11/02 layout - lewis and clark trail heritage foundation

1!November 2002 We Proceeded On

ContentsLetters: Bad River encounter; Crimson Bluffs 2

From the Directors: Spreading the word in Two Med country 3

From the Bicentennial Council: L&C from different perspectives 4

Trail Notes: Eyes and ears along the Lewis & Clark Trail 6

Tales of the Variegated Bear 8The captains scoffed at the Mandans’ reports of its ferocity —until they tangled with the “turrible” beast on the high MissouriBy Kenneth C. Walcheck

Meriwether Lewis’s Air Gun 15His pneumatic wonder amazed the Indians — but was it asingle shot weapon or, as new evidence suggests, a repeater?

By Michael F. Carrick

Neatness Mattered 22Hair, beards, and the Corps of DiscoveryBy Robert J. Moore, Jr.

The Utmost Reaches of the Missouri 29Two latter-day explorers describe their quest for the river’s“distant fountain,” 100 miles southeast of Lemhi Pass

By Donald F. Nell and Anthony Demetriades

Reviews 34Lewis and Clark among the Grizzlies; Or Perish in the AttemptIn Brief: Wheeler, McMurtry, Gass, Best Little Stories

L&C Roundup 38New leadership; kudos; President Bush on Corps of Discovery

Gary Moulton’s White House remarks 44

Annual meeting photo spread: Louisville, July 2002 48

On the coverJohn F. Clymer’s painting Hasty Retreat dramatically depicts one of themany encounters between members of the Corps of Discovery andgrizzly bears on the upper Missouri. For more on the explorers’ travailswith the variegated bear, see Kenneth Walcheck’s article beginning onpage 8 and the review of Paul Schullery’s new book on page 34.Courtesy Doris Clymer and The Clymer Museum of Art. Hair and beards, p. 22

Gunmaker Isaiah Lukens, p. 15

Grizzlies, p. 8

2 !We Proceeded On November 2002

November 2002 • Volume 28, Number 4

We Proceeded On is the official publication ofthe Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation,Inc. Its name derives from a phrase that appearsrepeatedly in the collective journals of theexpedition. ¶ 2002

E. G. Chuinard, M.D., Founder

ISSN 02275-6706

EditorJ. I. Merritt51 N. Main StreetPennington, NJ [email protected]

Art DirectionMargaret Davis DesignPrinceton, New Jersey

Printed by James-Allan Printing & Design,West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Editorial Board

Gary E. Moulton, Leader Lincoln, Nebraska

Robert C. CarrikerSpokane, Washington

Robert K. Doerk, Jr.Fort Benton, Montana

Glen LindemanPullman, Washington

Membership InformationMembership in the Lewis and Clark TrailHeritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the public.Information and applications are available bywriting Membership Coordinator; Lewis andClark Trail Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box3434, Great Falls, MT 59403.

We Proceeded On, the quarterly magazine ofthe Foundation, is mailed to current membersin February, May, August, and November.

Annual Membership Categories

Student $30Individual/Library/Nonprofit $40Family/International/Business $55Heritage Club $75Explorer Club $150Jefferson Club $250Discovery Club $500Expedition Club $1,000Leadership Club $2,500

The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc.is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. Individualmembership dues are not tax deductible. The portionof premium dues over $40 is tax deductible.

Letters

Bad River encounter; Crimson BluffsI must take issue with parts of Dr. JamesRonda’s article “Tough Times at the Bad”(WPO, May 2002).

The article is about the Teton (Lakota)Sioux. As sources for this article and forhis account of the Bad River encounterin his 1984 book, Lewis and Clark amongthe Indians, Ronda relies mainly on theexplorers’ journals, other contemporarywritings by white traders, and articles bymodern scholars. Missing, apparently, areoral histories handed down by the TetonSioux themselves. In the absence of suchsources, much of what he has to say aboutthe Indians’ attitudes, motivations, andpolitics remains speculative.

I also question Ronda’s view that thecaptains didn’t know what they were do-ing during this episode and came off badlyas a result. He writes, for example, that“Compared to these Lakotas, Lewis andClark were country boys in the hands ofreal sharpies.” It seems to me, however,that it was Clark who gained the most bynot backing down, by not giving in asBlack Buffalo did, and by not allowing theSioux to control the situation.

Ronda would have us believe thatLewis and Clark were dunces whobumbled and stumbled through their ad-venture with no idea about the world theyentered. This may be true to some extent,but it is also true that the Corps of Dis-covery met dozens of tribes representingmany languages and cultures, and in thevast majority of those encounters the ex-plorers succeeded in fostering remarkablerelationships. Much of the credit goes tothe friendliness of the Indians themselves,but Lewis and Clark and the Americanideals they represented also deservecredit. Few explorers fared as well.

Finally, I dispute Ronda’s assertionthat in 1804, “the politics of the northernGreat Plains was every bit as complex asthe politics of Washington, D.C.” Thisstatement is apologia, not scholarship.How could the politics of Plains Indians,numbering in the tens of thousands, pos-sibly be as complex as those of a new andevolving democracy of 5.5 millionpeople? I know that the tribes, threatenedby white encroachment, were dealingwith many pressing matters in a rapidlychanging context. But on the banks of thePotomac, Lewis’s mentor, Thomas Jeffer-son, was fighting Barbary pirates and try-

ing to avoid war with Great Britain, theera’s superpower, while also dealing withparty politics, judicial review, westwardexpansion, slavery, federalism versusstates rights, and many other heated is-sues of the day.

SAM BLOBERG

Evergreen, Colo.

WPO welcomes letters. We may edit themfor length, accuracy, clarity, and civility.Send them to us c/o Editor, WPO, 51 N. MainSt., Pennington, NJ 08534 (e-mail: [email protected]).

Missouri River site dedicated

As president of the Crimson Bluffs Chap-ter I want to thank WPO for its coverageof our successful efforts to protect theCrimson Bluffs, a Land and Clark land-mark on the upper Missouri (L&CRoundup, May 2002).

Readers may be interested to knowthat we dedicated the 50-acre site on July27. Undaunted by rain, approximately150 people from Broadwater County andother parts of Montana arrived undercloudy skies to take part in the com-memoration and to view the “remarkablebluff of a crimson coloured earth,” asLewis described it on July 24, 1805. En-hancing the festivities were a bald eagleand a flight of white pelicans gliding overthe river.

Today, the Crimson Bluffs are as beau-tiful as they were when the Corps of Dis-covery passed them nearly 200 years ago,and now that they are in public owner-ship they will remain in a pristine statefor future generations. We are grateful toeveryone who helped us celebrate thisspecial occasion.

ROSE OLESON

Townsend, Mont.

The Crimson Bluffs


The Lewis and Clark TrailHeritage Foundation, Inc.

P.O.B. 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403406-454-1234 / 1-888-701-3434

Fax: 406-771-9237www.lewisandclark.org

The mission of the LCTHF is tostimulate public appreciation of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition’scontributions to America’s heritage and

to support education, research,development, and preservation of the

Lewis and Clark experience.

OfficersPresident

Larry EpsteinCut Bank, Mont.

President-ElectRon Laycock

Benson, Minn.

Vice-President Gordon Julich

Blue Springs, Mo.

SecretaryJane Schmoyer-Weber

Great Falls, Mont.

TreasurerSteven G. Lee

Clarkston, Wash.

Immediate Past PresidentJane HenleyKeswick, Va.

Executive DirectorCarol A. Bronson

Directors at largeCharles Cook, Billings, Mont. • Tom Davis,Ft. Washington, Penn. • James Gramentine,

Meguon, Wisc. • Sue Hottois, Clarkston,Wash. • Frank Muhly, Philadelphia, Penn. •

Jon Stealey, Findlay, Ohio • Hal Stearns,Wayne, Neb. • Dark Rain Thom,

Bloomington, Ind. • Roger Wendlick,Portalnd, Ore.

Active Past PresidentsDavid Borlaug, Washburn, N.D. • Robert K.

Doerk, Jr., Fort Benton, Mont. • James R.Fazio, Moscow, Id. • Robert E. Gatten, Jr.,

Greensboro, N.C. • Clyde G. “Sid” Huggins,Covington, La. • Barbara J. Kubik,

Vancouver, Wash. • H. John Montague,Portland, Ore. • Cynthia Orlando,Washington, D.C. • Donald F. Nell,

Bozeman, Mont. • James M. Peterson,Vermillion, S.D. • William P. Sherman,

Portland, Ore. • L. Edwin Wang, Minnea-polis, Minn. • Wilbur P. Werner, Mesa, Ariz.

• Stuart E. Knapp, Bozeman, Mont.

Incorporated in 1969 under Missouri General Not-For-Profit Corporation Act. IRS Exemption

Certificate No. 501(c)3, ldentification No. 510187715.

just spent the evening with awonderful group from the Phoe-

nix, Arizona, area. They come ev-ery year to spend a peaceful week atRising Wolf, a guest ranch on the southfork of Two Medicine River owned byour old friends Jim andPatti Stewart. Jim and Ihave talked around theranch’s dinner table onmany a long eveningabout my long love affairwith the story of Lewisand Clark, my workwith the Foundation,and my participation inthe upcoming L&C Bi-centennial. When he asked if I’d mindtaking these folks on a tour of “TwoMed” country and the site of CampDisappointment, where MeriwetherLewis had his fateful encounter with agroup of Indians (either Blackfeet orGros Ventres of the Prairie), I jumpedat the chance.

My interaction with Jim and Patti’sguests brings into focus what so manymembers of the Lewis and Clark TrailHeritage Foundation do routinely as“keepers of the story and stewards ofthe trail.” To prepare them for our visitto the Fight Site I made sure they hadcopies of Lewis’s journal entries forthose critical days of July 1806 and hadseen the August issue of WPO with BobSaindon’s article about that “unhappyaffair.” Several of them had already readStephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Cour-age, and one was immersed in JimRonda’s seminal Lewis and Clarkamong the Indians.

The copies of WPO I left at the ranchpiqued their interest in the Foundationand gave me an opportunity to encour-age them to join both our national or-ganization and the Grand CanyonChapter. I’m confident that some ofthem will follow through, do morereading about the expedition, and getinvolved in the L&C Bicentennial. Iwouldn’t be surprised to see a fewshow up at Monticello for the bicen-

tennial kickoff in January or in Phila-delphia next August for the Foun-dation’s annual meeting.

Their visit also presented the oppor-tunity to talk about tribal relations andthe good work being done by the Bi-

centennial Council’sCouncil of Tribal Advi-sors (COTA) to ensurethat tribal lands and cul-tures along the L&CTrail are respected. Imade a point of remind-ing them that the entireevening of our tour wasspent on the BlackfeetReservation. In addition

to exploring the Fight Site we lookedat tipi rings and a pushkin (buffalojump). We also talked about the criti-cal importance of maintaining good re-lations with the tribal members and theranchers whose property we crossed toget to these sites.

Taking the message to othersIt was the kind of evening that is surelyrepeated nearly every day somewherealong the Lewis and Clark Trail—a tell-ing of the story and a primer on stew-ardship, landowner and tribal relations,and the need to protect our pricelessheritage. Foundation members fromCharlottesville and Philadelphia toAstoria and all points between knowexactly how it feels to carry our storyand message to others.

I’m happy to report that, withoutfurther prompting from me, our newfriends from Arizona wanted to knowmore about the Foundation and askedfor membership brochures. We had awonderful time, just as I know all ofyou do whenever you’re involved inthis kind of experience in which every-one learns and grows. So from way uphere in the heart of Blackfeet country,Thank you for all you are doing to ex-pand and preserve the legacy of Lewisand Clark. Proceed on!

—Larry EpsteinPresident, LCTHF

From the Directors

Spreading the word in Two Med country

I


jagged-edged rock art repro-duction hangs on the hallwaywall in my St. Louis home. It

was made from a latex mold applied toa petroglyph on the face of a cliff onthe plains of Montana. An old friendgave it to me years ago. Although na-tive people incised the original, the sub-ject matter is not Indian. Instead, theimage is a boat with uplifted prows atboth ends, apparently constructed ofplanks, with two people holding oarsand standing at either end. The imageincludes a rifle and a larger gun restingupright in the boat. Comparative dat-ing from the site suggests that thepetroglyph was made about the timethe Corps of Discovery passed throughMontana. While no conclusive evidenceexists, it is possible that the image is anAmerican Indian depiction of Lewisand Clark. I like to think so.

At the White House event hosted byPresident and Mrs. Bush on July 3, NezPerce Tribal Chairman Sam Pennyspoke of Nez Perce tribal traditionsabout the Corps of Discovery. As I lis-tened to him, I thought of my petro-glyph reproduction. People who arenot Native Americans see Lewis andClark from an eastern perspective evenif they live in the west. Lewis and Clarkwere going “out there.” But the view-points of the unknown petroglyph in-scriber and Sam Penny are distinctlydifferent because the artist and the tribalchairman have different cultural andgeographic vantagepoints. If the Westwas your home before Lewis and Clarkstruggled upriver, then the Corps ofDiscovery was coming, not going; arriv-ing, not departing; and its members werewayfaring suspect strangers in your landrather than representatives of yourcountry, your culture, and future’s des-tiny. These are startlingly different per-spectives on the same events, facts, andpeople. Good people can make differ-ent meanings of past events and bothcan be correct. It depends on where youstand and who your people are.

