIVER
-Deer herds are so plentiful that the expedition kills eight.
JUNE 26, 1804
KANSAS RIVER
-Clark observes an "emence number" of now-extinct Carolina parakeets. Clark's is the first recorded sighting west of the Mississippi for the once-common bird.
JUNE 26-29, 1804
Kansas River
-The expedition halts to make observations of this important Missouri River tributary, and to rest the exhausted men after the most difficult stretch of the entire river. The Kansa Indians are away to the west hunting bison.
JUNE 30, 1804
LITTLE PLATTE RIVER
-Clark reports "the men becom verry feeble" from the 96° heat. Deer tracks "ar as plenty as Hogs about a farm." The keelboat mast breaks fr the second time.
JULY 1, 1804
ISLES DES PARQUES
-A French boatman says the two islands here were pasture for the livestock of Fort de Cavagnial (1744-64). They may also have been farmed by the Kansa, whose old village lay just upstream.
JULY 4, 1804
INDEPENDENCE CREEK
-Before setting out, the expedition celebrates the 28th anniversary of the United States by firing the swivel gun. At today's Lewis and Clark Lake, Clark sees many geese and goslings, which "induce me to Call it the Gosling Lake." This lake is now in Lewis and Clark State Park.
JULY 8, 1804
NODAWAY ISLAND
-The captains assign mess duties to ensure "a prudent and regular use of the provisions." The three cooks are exempted from guard duty and other chores.
JULY 11, 1804
LITTLE TARKIO CREEK
-In the morning, Clark follows horse tracks and finds a horse along on a beach, probably left accidently by Indians. Sgt. Floyd writes: "the men is all Sick."
JULY 12, 1804
BIG NEMAHA RIVER
-The men are worn down by a succession of hot days and halt to rest. Clark and five others explore the Big Nemaha valley.
JULY 14, 1804
SAND ISLAND
-A 40-minute-long "Dredfulle hard storm" (Sgt. Floyd's description), strikes suddenly after the boats set out. Clark writes "the exerssions of all our Men...was Scrcely Sufficent to Keep the boat from being thrown up on the Sand Island, and dashed to peices."
JULY 16, 1804
FAIR SUN ISLAND
-Around noon, Lewis stops to make observations to reset his chronometer, which stopped the day before even though "she had been wound up the preceding noon as usual." The chronometer is essential for determining longitude.
JULY 18, 1804
-The expedition leaves the present-day boundaries of Missouri after 66 days of travel since leaving Wood River. Sgt. Gass writes that "This is the most open country I ever beheld, almost one continued prairie."
SEPT. 9, 1806
BALD ISLAND
-The expedition re-enters today's state of Missouri. Clark reports that "our party appears extreamly anxious to get on, and every day appears produce new anxieties in them to get to their Country and friends."
SEPT. 10, 1806
ABOVE BIG NEMAHA RIVER
-Missouri River travel is no easier during the return. Referring to moving sand and snags, Clark writes "Great caution and much attention is required to Stear Clear of all those dificuelties in this low State of the water."
SEPT. 12, 1806
ST. MICHAEL'S PRAIRIE
-For the sixth time in the last nine days, the expedition meets a trading party heading upriver. Robert McClellan, an old army friend of Lewis and Clark, provides news and wine and whiskey to celebrate. Sgt. Ordway writes "that the people in the United States...heard that we were all killed."
SEPT. 14, 1806
OLD KANSA VILLAGE
-In the afternoon, the expedition meets three large fur-trading boats. That evening, "our party received a dram and Sung Songs until 11 oClock at night in the greatest harmoney."
SEPT. 17, 1806
ABOVE GRAND RIVER
-The expedition meets another trading party, led by Lewis' friend John McClallen. The groups camp together and exchange news. Clark reports McClallen saying "we had been long given out by the people of the U S Generaly and almost forgotton."
SEPT 19, 1806
LAMINE TO OSAGE RIVERS
-Eager to reach St. Louis, "the men ply their oars & we decended with great velocity." They are satisfied with eating pawpaw fruits and do not stop to hunt.
SEPT. 20 1806
LA CHARRETTE
-During the return to St. Louis, the villagers of La Charrette are amazed to see the party has survived two years and four months away.
SEPT. 23, 1806
ST. LOUIS
-Reaching St. Louis about noon, the men fire their guns in salute. Clark writes "we were met by all the village and received a harty welcom from it's inhabitants." Lewis immediately writes a letter to President Thomas Jefferson with the first news of the journey.
Expedition facts and figure chart as well as the Epilogue may be read in the photo gallery.