Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Lewis, and Clark Expedition?

That was Ambrose. He traveled parts of the path yearly with students.

Did small pox precede Lewis and Clark? I read somewhere that it did.

No. Read up on the Hunt party. 60 men employed by John Jacob Astor had gone to Astoria, OR. They followed the Snake River across Idaho but had crossed the mountains farther north where they had fits with the Indians. From Astoria, they sent a party of 7 men back to St Louis. Those men went farther south to avoid the Indians and found the South Pass.
The Hunt party unknowingly blazed the Oregon Trail from WY all the way to Astoria, OR. There are sections of the Snake River in south central ID that aren't floatable except in modern kayaks capable of class 5 rapids. They tried it and had pretty rough go of it. They ended up walking for hundreds of miles.
If L&C had gone that way, they would have got across the mountains much easier but still would have faced the high desert and many deep canyons along the Snake river.

A wonder the all didn't die of VD or Mercury poisoning trying to cure it. Carrying a keelboat up the river didn't sound like a lot of fun either. Hell of an adventure, tough old birds for sure........and lucky.

One of my ancestors (John Shields), and one of my distant relatives (Meriwether Lewis) were part of the expedition. I have read many books on the expedition and while the idea of it thrills me, the reality is something else. Maybe, just maybe when I was in my 20s and a college athlete I could have hacked it physically, but likely not. These men were as tough as shoe leather. Maybe there are some here who would be up for it, but I think most a deluding themselves.

Lewis had taken an iron framed folding canoe that was packed in the keel boat. Apparently it didn't work out very well. When assembled, it was about 36' long and capable of hauling 8000lb. They carried it to the Great Falls before they tried to assemble it. They covered it with elk skins but when they tried to waterproof it, they failed. They tried beeswax and pitch but nothing worked and it leaked too bad to be usable. All that work for nothing. Sounds like some of my projects.

Dwayne:

On a related note, are there any good books you can recommend on the Alexander McKenzie's 1793 expedition to the Pacific?

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kaywoodie;
Good evening my cyber friend, I do hope you folks are warmer and getting less snow than we're about to partake of.

When I was doing up my 2022 reading list above, I thought that you'd either enjoy them or might have read them.

As mentioned I've got a copy of DeVoto's book and have read it a couple times.

It's interesting to me how quickly on their heels the Pacific Fur Company was out establishing posts.

Anyways sir, all the very best to you in 2022.

Dwayne
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Lewis was 29, Clark 33 at the beginning of the trip.

I couldn't imagine the hell they endured without mosquito spray.

Not to mention poling and pulling the keel boats upstream for hundreds of miles in all weather conditions.

They have my utmost respect, those were some bad ass men.

Lewis tried but never convinced the military that it was possible to have co-captains. They wouldn't promote Clark from 2d Lt. Lewis sort of gave Clark a field promotion and they agreed that the men would never know that they weren't equal in rank. Clark didn't get his official promotion until they got home. They had to be good friends to make it work and avoid conflicts.

Then there was York, Clark's slave. York became an important part of the expedition and was a great go- between with the Indians. In spite of his service, Clark didn't free him for 10 years after their return. There are reports that York became very resentful and a less than ideal slave and Clark had to resort to some heavy handed tactics to 'tame' him. It's unknown what happened to him after he was freed. There are reports that he went west again and was seen living with Indians and other reports that he decided he preferred slavery (HIGHLY unlikely).

Wasn’t Shields the acting gunsmith on the expedition?

Apologies Blue,

I was up there 8 months a year for work, usually rather busy, some pay periods between May and August I'd get 120 hr OT on top of my 80 regular in 2 weeks. Mid Mar-May and Aug-Mid Nov sometimes I was doing 12 hr on, 12 off for 10-12 days in a 2 week period too. My wife was living in Cali or over in the Potlandia area and if I had more than a few days off I go see her and our dogs. Most days off were used to go to Clarkston-Lewiston or Pullman-Moscow to resupply and maybe during the season hunt some birds or deer. (and a lot of that was after a 12 hr night shift)

Only managed to get together with Field Grade for a couple of hours, missed meeting up with a few others over in that neighborhood, Lonny, wageslave, you. Oh, I did meet one guy at a gun show, that guy that sang in some Gospel quartet or such, but that was just a hello.

We would all have been in the way around that bunch. Those guys were chosen for a reason.

"Sign-Talker" is a semi-factual book by James Alexander Thom. It's worth a read. Tells the 1st expidition story from the perspective of George Drouillard, the half Indian hunter and interpreter of the party. I've read all of Thom's books and they are great.

Thanks RC. Couldn’t remember!

II have read 2 of the journals and think the one by Patrick Glass are the best. They give a day to day account of the trip.

I lived most of my life at various places close to the Missouri River. I have covered part on a horse, floated parts of it and driven parts in a car.

For my part I would not have been able to last through that trip.

Here's a couple of pics of some of the descendants of the expedition's main food source at the end of the journey.

These were taken last year, not too far from Fort Clatsop.

They got pretty damn tired of eating nothing but boiled elk meat. No fat, no vegetables, not even a PBR to wash it down with.

Then they used the wet hides as blankets and such.

Bunch of badass dudes. John Colter sure had some harrowing stories of the Injuns!

This is some rare footage of George Drouillard sending meat to the flatboat on the Missouri.

That he was and the oldest member of the expedition at 36 I think. He was drafted by Clark for his frontiersman and gunsmithing skills. He was one of 10 brothers that first settled in the Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee in the 1790s and built Shields Fort. If you have ever been to Pigeon Forge, the fort was built very close to where Dollywood Theme Parks sits today.

Would not have been into poling or hauling those boats up the Missouri. Likely would have tired of dried salmon etc after a couple months too. Would like to have seen an undammed Columbia though.

If one reads their daily text, it was Clark that logged most of the material. Lewis often copied Clark's work word for word in his version. Would have been interesting if Lewis have indeed drafted his official report. Jefferson kept him salaried in some sort of figurehead position, but Lewis shot himself before ever really getting started on the job.

Don't know what my lifespan would have been with all those strong medicines like arsenic and mercury back then either.