Implicit in this idea is one of the

powerful messages of the L&C Bicen-tennial commemoration. These obser-vances can be an opportunity to reflectupon the Corps of Discovery frommultiple perspectives and embrace thebeautiful tapestry that is America’sheritage, and to acknowledge that allAmericans count and different storiesmust be told and heard. It is also timeto reflect upon the land traversed anddescribed by the corps, for the land andthe people who live upon it are ourmost precious legacy and our pricelessgift to future generations. The land andits rivers and animals have changed in200 years. Are we pleased with thechanges that we and our predecessorshave wrought, or is it time to contem-plate course corrections that will com-prise the legacy we will leave to theyoung and to those yet born? This bi-centennial can be an opportunity to re-affirm what is best and good in our past,strengthening both our sense of iden-tity and common purpose. But just asimportantly, it is also a chance to ac-knowledge the burdens of the past andto make those changes in our own timethat will guarantee the ingredients of agood life for those who come after us.Doing this, we more perfectly fulfill ourobligations as the living generation toleave our places better than we foundthem by being conscientious trusteesand thoughtful stewards of our legacies.

Council changesYou may all be aware that the Bicenten-

nial Council faces severe and immedi-ate financial challenges. We have re-duced our operating costs, moved ouroffices to St. Louis, and are operatingwith a volunteer staff based at the Mis-souri Historical Society. Despite ourausterity, the opportunities remain.The National Advertising Council hasadopted the Lewis and Clark Bicen-tennial as its pro bono campaign, a de-cision that will result in tens of mil-lions of dollars of free educationalmedia buys. We remain committed tosecuring the corporate sponsorshipsthat will underwrite Corps of Discov-ery II, which will debut during the sig-nature event at Monticello in January.We will maintain the Council’s Website and plan to expand it into a portalto all Lewis and Clark information onthe Web. While we have dramaticallyreduced our costs, we have not re-duced our essential activity.

As a historian, I know that all workrests on foundations built by others. Iam deeply grateful to the council’s pastpresident, David Borlaug, members ofthe council’s board of directors, theformer staff of the council, and to theunwavering support of the Lewis andClark Trail Heritage Foundation. With-out them there would be no place tobegin. Collectively, the readers of WPO

are a vast reservoir of enthusiasm, ideas,and support for the proposition thatthrough this commemoration we pro-vide for all Americans an opportunityto reflect upon a remarkable past, ex-plore a magnificent land, and contem-plate a future that we will make together.I need your ideas, support, and involve-ment. Please call, write, or e-mail me orKaren Goering, interim executive direc-tor of the Bicentennial Council.

—Robert R. Archibald

Bob Archibald ([email protected]), thenew president of the Bicentnnial Coun-cil, is president of the Missouri Histori-cal Society (MHS). Both he and KarenGoering can be reached care of MHS,P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112.

A

From the Bicentennial Council

Lewis and Clark from different perspectives

SU

E A

RC

HIB

ALD

L&Cpetroglyph?


Jefferson West ad


he snow lies deep on PackerMeadow, protecting for much of

the year one of the most pristinesites along the Lewis and Clark Na-tional Historic Trail. In winter, at least,it’s safe from abuse by all-terrain ve-hicles (ATVs) of the sort that occurredone day last summer.

Packer Meadow is a beautiful ex-ample of a wet camas meadow. Lewisand Clark camped two milesdown Glade Creek on the nightof September 13, 1805, and wroteabout it in their journals. They re-turned to the area on June 29,1806, where it merited a secondmention by Clark: “here is a prettylittle plain of about 50 acres plen-tifully Stocked with quawmash[camas] and from appearance thisforms one of the principal Stagesof the indians who pass the moun-tains on this road.”

On the afternoon of last Au-gust 17, Kathy Lloyd and othermembers of the Montana NativePlant Society were preparing foran Elderhostel class on the plants of theLewis and Clark Expedition. As sherecalls, “After a pleasant day identify-ing plants in the meadow and readingfrom the Lewis and Clark journals, wewere preparing to leave when twoATVs roared by us and traveled downthe middle of the wet meadow, disap-pearing up a side drainage. They reap-peared, again tearing down the centerof the meadow.”

Thinking quickly, members of thegroup snapped photos of the ATVs inaction. “They were great photos,” saidJoni Packard, the U.S. Forest Servicedistrict ranger at nearby Powell RangerStation, “but I wish they would havecalled us right away. We’re just 20 min-utes away and might have been able toget someone up there and apprehendthe people who did this.”

Fortunately, said Packard, the dam-age to the meadow caused by the ATVswasn’t too bad. “It wasn’t dug up orchurned up.” Less fortunately, despite

Eyes and ears along the Lewis and Clark Trailthe photos the drivers couldn’t be iden-tified—they were wearing helmets, andtheir ATVs didn’t have license plates.When Lloyd and her crew checked thearea they found no trailers or other rigsfor transporting ATVs.

“We were shocked and upset by thiswanton disregard for a priceless natu-ral and historic landmark,” said Lloyd.“ATV use is never appropriate in a wet

meadow and is certainly not to be con-doned in a place bearing such histori-cal, cultural, and natural values.”Packard concurred. “This area isclosed to motorized use,” he said, add-ing that signs declaring the area off lim-its had been pulled down or otherwisevandalized but will be replaced.

Prompt reporting is keyThe incident happened on a Sundayafternoon. “Even so,” said Packard,“people should still call us right away.Even if they just call 911, the sheriff’sdepartment can dispatch our officers orrespond to the call themselves. Visitorsto the trail are our eyes and ears whenwe don’t have law enforcement offic-ers in the immediate area. We need theirhelp.” It’s especially important that eyewitnesses immediately report vandal-ism or other violations or desecrations.Forest Service investigators believe itwas in September 2001 that vandalsstruck at the Smoking Place, on

Motorway 500 of the Lolo Trail. In thatcase, rock cairns built over many gen-erations by the Nez Perces were de-stroyed. There were no witnesses, andthe case remains unsolved.

Idaho author Jim Fazio calls PackerMeadow one of his favorite Lewis andClark sites, and he’s understandablydisheartened at the news of the ATVvandalism: “Packer Meadow is one of

those wonderful places where youcan stand and easily envision theexpedition passing through. For-tunately or unfortunately, it is alsoone that is easily accessible tomotor traffic. Until now, it hasbeen respected by everyone andhas lasted into the 21st centurywithout damage—despite use byhikers, hunters, horseback riders,and Native Americans digging ca-mas roots. I’m grieved to learn thatATV riders would have such dis-respect for a special place that theycouldn’t control themselves andstay on the road.”

There are few sites along theL&C Trail that give visitors a sense ofplace similar to what the captains mighthave experienced 200 years ago. PackerMeadow is one of them, and while itwould be satisfying to apprehend thevandals of August, it’s our job to edu-cate the traveling public and our friendsand neighbors about the need to respectthe trail and keep off sensitive and frag-ile sites. As Packard points out, we areindeed the eyes and the ears of the For-est Service—and of the National ParkService, the Bureau of Land Manage-ment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice, and other land-management agen-cies charged with protecting the trail.If you witness an act of vandalism orother crime on the Trail, call the near-est ranger station or 911.

—Jeff OlsonTrail Coordinator

Jeff Olson can be reached at [email protected] (P.O. Box 2376, Bis-marck, ND 58502; Tel.: 701-258-1809.

T

Trail Notes

ATV riders on a run through Packer Meadow last August.C

OU

RTE

SY

KA

THY

LLO

YD


St, Joseph’s Visitor’s Center1 P B&W

Pick-up from 8/02


TALES OF THEVARIEGATED BEAR

When the Corps of Discovery arrived there twocenturies ago, the Missouri near present-dayGreat Falls, Montana, was a wild boulder-

strewn river cascading over rapids and five falls and surg-ing through a landscape teeming with elk, bison, and an-telope. Its willow and cottonwood bottomlands were alsohome to numerous grizzly bears.

It was at the Great Falls of the Missouri on June 14,1805, that Meriwether Lewis, well ahead of the rest of theparty, came face to face with a grizzly. The captain hadjust shot a buffalo and was waiting for it to die when henoticed the bear lumbering toward him just 20 paces away.Violating a cardinal rule of wilderness travel, Lewis hadneglected to reload immediately so was holding an emptyrifle. To his dismay he noticed there wasn’t a tree within300 yards nor any depression in which he might concealhimself while recharging his gun. His only usable weaponwas his espontoon, a walking staff with an iron spike.Lewis began to retreat, but he had hardly moved whenthe bear charged at him “open mouthed and [at] fullspeed.” Lewis sprinted 80 yards to the river and plungedinto the waist-deep water, then turned and “presented thepoint of my espontoon” toward the bear as it pulled up atthe water’s edge.

Then, to Lewis’s amazement and relief, as suddenly asit had charged the bear turned tail and galloped off acrossthe open plain. Lewis later wrote that “the cause of hisallarm still remains with me misterious and unaccount-able … I feelt myself not a little gratifyed that he had de-clined the combat.”1

This was neither the first nor the last encounter Lewisand his fellow explorers would have with this largest andmost feared of North American predators during their28 months on the trail. The vast majority of sightingstook place along the game-rich upper Missouri. As Lewisnoted, the grizzlies “lie in [wait] at the crossing places”of elk and bison, where they were especially vulnerableto attack.2 The biggest concentration occurred at theGreat Falls:

As the buffaloe generally go in large herds to waterand the passages to the river about the falls are nar-row and steep the hinder part of the herd press thosein front out of their debth and the water instatly takesthem over the cataracts where they are instantlycrushed to death without the possibility of escap-ing. in this manner I have seen ten or a douzen dis-appear in a few minutes. their mangled carcases lyalong the shores below the falls in considerable quan-tities and afford fine amusement for the bear wolves

by KENNETH C. WALCHECK

Lewis and Clark scoffed at the Mandans’ reports of its ferocity —until they tangled with the “turrible” beast on the high Missouri


“Saw a large brownbear. … he took theRiver and was nearcatching the Man hechased in … one ofthe hunters Shot himin the head.”— John Ordway,May 14, 1805, near themouth of theMusselshell River.

10!We Proceeded On November 2002

and birds of prey; this may be one reason and I thinknot a bad one either that the bear are so tenacious oftheir right of soil in this neighbourhood.3

Grizzlies were so numerous and aggressive at the GreatFalls that bear alertness became a preoccupation. The cap-tains ordered the men to sleep with their guns close athand and forbade them to venture alone along the river.Seaman, Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, did his part by bark-ing whenever a bear came near camp.

During the previous winter the Mandans and Hidatsahad told the captainsthat the buffalo coun-try abruptly ended be-yond the Great Falls.Without bison to feedon, the ranks of bearsalso thinned consider-ably. Once the explor-ers left the Falls theyencountered only fourother grizzlies alongthe river.4

GRIZZLY ORIGINS AND

EARLY ACCOUNTS

The grizzly evolved inSiberia and passed fromAsia into North Amer-ica across the BeringLand Bridge during thelast ice age. Spreading south, it eventually occupied a swathof territory from Alaska to central Mexico and from Cali-fornia to Minnesota. Evolution on the cold, open, wind-swept tundra favored size and ferocity (a big body is bet-ter at holding heat, and an aggressive nature comes inhandy when there is no place to hide). As nature writerThomas McNamee puts it, “The American grizzly’s an-cestors were the biggest, meanest specimens Eurasia hadto offer.”5

Like its smaller cousin, the black bear, the grizzly isomnivorous—in addition to meat killed or scavenged iteats fish and also berries, roots, and other vegetation. Atypical adult weighs 500 pounds, but despite its bulk itcan run in bursts of well over 30 m.p.h. and at a sustainedclip exceeding 20.6

Grizzlies appear in the literature of exploration begin-ning in 1666, when the French missionary Claude JeanAllouez mentioned Indian accounts of man-eating bears“of frightful size, all red, and with prodigiously long

claws.”7 In the two decades before Lewis and Clark setout for the Pacific, the Canadian fur traders AlexanderMackenzie and Alexander Henry noted the grizzly’s pres-ence, respectively, along Peace River, in present-dayAlberta, and in the Red River valley of North Dakota.8

But it remained for Meriwether Lewis—he of the obser-vant eye and active pen—to provide the wealth of detailthat would lead to the formal scientific description sup-plied by Philadelphia naturalist George Ord in 1815. Ordgave the grizzly its Latin moniker Ursus horribilis, “hor-

rible bear.” Much later,taxonomists wouldlump together the griz-zly and the larger, butclosely related, Alaskanbrown bear and Eur-asian brown bear underthe species name Ursusarctos, but Ord’s evoca-tive label survives in thegrizzly’s subspeciesdesignation, Ursus arc-tos horribilis.9

Individual grizzliesvary markedly in coloraccording to age, sex,and locality. In theirjournals, Lewis andClark described bearsas white, brown, gray,

red, yellow, black, or grizzly (variously spelled and mean-ing gray or grizzled). Lewis wondered if the bear’s myriadcolor phases represented as many as 20 separate species.Ultimately he concluded they were a single species, aninsight that came to him on May 14, 1806, while waitingin a Nez Perce camp for snows to melt in the Bitterroots.Perhaps, he wrote, “it would not be unappropriate to des-ignate them the variagated bear.”10

A “TURRIBLE” ANIMAL

The Corps of Discovery’s first encounter with the varie-gated bear took place on October 20, 1804, on the Mis-souri near the mouth of Heart River, North Dakota, asthe explorers were nearing the Mandan villages. The one-eyed boatman, Pierre Cruzatte, wounded a grizzly, or“white bear,” as Lewis recorded, and “being alarmed atthe formidable appearance of the bear” took off, drop-ping his gun and tomahawk. Upon retrieving these itemsCruzatte “found that the bear had taken the oposite

John James Audubon visited the upper Missouri some 40 years after Lewis andClark. His portrait of male and female grizzlies shows them in a docile mode.

FRO

M T

HE

QU

AD

RU

PED

S O

F N

OR

TH A

MER

ICA

(184

9)


k = killed / w = wounded / s = sighted

OUTBOUND

Vol./pg.1 Date Count Breakdown

3:186 10.20.04 1 1 w (North Dakota)2

4:36 4.14.05 2 2 s4:81 4.28.05 4 3 s, 1 w (Montana)4:84 4.29.05 2 1 k, 1 w4:113 5.5.05 1 1 k4:118 5.6.05 1 1 s4:141 5.11.05 1 1 k4:149 5.13.05 1 1 w4:151 5.14.05 2 1 k, 1 w4:159 5.17.05 1 1 k4:166 5.19.05 1 1 k4:180 5.22.05

1 1 k4:184 5.23.05 6 1 k, 5 s3

4:213 5.28.05 1 1 s4:242 6.2.05 2 2 k4

4:255-6 6.4.05 3 1 w, 2 s4:259 6.5.05 3 3 k4:280 6.12.05 2 2 k4:292 6.14.05 1 1 s4:305 6.17.05 1 1 s4:308 6.18.05 1 1 s4:331 6.25.05 3 3 s4:336 6.27.05 4 3 k,5 1 s4:338 6.28.05 2 2 s4:354 7.2.05 3 1 k , 2 s6

4:423 7.24.05 1 1 s4:426 7.25.05 1 1 s4:431 7.26.05 2 2 k5:28 8.1.057 1 1 s

Subtotals, outward 54 20 k, 6 w, 28 s

HOMEWARD BOUND, L&C TOGETHER

7:256 5.14.06 2 2 k (Idaho)7:264 5.16.06 3 3 w7:267 5.17.06 1 1 k

LEWIS (MISSOURI RIVER)

8:25 6.15.06 2 2 s8 (Montana)8:99 7.10.06 1 1 s8:110 7.15.06 2 2 s9

8:111 7.16.06 2 2 s8:141 7.30.06 1 1 k8:144 8.1.06 2 2 k8:146 8.3.06 1 1 s8:147 8.4.06 1 1 k8:148 8.5.06 5 2 k, 3 s10

8:149 8.6.06 3 3 s11

8:150 8.7.06 8 8 s12 (North Dakota)8:154 8.11.06 1 1 s

CLARK (YELLOWSTONE RIVER)

8:162 7.3.06 1 1 s (Montana)8:179 7.13.06 1 1 k8:190 7.16.06 2 2 s8:205 7.19.06 2 2 w8:208 7.20.06 1 1 s8:253 7.30.06 1 1 s8:259 7.31.06 1 1 s8:272 8.2.06 2 1 k, 1 w8:281 8.5.06 1 1 k (North Dakota)8:282 8.6.06 1 1 w8:283 8.7.08 1 1 s

Subtotals, homeward 49 12 k, 7 w, 30 s

GRAND TOTALS 103 32 k,13 13 w, 58 s

NOTES

1 Volume and page references are for Moulton, Journals of theLewis & Clark Expedition, Volumes 3, 4, and 5. Single refer-ences are generally for the first page of the first entry. (Mostbear encounters are described by more than one journal keeper.)2 The explorers encountered grizzly tracks on October 7, 1804in South Dakota (Moulton, 3:148), and again on April 13, 1805,in North Dakota (4:31).3 Although counted separately, the bear reported killed mayhave been one of the five sighted.4 His syntax is confusing, but Lewis appears to be talking abouttwo bears killed—one by him and the other by Drouillard.5 Clark’s entry of July 1 (Moulton, 4:350) reporting three bearskilled clearly refers to the three bears killed on June 27.6 The entry notes sighting “Several” bears. Here and in 8:148and 8:149, “several” has been given the arbitrary number of three.7 Sightings of bear tracks occur after this date (August 2 and 23)as well as sightings of “bear sign” (October 30); the latter oc-curred on the Columbia River so almost certainly representedblack bears. Also, on August 3, “some … Bear” were seen “inthe bottoms.” These were probably grizzlies but aren’t countedhere. On September 1, “one man shot two bear” that were notretrieved; these could have been either grizzlies or black bearsand also are not counted.8 Lewis: “two large bear together … one black and the otherwhite.” The “black” bear is almost certainly a dark grizzly.9 McNeal strikes bear with rifle and is treed for three hours.Sergeant John Ordway describes this incident four days afterthe fact in his entry of July 19 (Moulton, 9:338).10 The entry is for “several bear.”11 The entry reports seeing “several” bears.12 Lewis states, “the Fieldses … killed 2 bear and seen 6 others,we saw and fired on two … but killed neither.” The two bearskilled probably refer to the two shot on August 5.13 By state: Montana, 28; Idaho, 3; North Dakota, 1.

LEWIS & CLARK GRIZZLY ENCOUNTERS: KILLED, WOUNDED, SIGHTED

6


A sampling of grizzly encounters from the journals of Meriwether Lewis

came towards them, boath of them struck him, one onlyslightly and the other fortunately broke his shoulder,this however only retarded his motion for a momentonly, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight,the bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken thembefore they reached the river; two of the party betookthemselves to a canoe and the others seperated anconcealed themselves among the willows, reload theirpieces, each discharged his piece at him as they had anopportunity they struck him several times again but theguns served only to direct the bear to them, in thismanner he pursued two of them seperately so closethat they were obliged to throw aside their guns andpouches and throw themselves into the river altho’ thebank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enragedwas this anamal that he plunged into the river only afew feet behind the second man … [.] when one ofthose who still remained on shore shot him throughthe head and finally killed him; they then took him onshore and butchered him when they found eight ballshad passed through him in different directions; thebear being old the flesh was indifferent, they thereforetook only the skin and fleece [fat], the latter made usseveral gallons of oil.

June 2, 1805Accordingly I walked on shore most of the day with someof the hunters for that purpose and killed 6 Elk 2 buffale2 Mule deer and a bear. … the bear was very near catch-ing Drewyer; it also pursued Charbono who fired his gunin the air as he ran but fortunately eluded the vigilence ofthe bear by secreting himself very securely in the bushesuntill Drewyer finally killed it by a shot in the head.

June 25, 1805about noon Fields returned and informed me that hehad seen two white bear near the river a few miles aboveand in attempting to get a shoot them had stumbleduppon a third which immediately made at him beingonly a few steps distant; that in runing in order toescape from the bear he had leaped down a steep bankof the river on a stony bar where he fell cut his handbruised his knees and bent his gun. that fortunately forhim the bank hid him from the bear when he fell and

“these bears being so hard to die reather intimedates us”

May 11, 1805About 5 P.M. my attention was struck by one of theParty runing at a distance towards us and making signsand hollowing as if in distress[.] I ordered the peroguesto put too, and waited untill he arrived; I now foundthat it was Bratton the man with the soar hand whom Ihad permitted to walk on shore, he arrived so much outof breath that it was several minutes before he could tellwhat had happened; at length he informed me that … hehad shot a brown bear which immediately turned onhim and pursued him a considerable distance but he hadwounded it so badly that it could not overtake him; Iimmediately turned out with seven of the party in questof this monster, we at length found his trale and persuedhim about a mile by the blood through very thick brushof rosbushes and the large leafed willow; we finallyfound him concealed in some very thick brush and shothim through the skull with two balls; we proceeded [to]dress him as soon as possible, we found him in goodorder; it was a monstrous beast, … ; we now found thatBratton had shot him through the center of the lungs,notwithstanding which he had pursued him near half amile and had returned more than double that distanceand with his tallons had prepared himself a bed in theearth of about 2 feet deep and five long and was per-fectly alive when we found him which could not havebeen less than 2 hours after he received the wound;these bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all;I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and hadreather fight two Indians than one bear.

May 14, 1805In the evening the men in two of the rear canoes discov-ered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds about300 paces from the river, and six of them went out toattack him, all good hunters; they took the advantage ofa small eminence which concealed them and got within40 paces of him unperceived[;] two of them reservedtheir fires as had been previously conscerted, the fourothers fired nearly at the same time and put each hisbullet through him, two of the balls passed through thebulk of both lobes of the lungs, in an instant thismonster ran at them with open mouth, the two who hadreserved their fires discharged their pieces at him as he


rout.” On the same day, Clark reported seeing “Severalfresh track of those animals which is 3 times as large as aman’s track.”11

In the lodges of the Mandans that winter, the captainsheard many a cautionary tale about grizzlies. Lewis, forone, tended to dismiss these accounts. Writing on April13, 1805, a week after departing the villages for the Pa-cific, he noted on the river banks

many tracks of the white bear of enormous size[.] …the men as well as ourselves are anxious to meet withsome of these bear. the Indians give a very formi-dable account of the strength and ferocity of thisanamal, which they never dare to attack but in par-ties of six eight or ten persons; and are even then fre-quently defeated with the loss of one or more of theirparty. … When the Indians are about to go in questof the white bear, previous to their departure, theypaint themselves and perform all those supersticiousrights commonly observed when they are about tomake war uppon a neighbouring nation.

Lewis attributed the Indians’ fear to a lack of firepower.The “savages,” he wrote, “attack this anamal with theirbows and arrows and the indifferent guns with which thetraders furnish them.” This assessment seemed confirmedon April 29, in the vicinity of Big Muddy Creek in east-ern Montana, when Lewis killed his first grizzly, a youngmale he dropped with two well-aimed balls. He concludedthat for a skilled rifleman armed with a good weapon “theyare by no means as formidable or dangerous as they havebeen represented.”

His attitude began to change a week later. On May 5,Clark and George Drouillard, the corps’s civilian hunter,fired upon a big boar grizzly and chased it into the river.The two men shot and reloaded several times. Ten ballsfound their mark, and five lodged in the bear’s lungs, butit managed to swim to a sandbar before dying. NotedClark, it “was a verry large and a turrible looking animal,which we found verry hard to kill.” Lewis estimated itsweight at 600 pounds and was astonished to find that itsheart was as big as an ox’s.

The difficulty Clark and Drouillard had killing theirgrizzly speaks to the limitations of the Corps of Dis-covery’s firearms. Members of the expedition carriedboth the Kentucky rifle and either the Model 1803 Harp-ers Ferry rifle or a prototype of it. The Kentucky rifle’s.40- or .44-caliber balls were adequate for deer and evenelk but lacked the shock power to stop a grizzly. Thelarger .54-caliber balls of the Model 1803 were better,but with their relatively slow muzzle velocity comparedto a modern high-powered rifle they were still not up to

that by that means he had escaped. this man has beentruly unfortunate with these bear, this is the second timethat he has narrowly escaped from them.

July 15, 1806a little before dark McNeal returned with his musquetbroken off at the breech and informed me that on hisarrival at willow run he had approached a white bearwithin ten feet without discover him the bear being in thethick brush, the horse took the allarm and turning shortthrew him immediately under the bear; this animal raisedhimself on his hinder feet for battle, and gave him time torecover from his fall which he did in an instant and withhis clubbed musquet he struck the bear over the head andcut him with the guard of the gun and broke off thebreech, the bear stunned with the stroke fell to theground and began to scratch his head with his feet; thisgave McNeal time to climb a willow tree which was nearat hand and thus fortunately made his escape. the bearwaited at the foot of the tree untill late in the eveningbefore he left him, when McNeal ventured down andcaught his horse which by this time had strayed off tothe distance of 2 ms. and returned to camp. These bearare a most tremenduous animal; it seems that the handof providence has been most wonderfully in our favorwith rispect to them, or some of us would long sincehave fallen a sacrifice to their farosity.

Source: Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & ClarkExpedition, 13 volumes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1983-2001).

McNeal treed by a grizzly, from the 1807 edition of Gass’s journal.


8 Raymond Darwin Burroughs, ed., The Natural History of theLewis and Clark Expedition (East Lansing: Michigan State Uni-versity Press, 1961), pp. 57, 59.

9 Schullery, pp. 50, 57. The subspecies designations for the Alas-kan (or Kodiak) brown bear and the Eurasian brown bear areUrsus arctos middendorffi and Ursus arctos arctos, respectively.

10 After Ord scientifically described the grizzly, many yearswent by before that name became fixed in the language.Theodore Roosevelt opposed it, arguing that a more appropri-ate name would be “grisly,” meaning horrifying or ghastly. SeePaul Russell Cutright, Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1969), p. 142. DespiteLewis’s correct conclusion about one species of grizzly, he wasconfused by the reddish or “cinnamon” phase of the black bear,Ursus Americanus. Referring to the Nez Perces, he wrote onMay 31, 1806, “I am disposed to adopt the Indian distinctionwith respect to these bear and consider them two different spe-cies.” Some 19th-century naturalists agreed, and over the yearstaxonomists have both “lumped” and “split” cinnamon and blackbears. They are now regarded a single species.

11 Moulton, Vol. 3, p. 188. The journals’ first reference to griz-zlies is found in Clark’s entry for September 1, 1804. He men-tions a “White Bear Clift” overlooking the Missouri in SouthDakota, about 25 miles below the mouth of the Niobrara River,so named by Indians for having killed “one of these animals …in a whole in it.” Moulton, Vol. 3, p. 38.

12 Firearms historians debate whether the Corps of Discoverycarried a protype of the .54-caliber Model 1803 or a cut-downversion of an earlier army rifle, the .49-caliber Model 1796.

13 Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 113.

14 This is the author’s estimate. Readers should keep in mind,however, that calculating wildlife numbers is a tricky businesseven when dealing with existing populations, so any estimatesof presettlement populations should be taken with a grain ofsalt. Estimates of presettlement grizzly populations in what isnow the contiguous United States range as high as 100,000; seeGary Turbak, Grizzly Bears (Stillwater, N.M.: Voyager Press,1997), p. 15. This estimate is almost certainly too high. Calcula-tions of total population in the contiguous U.S. depend on esti-mates of the grizzly’s presettlement range, which vary from320,000 square miles to 1.5 million square miles. See Daniel P.Botkin, Our Natural History (New York: Grosset/Putnam,1995), pp. 72 and 77-78. Botkin uses grizzly observations byLewis and Clark along the upper Missouri (which he appears toundercount) to estimate a grizzly density of roughly 4 per100,000 square miles, a figure that yields a total population—depending on a conservative or liberal estimate of grizzlyrange—of 12,000, 20,000, or 56,000. One problem, as noted, isundercounting the number of encounters, which will happenif one relies solely on the index of the Moulton edition of thejournals, for not all sightings are referenced. Another prob-lem with working from grizzly sightings recorded by Lewisand Clark is that they are random. A systematic survey of thesort made my wildlife biologists conducting population stud-ies might well have yielded a higher density of grizzlies alongthe upper Missouri, which in turn would produce a higheroverall population estimate.

15 Earthwatch Institute Web site (www.earthwatch.org/pubaffairs/news/grizzlies.html).

the task.12 Again and again the journals tell of the grizzly’sability to absorb lead. Observed a chastened Lewis onMay 11, after a mortally wounded grizzly chased Pri-vate Bratton for half a mile, “these bear being so hard todie reather intimedates us all; I must confess that I donot like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indiansthan one bear.”

Lewis’s physiological descriptions of the bears killed onApril 29 and May 5 included the curious and inexplicablyerroneous statement that the male grizzly’s testicles werein separate pouches several inches apart (“his testicles werependant from the belly and placed four inches assunderin separate bags or pouches”).13 Lewis was such a keenand careful observer that it is difficult to understand howhe made this mistake. Although against the odds, it is notinconceivable that both bears had deformed scrotums.

At the time of Lewis and Clark’s epic journey of dis-covery as many as 50,000 grizzlies may have wanderedwhat is now the western United States.14 Now a thousandor fewer are believed to exist in isolated pockets of Wyo-ming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.15 Much of ourknowledge of the grizzly and its world at the time offirst contact between Europeans and Native Americanscomes from the meticulous notes of Meriwether Lewisand his fellow explorers. They passed through a land of“visionary enchantment” prowled by the great variegatedbear that would one day become a symbol of so muchthat was lost.

Kenneth Walcheck, a Foundation member and a resident ofBozeman, Montana, is a retired wildlife biologist.

NOTES

1 Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Ex-pedition, 13 volumes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1983-2001), Vol. 4, pp. 292-293. All quotations or references tojournal entries in the ensuing text are from Moulton, by date,unless otherwise indicated.

2 Moulton, Vol. 8, p. 150. The entry is for August 7, 1806.

3 Ibid., Vol. 4, pp. 303-304 (June 17, 1805).

4 Grizzly observations were made on July 24, 25, and 26, andAugust 1.

5 Thomas McNamee, The Grizzly Bear (New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1984), pp. 24, 28; Paul Schullery, Lewis & Clark amongthe Grizzlies (Guilford, Conn.: Falcon Press, 2002), p. 141.

6 McNamee, p. 74.

7 Ibid., p. 35.

!


During the 34th annual meet-ing of the Lewis and ClarkTrail Heritage Foundation,

in Louisville, Kentucky, last July, LuddTrozpek, a rare-books dealer and long-time Foundation member, asked me toexplain to him the method of loadingMeriwether Lewis’s air rifle. As a col-lector of antique firearms and a pro-fessional consultant on the subject, Iwas happy to oblige.

As Ludd knew, the air rifle believedby many firearms historians to havebeen carried by Lewis on his expedi-tion to the Pacific was made by IsaiahLukens of Philadelphia. At some pointafter the expedition, Lukens reac-quired it. This rifle, which is on dis-play in the museum of the Virginia Military Institute, su-perficially resembles, and would have been loaded in amanner similar to, the flintlock rifles of the period, exceptthat compressed air rather than gunpowder was the pro-pellant. The Lukens air rifle has a hollow buttstock for anair reservoir. A hand pump, similar to one for inflating abicycle tire, was used to pump air into the reservoir. Some700 to 1,000 strokes might be necessary to bring it up tothe pressure required to kill a deer at 100 yards. Once the

butt-reservoir was filled, a ball was in-serted at the muzzle end of the barreland pushed home with a ramrod. Thegun could then be cocked and fired.Pulling the trigger released a shortburst of air that expelled the ball. Theshooter reloaded the gun in the samemanner described. He could fire thegun 20 or more times without recharg-ing the reservoir, but successive firingsreduced the air pressure, so that eachshot was weaker than the last.

Ludd listened to my explanation,then said that he had recently comeacross some information indicatingthat it wasn’t done that way at all. Iwas skeptical until he showed me apage he had photocopied from the

published journal of one Thomas Rodney, a political allyof Thomas Jefferson. While traveling down the Ohio inthe late summer of 1803, Rodney had a chance encounterwith Lewis in Wheeling. Lewis was aboard the Corps ofDiscovery’s keelboat, recently constructed near Pitts-burgh. He too was heading downriver, on the first leg ofhis water journey across the continent. Rodney wrote:

Visited Captain Lewess barge. He shewed us his airgun which fired 22 times at one charge. He shewed

MERIWETHER LEWIS’S

AIR GUN

His pneumatic wonder astonished the Indians — but was ita single-shot or, as new evidence suggests, a repeater?

by MICHAEL F. CARRICK

Whatever type it may have been, Philadelphiagunsmith Isaiah Lukens probably made the airgun that Meriwether Lewis took to the Pacific.

LIB

RA

RY

OF

CO

NG

RES

S


us the mode of charging her and then loaded with12 balls which he intended to fire one at a time; butshe by some means lost the whole charge of air atthe first fire. He charged her again and then she firedtwice. He then found the cause and in some mea-sure prevented the airs escaping, and then she firedseven times; but when in perfect order she fires 22times in a minute. All the balls are put at once into ashort side barrel and are then dropped into the cham-ber of the gun one at a time by moving a spring; andwhen the trigger is pulled just so much air escapesout of the air bag which forms the britch of the gunas serves for one ball. It is a curious piece ofworksmanship not easily described and therefore Iomit attempting it.1

Reading this passage left me stunned and momentarilyspeechless. For 25 years, most firearms historians havebelieved that Lewis carried a single-shot air rifle made byLukens and now on display at V.M.I. As it happened, atthat very moment I had in my hand a large laminatedposter, purchased a few minutes earlier at the display boothof the Army Corps of Engineers, of “The Lewis & ClarkExpedition Air Rifle.” The photograph on the poster wasthat of the single-shot Lukens on view at V.M.I. But thatsingle-shot rifle and the repeating air gun described byRodney are different in crucial respects.

I was familiar with the type of air gun described byRodney. He wrote about a gun with a dozen or more ballspre-loaded into atube-shaped ma-gazine fixed along-side the barrel.Once the butt-res-ervoir was filledwith air, it was onlynecessary for theshooter to push asmall metal bar—thebreechblock—aboutan inch to the right.This action removedanother ball from themagazine and posi-tioned it for firing.With this simple butingenious mechanismLewis truly could havefired all 22 balls men-tioned by Rodney inless than a minute.

In modern parlance,

this gun was a “repeater.” A repeating mechanism of thatdescription had been well known in Europe since its in-troduction by the Vienna-based gunsmith Bartolomeo Gi-randoni in 1780.2

My questions to Ludd were, Who was Rodney, and ishis account credible?

Rodney, I learned, fought in the Revolutionary War asa captain (later colonel) in the Delaware militia. He sawaction at the Battle of Princeton, and as ranking officer inhis regiment achieved the distinction of guarding Wash-ington himself during the Continental Army’s march towinter quarters at Morristown. In 1781, he served as adelegate to the Confederation Congress and was laterspeaker of the Delaware house of representatives and ajustice of the Delaware supreme court.3 In July 1803, Presi-dent Jefferson appointed him a judge in the MississippiTerritory. The 59-year-old Rodney was en route to as-sume that post when he met Lewis in Wheeling.4

In his journal, Rodney writes of meeting Lewis on Sep-tember 7 and witnessing the air-gun demonstration onSeptember 8. Over dinner that evening, they talked aboutthe air gun and the portable iron boat fabricated for Lewisat Harpers Ferry. For dessert they had watermelon, whichthey enjoyed again the next day when Rodney cameaboard the keelboat for “a parting drink” with the youngexplorer. “I … then bid him adieu and stayed on shore to

see him depart, and Iwaited till I saw him overthe first ripple.”5

THE LUKENS SINGLE-SHOT AIR RIFLE

Few details are known ofthe air gun carried byLewis, since he wrotenothing in the journalsabout its mechanism oroperation, and Rodney’swords are the first wehave of its specifics.

Any air gun needs areservoir to hold the com-pressed air that propelsthe ball. As mentioned,the shooter fills the reser-voir with a device similarto a bicycle pump. Thenumber of strokes canvary from 500 to 2,000,

The title page of Isaiah Lukens’s estate catalogue and page 5, listingMeriwether Lewis’s air gun (item 95), “A great curiosity.”

FRO

M T

HE

MO

NTH

LY B

UG

LE (P

A. A

NTI

QU

E G

UN

CO

LLEC

TOR

S A

SS

N.),

FEB

. 197

7


depending on the type of reservoir and the amount of pres-sure desired. Air guns of the period could be pumped upto 500 p.s.i. (pounds per square inch).6 By comparison,the air pressure in most auto tires is 30 to 40 p.s.i.

The air guns of Lewis’s day had three types of reser-voirs. In many guns, including the Lukens model at V.M.I.and almost certainly the gun described by Rodney, thereservoir was a metal chamber that formed the buttstock.In other models it was an external hollow sphere, aboutthe size of a grapefruit, that either hung from the bottomof the barrel or perched on the top. The reservoir couldalso take the form of a hollow outer shell that envelopedthe barrel.

In 1956, pioneer air-gun collector G. Charter Harrison,Jr., suggested that Lewis had probably carried a single-shot Lukens air rifle with a butt reservoir.7 A year later,Harrison changed his mind and proposed that the Lewisair gun probably had a hanging spherical chamber fas-tened in front of the trigger guard.8 So matters stood until1976, when air-gun collector Henry M. Stewart presenteda paper at a meeting of the American Society of Arms Col-lectors arguing that Harrison was right the first time—the weapon carried by Lewis was probably a Lukens-styleair rifle, with the reservoir in the buttstock. A key pieceof evidence was an 1847 catalogue he had found in thearchives of the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia. Thisdocument listed the items offered in the sale of the estate

of Isaiah Lukens, a prolific instrument maker, clocksmith,and all-around craftsman whose output included chro-nometers, nautical devices, and air canes (similar to airguns, these were walking canes with a firing mechanismconcealed in the shaft). It was the catalogue’s item num-ber 95 that got Stewart’s attention: “A large [air gun] madefor, and used by Messrs Lewis & Clark in their exploringexpeditions. A great curiosity.”

Stewart owned a number of air guns made by Lukens,and he was certain that one of them was probably theweapon carried on the expedition.9 He based this beliefon certain repairs that appeared to have been made to thegun’s main spring which were similar to those made byJohn Shields, the expedition’s gunsmith, as recorded byLewis on June 9, 1805.10 After his death, in 1988, Stewart’slarge collection of firearms, including the air rifle thoughtto have been Lewis’s, went to Stewart’s alma mater, V.M.I.11

GIRANDONI-STYLE REPEATING AIR GUN

In the late 18th century, Bartolomeo Girandoni designedand manufactured butt-reservoir, breech-loading, tube-fedrepeating air rifles in his Vienna shop for the Austrianarmy. He received a contract for 500 air guns in 1780 andan additional 700 in 1785. Eventually some 1,500 Giran-doni air rifles saw service in the Austrian army.12

An instruction manual printed in 1788 for Austriantroops fighting in the Russo-Turkish War gives the rifle’s

Girandoni-type repeating air gun

The Lukens single-shot air rifle on display at V.M.I.

Ball-reservoir-type air gun

TOP

PHO

TO F

RO

M W

EA

PO

NS :

AN

INTE

RN

ATI

ON

AL

EN

CY

CLO

PED

IA F

RO

M 5

000

B.C

. TO

200

0 A

.D. B

OTT

OM

AN

D M

IDD

LE P

HO

TOS

CO

UR

TES

Y T

HE

AU

THO

R


specifications (converted to our system of measurement):caliber (bore diameter), .51 inches; weight, loaded, 9pounds, 5 ounces.; overall length, 48 1/2 inches; length ofoctagonal barrel, 33 inches. The forestock was walnut, andthe butt-reservoir consisted of two forged sheet-ironhalves joined by 11 rivets and brazed all around for a her-metic seal, then covered with leather.13

The rifle’s magazine, a tube fixed to the barrel, held 20to 30 balls, depending on the particular model. A slidingbreechblock intersected the magazine at a right angle. Thebreechblock had a hollowed-out chamber that held a singleball. Once a ball was chambered, a leafspring attached tothe right side of the breechblock pushed it to the left, intothe barrel, and held it in place for firing. Cocking the ham-mer and pulling the trigger opened and closed a valve, re-leasing a burst of air from the reservoir with sufficientforce to propel the ball. To fire a second round, the shooterpushed the breechblock to the right with his thumb whiletilting the rifle up, causing another ball to roll into thechamber. With the release of thumb pressure, the leafspringpushed the breechblock and chambered ball back into fir-ing position.

Using a hand pump, a shooter filled the reservoir withair, loaded the magazine, and fired one ball at a time un-til the air in the reservoir was exhausted. The Girandoniair guns used by the Austrian army had sufficient pres-sure to fire 30 consecutive balls at least 125 yards at alethal velocity.

What we know about the operating parts and proce-dures of Girandoni air guns closely matches ThomasRodney’s account of Lewis’s gun: “All the balls are put inat once into a short side barrel and are then dropped intothe chamber of the gun one at a time by moving a spring;and when the trigger is pulled just so much air escapesout of the air bag … as serves for one ball.”14

THE CASE FOR A GIRANDONI-TYPE AIR GUN

Rodney’s account is credible. His description of his twodays with Lewis meshes with Lewis’s account of his meet-ing with Rodney, who recorded the events immediatelyafter they occurred. Moreover, Rodney knew guns: he wasa veteran of the Revolutionary War, a militia colonel, anda hunter. His Ohio River journal includes several refer-ences to hunting, and as recently as the day before hismeeting with Lewis he purchased shot and powder. So itis readily apparent that Rodney was familiar with thesingle-shot guns of the day.15 And the air gun he describesLewis demonstrating is remarkably similar to Girandoni’s.It is most definitely not a single-shot, muzzle-loading airgun of the Lukens type.

Many private gunmakers in Europe made copies andvariations of the so-called Girandoni system, and byLewis’s day knowledge of the mechanism had almost cer-tainly arrived in the United States. Air-gun historian Rob-ert Beeman points out that the typical receiver (the metalhousing containing the gun’s moving parts) on air gunsmade by Lukens and his protégé Jacob Kunz is similarin its materials (brass or bronze), shape, and style to thoseof the Girandoni-type Austrian butt-reservoir air riflesin his collection. “Such a styling,” writes Beeman, “hadalready made its way to England … by at least 1805, so itis reasonable that this style could have found its way toAmerica by the end of the 1700s.”16 Beeman specificallyrefers to the receivers of the guns in question, but it fol-lows that any part or all of the Girandoni system couldbe copied.17

Another clue to the possibility that Lewis carried aGirandoni-type air gun is the reaction of Indians who sawhim shoot it. Time and again, Lewis and Clark report howa demonstration of the air gun invariably “astonished”the natives. I have often wondered why the Indians would

Two close-up views of a Girandoni-type air gun. The perforated tube inthe left picture (seen partially in theright) is the magazine. The leafspringis in a closed position, flush with themagazine, and attached at one end tothe transverse sliding breechblock.

FRO

M T

HE

CO

LLEC

TIO

N O

F LA

RR

Y H

AN

NU

SC

H


be so astonished. It’s true that firing the single-shot Lukensair rifle required no gunpowder and produced no smoke,and the sound would not have been as loud as the familiarmusket’s. Otherwise, the Lukens was loaded, rammed, andcocked in a manner familiar to the Indians. But a rapid-fire, repeating, smokeless gun would indeed have aston-ished them—and almost anyone else at the time.18

Assuming that Lewis had a tube-fed, breech-loading,repeating air gun makes one more alert to nuances in thewording of the journals. For me, the strongest evidencein the journals of a repeating gun is in Lewis’s entry ofJanuary 24, 1806: “My Air-gun also astonishes them verymuch, they cannot comprehend it’s shooting so often andwithout powder; and think that it is great medicine.”19 Thekey words are “shooting so often.”

On August 30, 1804, Clark wrote, “the air gun aston-ished them verry much.”20 But the scene appears to haveimpressed Private Joseph Whitehouse even more. On thesame day, Whitehouse recorded, “They all stood amazedat this curiosity; Captain Lewis discharged the Air Gunseveral times, and the Indians ran hastily to see the holesthat the Balls had made which was discharged from it.[A]t finding the Balls had entered the Tree, they shouted aloud at the sight and the Execution that was done surprizedthem exceedingly.”21

Hitting a tree a couple of times is no big deal, butWhitehouse’s description makes more sense if you imag-ine Lewis rapidly firing six to eight shots just by pushingthe chamber bar to the right as fast as he could while si-multaneously cocking the hammer and pulling the trig-ger—all of which he could easily do with a Girandoni-style weapon. It must have been the speed of the shootingthat impressed the observers. Rodney wrote that Lewistold him he could fire 22 shots in a minute. Now thatwould truly “astonish” the Indians! By contrast, with the

single-shot Lukens he would have had to dismount thegun, place a ball in the muzzle, ram it down with the ram-rod, raise and cock the gun, and fire. It’s doubtful that askilled shooter could have gotten off more than 10 shotsin a minute this way, and even six shots would have beenvery fast.

Almost exactly one year before—on August 31, 1803—Lewis, having departed from Pittsburgh earlier in the day,demonstrated his air gun to a group of settlers about threemiles down the Ohio. When a man in the crowd namedBlaze Cenas tried handling the gun, it accidentally dis-charged. The ball struck a woman in the head and knockedher to the ground. As blood gushed from her temple Lewisfeared the shot was fatal, but the ball had merely grazedher scalp, and “in a minute she revived to our enespressablesatisfaction.”22

This accidental shooting becomes more understandablewhen one assumes that the weapon was a repeater. Lewisnotes that Cenas was “unacquainted with the managementof the gun.” Cenas, and for that matter any other manliving on the Ohio in 1803, would have been on familiarterms with the single-shot flintlocks of the day, and theoperation of a Lukens-type single-shot air gun would haveseemed vaguely similar in the sense that a ball had to berammed down the muzzle each time the gun was fired.

In the same paragraph, Lewis reports that he fired thegun seven times at 55 yards with pretty good success. Thatcould be interpreted as seven rapid shots.

The journals provide another intriguing clue about adetail of Lewis’s pneumatic wonder. All the expeditionjournalists refer to it as a “gun,” never as a “rifle.” Allrifles are guns but not all guns are rifles, as any Marinewill tell you, and it’s an important distinction. In this ar-ticle I use “air rifle” when writing of the Lukens firearmon display at V.M.I. That weapon has a rifled bore, and

Sectional top view of workingparts of a Girandoni-type air gun.The hammer pulls back to cockthe valve air-release mechanism.With his thumb, the shooter(pictured left) pushes thebreechblock across to pick up aball from the magazine. He thenreleases the breechblock, whichthe leafspring pushes back intoposition so the ball is aligned withthe barrel. Pulling the triggerreleases a blast of air from thebutt-reservoir. (Adapted fromWeapons: An InternationalEncyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to2000 A.D., St. Martin’s Press.)FR

OM

AR

MS

AN

D A

RM

OR

AN

NU

AL,

197

3 (D

IGES

T B

OO

KS

), P.

253

hammer

breechblock(slid right)

magazine

leafspring (open)

barr

el


lists 308 air rifles as missing, and another report, datedJanuary 20, 1801, states that 399 Girandoni air rifles hadbeen lost in battle.24

The gun listed in Lukens’s estate is different from allthe other air guns listed. In addition to saying it was thegun Lewis and Clark carried on the expedition, the cata-logue calls it a “great curiosity.” (The italics are in the origi-nal.) The other air guns and air canes in the catalogue musthave been curiosities in that era, too, and to single out thisweapon in such a manner suggests that it was somethingfar out of the ordinary.

In summary, Thomas Rodney’s contemporaneous de-scription of Meriwether Lewis’s air gun seems to me to bebeyond doubt. I believe that he accurately described themechanism that he had seen. Rodney’s journal is filled withdetailed observations written by a man with a keen inter-est in almost everything he encountered, be it a floatingmill, a fossil bed, or Lewis’s keelboat.25

We may wonder why Lewis never mentions that hisair gun was a repeater. Nor did Lewis say whether his airgun had a butt-reservoir or a sphere reservoir, or howmany times it needed to be pumped, or its caliber, orwhether its bore was rifled or smooth. But the journalsare often brief or silent on details concerning commonitems and routines. So it’s frustrating but not surprisingthat Lewis and the other expedition journalists neglectedto tell us about the technical details of their firearms. The

is, therefore, a rifle. Because I do not know if the repeat-ing gun that Rodney describes was rifled or smoothbore,I refer to it by the less specific term air gun. The Corpsof Discovery carried both rifles and smoothbores, andwe can be certain that every man on the expedition knewthe difference. There are 39 references in the journals to“air gun” and not a single one to “air rifle.” So whateverits particular type, Lewis’s weapon was probably asmoothbore.

If Lewis did have a Girandoni-type air gun, how didhe acquire it? I believe that the gun, in fact, came from theshop of Isaiah Lukens. The catalogue of the Lukens estatespecifically states that the air gun was “made for” Lewis.23

Lukens could well have had a Girandoni-system Euro-pean air gun in stock, but I think it more likely that hemade one on the Girandoni principle. Lukens, like Gi-randoni, was a clockmaker, and the scope of Lukens’swork strongly suggests that he had the skills, knowledge,and tools for making such a gun, whose fabrication wouldnot be nearly so difficult as making the scientific instru-ments listed in the estate sale. Lukens may have read aboutthe mechanism and seen diagrams of the Girandoni riflein scientific or military journals of the day, or some trav-eler may have shown him an example. Although Giran-doni made air rifles under contract with the Austrian army,many stolen or captured weapons probably wound up inprivate hands. The Austrian army fought the French from1792 to 1797. A government report of September 21, 1799,

!

we Showed them many Curiosities and the air gun whichthey were much asstonished at.—Clark, August 19, 1804 (among the Otos)

Capt. Lewis Shot his air gun told them that their wasmedician in her & that She would doe Great execution,they were all amazed at the curiosity, & as Soon as he hadShot a fiew times they all ran hastily to See the Ball holesin the tree they Shouted aloud at the Site of the executionShe would doe &c.—Private Joseph Whitehouse, August 30, 1804 (amongthe Teton Sioux)

after the Council was over we Shot the Air gun whichappeared to assonish the nativs much.Clark, October 29, 1804 (among the Hidatsas)

Capt. Lewis Shot the airgun, which they thought a greatmeddicine & Shewed them a nomber of Strange things.—Sergeant John Ordway, August 17, 1805 (among theShoshones)

Several Canoes of men omen and Children came to thecamp. and at one time there was about 37 of thosepeople in Camp Capt Lewis fired his Air gun whichastonished them in Such a manner that they wereorderly and kept at a proper distance dureing the timethey Continued with him.—Clark, April 3, 1806 (on the lower Columbia)

after the Council was over … we amused ourselves withShewing them the power of Magnetism, the Spye glass,compass, watch, air gun and Sundery other articlesequally novel and incomprehensible to them.—Clark, May 11, 1806 (among the Nez Perces)

I now got back to the perogue as well as I could andprepared my self with a pistol my rifle and air-gun beingdetermined as a retreat was impracticable to sell my life asdeerly as possible.—Lewis, August 11, 1806 (after his accidental shootingby Pierre Cruzatte; Lewis thought at first that they wereunder attack)

“Capt Lewis fired his Air gun”… excerpts from the L&C journals

ALL

FR

OM

GA

RY

E. M

OU

LTO

N, E

D.,

THE

J OU

RN

ALS

OF

THE

LEW

IS &

CLA

RK

EX

PED

ITIO

N, 1

3 V

OL.

(198

3-20

01)


most information we have about the air gun comes from asingle interested observer—Thomas Rodney.

While entry number 95 of the 1847 Lukens catalogueis of immense interest and points to the probability thatLukens provided Lewis with an air gun, it is not hard evi-dence that the particular air gun on display at V.M.I. is, infact, the one taken on the journey. In the face of Rodney’seyewitness description, the question of where Lewis’s airgun is today, or whether it still exists, remains open.26

Foundation member Michael Carrick is vice-president of theOregon Chapter. He is a staff editor of Gun Report maga-zine and writes a monthly historical column on firearms.

NOTES

1 Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, eds., A Journey through theWest—Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to theMississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), p.50. Rodney met up again with Lewis at Louisville the eveningof October 17, when “Captain Lewis and his companion Cap-tain Clark … called at our boat to see us and took a glass ofwine with us and bid us adieu.” Ibid., p. 124.2 Girandoni (also spelled Girardoni and Girardony) was notthe first to make repeating air guns, but he was the first to makethem by the hundreds. Repeating air guns were known in En-gland by the 1730s. In addition to fulfilling his military con-tracts, Girandoni also made guns for the civilian market.3 He was also the younger brother of Caesar Rodney, a hero ofthe Revolutionary War as well as a member of the ContinentalCongress and signer of the Declaration of Independence.4 Smith and Swick, pp. 5 -8.5 Ibid., pp. 50-53. Rodney also mentions the dimensions of thekeelboat, its draft, and its cost—$400. For his part, Lewis recordsmeeting Rodney on September 7. On the 8th, he “dined with Colo.Rodney and his suit, in the evening they walked down to my boatand partook of some watermellons.” See Gary E. Moulton, ed.,The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, 13 vols. (Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001), Vol. 2, pp. 73-75.6 Christian Konwiarz, “Test Firing a 150 Year Old Air Rifle,”The Gun Report, August 1983, p. 19.7 G. Charter Harrison, Jr., “The Lewis and Clark Air Gun,”The Gun Report, May 1956, p. 6.8 G. Charter Harrison, Jr., “Re-Inquiry Into the Lewis and ClarkAir Gun,” The Gun Report, November 1957, p. 14. Harrisonhad found an American-made, ball-reservoir air gun with re-pairs to it which he thought were consistent with those madeby the expedition’s gunsmith, John Shields. The ball-reservoirair gun he found is pictured on p. 17.9 Henry Stewart, “The American Air Gun School of 1800-1830,”Bulletin No. 35 of The American Society of Arms Collectors,Valley Forge, Penn., 1976, p. 33.10 Moulton, Vol. 4, p. 271. Lewis: “it was necessary to reparesome of our arms, and particularly my Airgun the main springof which was broken.”11 For more on Stewart’s air gun and other existing contenders

for the one that Lewis may have taken on the expedition, seeRobert Beeman and Ulrich Eicstädt, “Whence the Wind Blows,”www.beemans.net/visier-lewis&clarkairgun.htm.12 Fred Baer, “Napoleon Was Not Afraid of It,” from RobertHeld, ed., Arms and Armor Annual (Northfield, Ill.: DigestBooks, 1973), p. 253.13 Ibid., p. 250.14 Smith and Swick, p. 50.15 Ibid., pp. 39, 50, 81, 89, 99, 109, 118, and 120. Rodney wroteof hunting, cleaning his gun, making balls, etc., in many entries.16 Robert D. Beeman, “Proceeding on to the Lewis & Clarkairgun,” Airgun Review # 6, Ellicott City, Md., 2000, p. 1317 Eldon G. Wolff, Air Guns (Milwaukee Public Museum, 1958),pp. 97-98. Using an alternate spelling of Girandoni’s name, Wolffstates, “The Girardoni breech is found not only on air guns bear-ing that name, but also on a number of others, the followinghave been examined: Fruwirth, Oesterleins, Staudenmayer,Contriner, and Lowentz.” It may be significant that Rodney re-fers to the butt reservoir of Lewis’s gun as “the air bag whichforms the britch.” I believe that “britch” refers to the gun’s breech(the lower end of the barrel in which the ball is positioned forfiring) and that “bag” refers to the butt reservoir. Note in theillustration of the Girandoni gun that the butt-reservoir is cone-shaped with a convex end. The word “bag” may describe thisshape. Later in the 19th century, there were powder flasks casedwith London Colt revolvers that had a similar shape, and theyare called “bag flasks.” Bulbous grips on small flintlock pistols ofthe period are referred to as “bag-shape grips.” It isn’t clearwhether Rodney is describing the shape of the air reservoir or isusing “bag” as a synonym for the “container” of air.18 Several previous studies of Lewis’s air gun state that the gunis mentioned 16 to 19 times in the journals. (See, for example,Roy M. Chatters, “The Not-So-Enigmatic Lewis and ClarkAirgun,” We Proceeded On, May 1977, editor’s note p. 6; andAshley Halsey, Jr., “The Air Gun of the Lewis & Clark Expedi-tion,” American Rifleman, August 1984, p. 37.) Earlier research-ers, however, did not have the benefit of the most recent (Moul-ton) edition of Lewis and Clark journals, whose 13 volumesinclude virtually all known copies, rough copies, field notes,and even scraps of paper associated with the original writings.Moulton lists 39 references to the air gun. Some are obviouslyone writer copying from the other, or one writer later refininghis notes. But little bits of evidence can sometimes be gleanedfrom these slight variations.19 Moulton, Vol. 6, p. 233.20 Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 24.21 Ibid., Vol. 11, p. 66.22 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 65.23 This claim apparently was written 44 years after the fact—something to bear in mind. How or why Lukens reacquired theweapon is unknown—perhaps Lewis returned it for maintenanceand never reclaimed it.24 Baer, p. 256. It is not clear whether 308 plus 399 guns werelost, or whether the 308 are included in the figure 399.25 Smith and Swick, pp. 76, 80, and 50.26 The author thanks Ludd Trozpek and Jay Rasmussen fortheir invaluable assistance with this article.


The L&C journals are silent on whether theexplorers hewed to military regulationsabout grooming, leaving artists to maketheir own judgments. In this detail fromJohn Clymer’s Up the Jefferson, Clarkwears his red hair long and tied in a queue.Both he and York (rear) are clean shaven,while Charbonneau (in front of Sacagawea)and the other man are bearded.

CO

UR

TES

Y D

OR

IS C

LYM

ER A

ND

TH

E C

LYM

ER M

US

EUM

OF

AR

T, E

LLEN

SB

UR

G, W

AS

H.


When the Corps of Discovery worked its wayacross the continent two centuries ago, wereits members bearded or clean shaven, and did

they wear their hair long or short? Paintings of the expe-dition portray the explorers in various degrees of hirsute-ness. Such details, however, are left largely to the artist’simagination, for like so many matters of daily routine, thejournals are silent on the explorers’ grooming habits.

Despite the lack of documentary evidence, I believethat almost all of the time—even inthe deepest part of the American wil-derness—Lewis and Clark and themen they led shaved on a regularbasis and kept their hair closelycropped, in accordance with U.S.Army regulations and civilian stylesof the period.

Most of the men recruited for theCorps of Discovery were volunteersfrom other army units, and nearly allof the other men who joined fromKentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Mis-souri enlisted for the duration of theexpedition. All members, even civil-ian interpreters, were subject to mili-tary law and discipline. In addition,they were men of their era, influencedby civilian fashions, which by 1804favored short hair and clean-shavenfaces, perhaps adorned with the close-cropped sideburns that were then coming into vogue.

In or out of the army, beards were not fashionable dur-ing this period. Think of paintings of the Founding Fa-thers, or any other portrait or statue of a man of the 1750-

1800 period, and you will be hard-pressed to find a singledepiction of an individual sporting a beard, a moustache,or any facial hair whatsoever. Shortly after 1800, long side-burns (a term not invented until the mid-19th century)began to become fashionable. Their length increasedgradually, until by the War of 1812 many extended to thechin and almost formed a full beard. Hair was worn fullbut not long in the back as it had been in the 1700s. Theideal hairstyle, which was emulated by the fashionable

young men of the day, was thatsported by the ancient Romans oncountless pieces of statuary, withshort cascading bangs in the front.Napoleon Bonaparte—probably themost famous person of the era—sported this haircut, called “à laTitus,” after the Roman EmperorTitus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus,who ruled from 79 to 81 A.D.

However much influenced bypopular fashion, the grooming of ex-pedition members was dictated moreby military regulation. Clues aboundin the journals as to the military na-ture of the expedition and the way inwhich normal military procedurescontinued, even in the middle of thewilderness. The journals mention sol-diers standing formal guard duty inthe many camps along the route and

in the three forts constructed for winter quarters. Fre-quent, formal inspections were conducted of the men andtheir clothing, arms, and accoutrements. Courts martialwere convened to discipline men who violated the Ar-

NEATNESS MATTERED

Hair, beards, and the Corps of Discovery

by ROBERT J. MOORE, JR.

This Saint-Mémin portrait of Lewis with a queuewas almost certainly made before the expedition,when he was serving as Jefferson’s secretary.

MIS

SO

UR

I HIS

TOR

ICA

L S

OC

IETY


ticles of War, and harsh punishments were meted out tothe guilty. Lewis and Clark used their espontoons—spear-like signs of military rank—in the middle of what is nowMontana, and Lewis wore his officer’s cocked hat at thecrest of the Rocky Mountains. At imposing ceremoniesheld at various points on their trek across the continent,officers and soldiers dressed in formal uniforms to aweand impress native peoples.

Uniformity of appearance was extremely important to18th- and early 19th-century warfare,and this extended to hair length andwhether or not men could wearbeards. The well-trained soldier waspart of a unit that looked smart,marched properly, and fired volleysso much in unison that the shotssounded as though they came from asingle weapon. Uniformity had thepotential to scare the enemy; in ef-fect it was a form of psychologicalwarfare. The armies of the 18th andearly 19th century conformed torigid ideals of individual appearance.Some units had height requirements.Many German and Prussian unitsstandardized their appearance by re-quiring men to braid their hair intolong queues, or pigtails, that fell tothe waist, powder their hair white,and grow thick moustaches, whichthey waxed to keep the points up. (In lieu of braiding,some wore hair pieces, and men deficient in facial hairsolved the problem with false moustaches and glue.)1

In the United States Army, from the time of its incep-tion, most men had long hair tied back in a queue that fellto the shoulders, and no facial hair was allowed. This fol-lowed the British pattern of the era. During the Revolu-tionary War, soldiers in the Continental Army were re-quired to shave three times a week. Regimental barbersshaved the men in the evening hours and were paid a smallamount by each man for the service. This custom contin-ued into the era of Lewis and Clark.2

WILKINSON’S ORDER

Traditions were well established in the U.S. Army andstrongly entrenched by the time of the Lewis and ClarkExpedition. For this reason, many officers were upset byan order in 1801 from James Wilkinson, the army’s com-manding general, that required them to cut their hair short.

The order, probably influenced by the latest republicanfashions of Napoleonic France, was issued on April 30,1801, and read in part: “For the accommodation, comfortand health of the troops the hair is to be croped withoutexception, and the General will give the Example.”3 Manyofficers and men were at first resistant to the order, whichwas repeated several times over the next few months.Wilkinson also forbade the long sideburns of the era. Anorder of July 29, 1801, stated: “Whiskers and Short Hair

illy accord. They will not thereforebe permitted to extend lower than thebottom of the ear. The less hair abouta Soldier’s head, the neater and cleanerwill he be.”4 Wilkinson would brookno resistance to his fiat and repeatedit in general orders issued October 11,1801:

The order may actually have beenprompted by President Jefferson, but it was Wilkinsonwho zealously enforced it. Many officers resisted the or-der. Some associated cropped hair with criminals, whileothers simply clung to the older style and traditions withinthe service. Some officers did not cut their hair untilWilkinson made a personal inspection of their canton-ments. Captain Russell Bissell, the commanding officerof one of the companies from which men were drawn forthe Lewis and Clark Expedition, wrote to his brotherDaniel on July 9, 1802, that he was ready to resign fromthe army over the issue, but since no one at his post wasempowered to accept his resignation, “I was obliged tosubmit to the act that I despised, and if ever you see meyou will find that I have been closely cropped.”6

One old veteran of the Revolution, Colonel RichardButler of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, appealed personally toWilkinson to be exempted from the order. Wilkinson madea special exception in the case of Butler in his generalorder of July 29, 1801, allowing this one officer to con-

James Wilkinson, the U.S. Army’s top general,insisted that both soldiers and officers wear theirhair short. Many officers resisted the order.

FILS

ON

HIS

TOR

ICA

L S

OC

IETY

(BY

JO

HN

WES

LEY

JA

RV

IS)

The Order for Cropping the Hairwas intended to introduce unifor-mity as well as neatness and clean-liness. The General observes thatthe first principle has beenmissunderstood, or Disregarded.He therefore deems it necessaryto direct the Hair to be CloseCropped—and with as much uni-formity as possible, and he ordersthe Inspecting Officers to reportall such persons as do not con-form to this essential regulation.5


tinue to wear his hair long.7 But trouble loomed, forWilkinson loved uniformity and insisted that everyone,from a private to the highest-ranking officer, be subjectto criticism for improper dress or deportment. He wrotein general orders on December 19, 1801, that “where suchloose doctrines [are] suffered to prevail, discipline wouldlanguish and indolence, ignorance obstinacy and anar-chy would soon triumph.”8

BUTLER’S DEFIANCE

Wilkinson believed that the first duty of an officer was tolead by example.9 Perhaps for this reason, in June 1803 herevoked his exception to Colonel Butler’s queue. He alsoplaced the old officer under arrest and ordered him toFredericktown, Maryland, for court martial. Andrew Jack-son, then an officer in the Tennessee militia, wrote to Presi-dent Jefferson protesting Wilkinson’s hounding of But-ler. Many officers believed this contretemps was merelyan excuse to force the old man out of the service. Butlerreceived a reprimand, but in 1805 he was court martialedonce more, this time in New Orleans. The court foundButler guilty of acting mutinously by refusing the orderof the commanding general to crop his hair and appearingpublicly in command of his troops with his hair queued.He was suspended from command for a year without pay.But the sentence was never carried out, for on September7, 1805, just days after the conclusion of the court mar-tial, Butler caught yellow fever and died. Before expiring,he asked friends to bore a hole in the bottom of his coffinso that his queue might hang down in final defiance ofWilkinson’s order.10

For the young and ambitious in the army, resistance ofthis type would never do, and by the time Lewis and Clarkassembled their men at Wood River, Illinois, in the fall of1803, soldiers and officers (other than Richard Butler) hadshort hair. In 1801 and 1802, Colonel John Hamtramck,commanding officer of the 1st U.S. Infantry, ordered that“The hair of both Non Commissioned Officers & men… be cut short, once every month.” Portraits of the era’sofficers by Charles B.J. Févret de Saint-Mémin, CharlesWillson Peale, and other artists visually reinforce the factthat hair was worn short by the time of the expedition.10

Colonel Hamtramck and others also repeated the ne-cessity of strict uniformity. Camp and garrison life wasregulated by Baron Freidrich Wilhelm von Steuben’sRegulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops ofthe United States, first promulgated in 1778, republishedin 1794, and known as the Blue Book. Specific instruc-tions for captains included the injunction that a company

commander “must be very particular in the daily andweekly inspections of his men, causing all deficiencies tobe immediately supplied; and when he discovers any ir-regularity in the dress or conduct of any soldier, he mustnot only punish him, but the non-commissioned officerto whose squad he belongs.”12

One can easily assume that such rules and regulationswere relaxed at frontier outposts and garrisons, but evi-dence in general orders of the period tends to refute this.Fort Wayne, Indiana, which in 1808 was still a frontieroutpost, was subject to this reminder from its command-ing officer on October 23 of that year:

An Officer on duty should never go out of his quar-ters, without being dressed in full uniform, not for-getting his side arms. It may be thought by somethat this is unnecessary at a post so remotely situ-ated as this; but it is evident that a contrary practicewill lead the young and inexperienced officers intoan erroneous, and neglegient mode of doing duty;which will not only be a disgrace to them, but totheir superior officers under whose immediatecharge they have been placed.13

ARMY REGS AND THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY

Uniformity, no matter where, when, or under what cir-cumstances, was integral to the operation of all militaryforces and the training of all young officers, includingMeriwether Lewis and William Clark. So what can be saidregarding how the men of the Corps of Discovery mayhave worn their hair and cut their whiskers during theexpedition?

Lewis believed fervently in the rules and regulations ofthe U.S. Army. It is almost certain that Lewis would haveenforced all of these rules on the upstream voyage of 1804,from Camp River Dubois to Fort Mandan. During thisleg of the trip, courts martial were frequent, and no act ofdisobedience or negligence of duty went unnoticed orunpunished. Lewis was forging a team that could success-fully complete its daunting mission. He needed to test eachman’s ability to follow orders without question and con-form to military rules and protocol. The strict regimenwinnowed out trouble makers like John Newman andMoses Reed, and by the time the expedition left FortMandan for terra incognita, Lewis had a team he couldtrust.

Given this emphasis on military discipline, it seems cer-tain that as long as there were razors and soap and suffi-cient time to apply them, the Corps of Discovery main-tained a clean-shaven appearance. There is no indication


that they ever ran out of razors or soap. Time proved thecrucial factor.

Did the men continue to crop their hair and shave theirbeards as they proceeded beyond Fort Mandan? Again, Ibelieve that they did, where possible. The men may havelooked a little scruffy (and Lewis may have relaxed disci-pline a bit) as they traveled through some of the moredemanding portions of their route, but each time theycompleted one of these sections they arrived at a campwhere they stayed long enough torest, repair clothing, make moccasins,and stock up on food. So, althoughthe men may have gone longer thanthree days between shaves, or even amonth between haircuts, they hadample time to bring their appearanceback into conformity with militaryregulations at the Marias River Camp,the Upper and Lower Portage Campsat Great Falls, the Shoshone villagenear Tendoy, Idaho, and in the NezPerce villages after crossing the Bit-terroot Mountains.

There are virtually no referencesin the journals to beards or hair orwhether they were allowed to growor were cut. Admittedly, this makesmost of this essay conjectural, for itis based on known military proto-col, the character of MeriwetherLewis as historians understand it, and the circumstantialevidence—or nonevidence—contained in the journals. Itseems likely that if the hair or beards of the men werebeing worn in an uncharacteristic fashion, this fact wouldhave been mentioned, particularly by military men likeLewis, Ordway, Gass, and Whitehouse.

The only journal references to the hair length of expe-dition members concern Lewis, Clark, and York, and allwere made within a few days of one another, in late sum-mer of 1805.

The first reference is to the events of August 16, afterLewis, leading a small advance party, made contact withthe Shoshones and convinced their chief, Cameahwait, andsome of his warriors to accompany him in his attempt torendezvous with Clark and the main party. The Shoshoneswere suspicious, fearing the whites might lead them intoan ambush by their enemies the Atsina, and exchangedsome items of clothing with Lewis and his men in an at-tempt to disguise them as Indians. Cameahwait gave Lewis

a tippet of ermine tails, and Lewis reciprocated by placinghis cocked hat on the chief’s head. The other men followedLewis’s example, so that all of them were “completelymetamorphised” into Indians. Noting how he must havelooked, Lewis remarks that “my over shirt being of theIndian form my hair dishivled and skin well browned withthe sun I wanted no further addition to make me a com-plete Indian in appearance.”14

To be “dishivled” enough to be seen at a distance,Lewis’s hair must have been shaggy—if not downright long—by militarystandards. The fact that he makes apoint of mentioning that his hair isdisheveled suggests this was not itsusual state. Note, too, that the ex-change of clothing was all it took tomake the whites “Indian in appear-ance.” The whites must have beenclean shaven and the Indians musthave had short hair for the two groupsto blend so well. Most Indian menplucked their whiskers, and Lewisstates that the Shoshones’ hair was cutshort as a sign of mourning.15

Later in the same entry, Lewisrelates that “some of the party hadalso told the Indians that we had aman with us who was black and hadshort curling hair.”16 This descriptionof York indicates that his hair was

being kept short, even during this extended march overdifficult terrain.

On the following day (August 17), Clark’s party wasreunited with Lewis’s. Clark’s journal entry describing hismeeting with Cameahwait suggests that his hair was alsolonger than warranted by military regulations: “the MainChief imedeately tied to my hair Six Small pieces of Shellsresembling perl, which is highly Valued by those peopleand are prcured from the nations resideing near the SeaCoast.”17 Unless Clark’s hair was at least a few inches long,it would have been difficult if not impossible to tie piecesof shells into it.

Several weeks later, after the explorers had crossed LostTrail Pass and were camped with Salish Indians on theupper Bitterroot River, Private Joseph Whitehouse de-scribed a conversation with their hosts conducted throughsign language: “they tell us that we can go in 6 days towhere white traders come and that they had Seen beardedmen who came [to] a river to the North of us 6 days

When painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1808,Clark still wore his hair fairly short, but he wasbeginning to revert to the longer style he favored.

NA

TIO

NA

L PA

RK

SER

VIC

E


march.”18 This passage, with its reference to “beardedmen,” indicates that conspicuous facial hair—whether fullbeards or scruffy “five o’clock shadows”—was an identi-fying feature of white men generally. Although it doesn’taddress the question of beards on Lewis and Clark’s men,the oral history of the Nez Perces—the next tribe theyencountered, after the brutal eight-day crossing of the Bit-terroot Mountains—suggests they were unshaven whenthe expedition arrived at the Nez Perces’ encampment atWeippe Prairie. That history refers tothem not as men but as “creatures”with light skin and hair on their faces.19

At this point the explorers were nearstarvation and physically at their low-est ebb, and given the circumstances itis probable that most of them hadn’tshaved for a week or longer. As theyslowly regained their health among thehospitable Nez Perces, it is likely thatthey resumed shaving and perhapstrimmed their hair before their descentof the Clearwater, Snake, and Colum-bia rivers.

During their miserable, wind-and-rain lashed month in the Columbiaestuary, the explorers may also havelet their appearance go once more.But in December 1805, after complet-ing the construction of Fort Clatsop,Lewis issued an order that re-estab-lished military discipline. The order, which spelled out theduties of the guards, relations with the local Indians, se-curity within the fort, and disposition of the expedition’stools, has an air of military authority and crispness miss-ing since the Fort Mandan winter.20 This order put theCorps of Discovery back on a firm military footing, andalthough unstated, virtually assured the shaving of beardsand the cropping of hair to regulation length. It is certainthat the captains themselves would have conformed to theorder to set an example for their men. Only Charbonneauand Drouillard, as civilian interpreters, and York, who ofcourse was not in the army and whose hair, as we haveseen, was kept short anyway, would have been exempted.

Journal entries during the return trek make no men-tion of hair length. While homewhard bound the expedi-tion suffered none of the severe hardships of the sort ex-perienced in 1805, and it seems unlikely that the captainswould have relaxed military dictates about hair and beards,particularly within Clark’s detachment on the Yellow-

stone. The descent of the Missouri River from the Mandanvillages to St. Louis during the late summer of 1806 wasswift and took up longer portions of the day as the menstrained at their paddles to return to civilization. Duringthese weeks they once again may have acquired a scruffylook, but it seems certain that once they were back in thesettled regions of Missouri their commanders would haveinsisted on proper grooming.

Pictorial references to the hair length of the captainsare available for the period immedi-ately following the expedition. Theseare the Peale portraits of Lewis andClark, executed in 1807 and 1808, re-spectively. In these companion por-traits, the most famous made of thetwo men, both explorers are shownwith short hair. Two Saint-Mémin por-traits of Lewis that were probably ex-ecuted before the expedition show himwith a queue [see p. 23], as do portraitsof Clark painted after the expeditionby Gilbert Stuart, Chester Harding,and George Catlin—Catlin’s made aslate as 1832.21 The Stuart portrait, com-pleted in 1810, just two years after thePeale portrait, shows Clark with a tra-ditional 18th-century hairstyle—long,full, and with a queue—whereas the1808 Peale portrait shows him with ashorter style, similar to what he must

have worn on the expedition. The portraits make it clearthat Clark preferred his hair cut long, and that he eventuallyreverted to this style after his return to civilian life.

Evidence in the journals is paltry regarding hair lengthand beards, but what we know about military protocol,Meriwether Lewis’s enforcement of regulations, and thepride of the U.S. Army, which at the time emphasizedpersonal appearance and uniformity at least as strictly asit does today, supports the view that short hair and clean-shaven faces were the norm for the greater part of the trek.

Robert J. Moore is the historian at the Jefferson National Ex-pansion Memorial, in St. Louis.

NOTES

1 The following original documents in the collections of theNational Archives and Records Administration (NARA) includegeneral orders for the U.S. Army at the time of Lewis and Clark

!

The 1807 Peale portrait of Lewis shows him sansqueue and now fashionably coiffed “à la Titus,”with his hair short and brushed forward.

NA

TIO

NA

L PA

RK

SER

VIC

E


which emphasize uniformity of appearance and discipline:Record Group 94, Company and Orderly Book, First Regi-ment of Artillerists and Engineers, Fort Johnston, North Caro-lina, 1795-1813; Record Group 98, No. 10, Records of theGarrison at Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, 1803-1815;and No. 128, Company Book, Capts. John Symmes and Eli B.Clemson, 1807-1815. See also Amos Stoddard’s CompanyBook, Louisiana Territory Collection, Military CommandRecords, Adjutant’s Records, 1803-1805, Missouri HistoricalSociety Archives; Hawkins’ Orderly Book, No. 1, Hazen’sRegiment, Hand’s Brigade, Historical Society of Pennsylva-nia. Other period primary sources include Jay Luvaas, ed.,Frederick the Great on the Art of War (New York: The FreePress, Collier-Macmillan, Ltd., 1966), pp. 78-79, 144-145 and153; Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Von Steuben, Baron vonSteuben’s Revolutionary War Drill Manual, A Facsimile Re-print of the 1794 Edition (New York: Dover Publications,1985), pp. 124-138 and 146; William Duane, A Military Dic-tionary, or Explanation of the Several Systems of Descriptionsof Different Kinds of Troops, Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry, thePrinciples of Fortification, and All Modern Improvements inthe Science of Tactics (Philadelphia, published by the author,1810); and Bert Joseph Griswold, Indiana Historical Collec-tions, Vol. XV, Fort Wayne, Gateway of the West, 1802-1813,Garrison Orderly Book, Indian Agency Account Book (India-napolis: Historical Bureau of the Indiana Library and Histori-cal Department, 1927). Secondary sources which address thistopic include Jack D.L. Holmes, “Military Uniforms in Span-ish Louisiana, 1766-1804,” Military Collector and Historian,Vol. XVII, No. 4, Winter 1965; John Keegan, The Face of Battle(New York: Viking Press, 1976), pp. 52-54 and 165-192; HaroldL. Peterson, The Book of the Continental Soldier (Harrisburg,Penn.: Stackpole Books, 1968), pp. 19-21.

2 See the General Orders of November 9, 1777, which enjointhe adjutants and brigade majors to let no man appear on theparade ground “whose appearance is not as decent as his cir-cumstances will permit; having his beard shaved, hair combed,face washed and cloaths put on in the best manner in hispower.” This order is reprinted in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed.,The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manu-script Sources, 1745-1799 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 1931-1944), Vol. 15, p. 31. See also Hawkins’sOrderly Book, No. 1, Hazen’s Regiment, Hand’s Brigade,March 1, 1780, original in the Historical Society of Pennsylva-nia, which specifies that the men are to appear “with faces andhands washed, their Beards close shaved, their hair combedand tied if long enough.”

3 Record Group 98, NARA)\, No. 2, Vol. 162, Orderly Bookof the Adjutant at Fort Adams, 3rd Inf. 1801-1802; and OrderlyBook, Capt. Richard Sparks, 2nd Inf. 1802-1803.

4 Ibid. See also Standing Orders, 1803, Record Group 98,NARA, No. 10, Records of the Garrison at Fort Independence,Boston Harbor, 1803-1815, p. 68.

5 Ibid.

6 James Ripley Jacobs, The Beginning of the U.S. Army, 1783-1812 (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press), p. 262.

7 Standing Orders, 1803, Record Group 98, NARA, No. 10,Records of the Garrison at Fort Independence, Boston Harbor,1803-1815 p. 64.

8 Record Group 98, NARA, No. 2, Vol. 162, Orderly Book ofthe Adjutant at Fort Adams, 3rd Inf. 1801-1802; and OrderlyBook, Capt. Richard Sparks, 2nd Inf. 1802-1803.

9 Ibid.

10 Donald R. Hickey, “The United States Army Versus LongHair: The Trials of Colonel Thomas Butler, 1801-1805,” ThePennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, October 1977,pp. 473-474. A transcript of the charges, specifications and ver-dict of the court martial may be found in Amos Stoddard’s Com-pany Book, pp. 218-220, Missouri Historical Society Archives.For background on the political aspects of the Butler affair, seeHickey; also Arlen J. Large, “Captain Lewis Gets a Haircut,”We Proceeded On, August 1997, pp. 14-17.

11 Orderly Book, NARA, Record Group 98, Eli Clemson’sCompany, 1st Infantry Regiment, 1807, which includes theStanding Orders of the 1st U.S. Infantry of 1801. See espe-cially the portraits of Lewis and Clark by Charles WillsonPeale, completed after the expedition and reproduced in nearlyevery publication about the expedition (the originals are ondisplay at Independence National Historical Park in Philadel-phia); Zebulon Pike, ca. 1807, also by Peale and displayed inthe same building in Philadelphia; portraits by Charles B.J.Févret de Saint-Mémin, reproduced in Ellen G. Miles, Saint-Memin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America (Wash-ington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian In-stitution Press, 1994), specifically portraits 9:11 of Capt.Mulford and number 13 of Capt. Addison Bowles Armisteadof the U.S. Artillery, number 785 of John Stanard, number 649of Ens. Thomas Perkinson of the U.S. Infantry, and number828 of Lt. Col. Anne-Louis de Tousard of the Corps ofArtillerists and Engineers. See also the portrait of Capt. DanielBissell painted ca. 1802 and owned by the St. Louis CountyDepartment of Parks and Recreation.

12 Von Steuben, pp. 135-136.

13 Bert Joseph Griswold, ed., Indiana Historical Collections,Vol. XV, Fort Wayne, Gateway of the West, 1802-1813, Garri-son Orderly Book, Indian Agency Account Book (Indianapolis:Historical Bureau of the Indiana Library and Historical De-partment, 1927), p. 277.

14 Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & ClarkExpedition (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 13 volumes,1983-2001), Vol. 5, p. 104.

15 Ibid., pp. 121-122. Lewis states that Cameahwait’s hair was“cut close all over his head.”

16 Ibid., p. 106.

17 Ibid., p. 114.

18 Moulton., Vol. 11, p. 299.

19 This reference is based on personal conversations with OtisHalfmoon of the Nez Perce tribe.

20 Moulton, Vol. 6, pp. 156-158 (Lewis, January 1, 1806).

21 Large points out that the Saint-Mémin portraits are not datedbut argues pursuasively that they were executed in 1802 and1803. This would have been after Wilkinson’s ban on long hair,but Captain Lewis would have been exempt from the order whileserving on detached duty as Jefferson’s secretary.


On August 12, 1805,Meriwether Lewisand three other

members of the Corps of Dis-covery were approaching theContinental Divide at LemhiPass in present-day south-western Montana. They werefollowing an Indian trail thatparalleled what Lewis calleda “little rivulet,” known to-day as Trail Creek. Soon therivulet became so small thata man could easily straddle it.Private Hugh McNeal didjust that and, undoubtedly thinking of the weeks uponweeks of hard poling, rowing, and cordelling behind him,“thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty& heretofore deemed endless Missouri.” Two miles far-ther on they came to the tiny spring that was the rivulet’ssource—and as far as Lewis could determine, “the mostdistant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri insurch of which we have spent so many toilsome daysand wristless nights.”1

Lewis’s mission includedfinding answers to geogra-phical questions posed by hispatron, Thomas Jefferson.Did the Missouri offer a prac-tical route to the Pacific? Ifso, could this route be com-pleted by a short portage be-tween the headwaters of theMissouri and those of theColumbia? And was the Mis-souri’s source a spring, aswamp, a pond, or possiblythe “inland sea” that cartog-raphers had placed, with ac-

robatic abandon, astride the spine of the continent?Lewis and his companions appeared to have the an-

swer to the last question immediately at hand. It must havebeen deeply satisfying to drink from this silvery tricklethat gave birth to the rolling, roiling giant against whosecurrents they had labored since leaving civilization 15months before. But Lewis was wrong in his assumptionthat this lovely little spring was the source of the Mis-souri, which he had missed by one hundred miles.

THE UTMOST REACHES OF

THE MISSOURITwo latter-day explorers describe their quest for the river’s

“distant fountain,” 100 miles southeast of Lemhi Pass

(Lewis missed it, which was just as well)

by DONALD F. NELL and ANTHONY DEMETRIADES

Detail from Jacob Brower’s 1896 map, the first to accurately depictthe Missouri’s source, near Red Rock Pass in southwest Montana.


The question of the true source of the Missouri lies atthe junction of history, geography, and human curiosity.Even if the matter were purely academic, it would stilloccupy a prominent place in our thoughts—people liketo tie things together in neat packages and clear up seem-ingly unimportant geographical questions, whether theyconcern the source of rivers, the depth of oceans, or theheights of mountain peaks. The question of the Missouri’ssource, however, is a bit more than academic, for historymight have been very different had Lewis and Clark actu-ally found it. For one thing, they might have missed theirrendezvous with the Shoshone Indians, whose horses werecrucial to crossing the Bitterroot Mountains.

On the surface it is a question one can easily finesse,just as Lewis did on July 28, 1805, at the Three Forks ofthe Missouri. In his journal that day he wrote, “Both Capt.C. and myself corrisponded in opinon with rispect to theimpropriety of calling either of these [three] streams theMissouri and accordingly agreed to name them after thePresident of the United States and the Secretaries of theTreasury and state.”2 In other words, the Missouri by de-fault starts where its three confluents—the Jefferson, theGallatin, and the Madison—end, at today’s HeadwatersState Park, near the town of Three Forks, Montana.3

Any modern map purchased at a bookstore or servicestation confirms that the Missouri indeed “begins” at theThree Forks, just as Lewis stated and as cartographers eversince have decreed.4 But the “source” of a river as morestrictly defined by geographers involves the notion of ariver system, or watershed (the area drained by the mainstream and its many tributaries). In this context, the lengthof a river is the farthest distance a molecule of water musttravel to reach the river’s mouth, and the source of theriver is where that molecule begins its journey.

A glance at a map of Montana easily reveals—withoutthe aid of any statistical tables—that the Jefferson is thelongest of the Missouri’s three forks, as well as the onefarthest west. A map also shows that, in the cartographer’ssense, the Jefferson itself starts where the Big Hole andBeaverhead rivers come together, at present-day TwinBridges, Montana. After ascending the Jefferson, the Corpsof Discovery followed the Beaverhead south to its start-ing point on the map, the junction of Horse Prairie Creekand Red Rock River. In August 1805, Lewis and his com-panions, who were well ahead of the main party, turnedup Horse Prairie Creek, which flows in from the west,and followed it to Trail Creek and Lemhi Pass. Had theycontinued up Red Rock River—the Beaverhead’s princi-pal fork—and followed that tributary to its uppermostpoint, they would have passed through the CentennialValley and eventually arrived at a spring issuing from ahigh mountain slope.

Located 21 miles west-southwest of West Yellowstone,Montana, that spring is the true cradle of the Missouri, afact that was not firmly established until nearly a cen-tury after Lewis and Clark passed through Montana. Itwas Jacob V. Brower, an amateur explorer and archae-ologist from Minnesota, who set the record straight in1896 with the publication of his book The Missouri andIts Utmost Source.5

The senior author of this article (Nell) learned ofBrower’s book some years ago when Bill Sherman, aformer president of the Lewis and Clark Trail HeritageFoundation who lives in Portland, Oregon, sent him acopy of the second (1897) edition, which he had purchasedat a gun show for five dollars.

Brower’s narrative relates his efforts, during the sum-mer of 1895, to pinpoint the Missouri’s source in the Cen-

Left: The threeforks of theMissouri River.Right: Brower’sSpring and thesurroundingregion along theMontana-Idahoborder.M

APS

BY

TO

NY

DEM

ETR

IAD

ES


tennial Valley. With his host, local rancher William N.Culver, he ascended Red Rock River through Hell Roar-ing Canyon and up into a subalpine valley. Beyond a smalllake, he wrote, “we suddenly came in full view of a holein the summit of the Rocky Mountains” from which is-sued a “little rivulet, two feet wide and scarcely two inchesin depth, drawing its utmost supply from the inner wallsof the mighty and towering uplifts surrounding it.”6 As arecord of their visit, Brower left a copper plate inscribedwith the date of discovery, August 29, 1895.

Having spent many of his boyhood summers close tothe Centennial Valley, Bill Sherman was excited byBrower’s book and the details it provided. So were otherswith whom he shared this information. It appeared thatthe spring discovered by Brower—“this unique, most dis-tant, and peculiar source of theMissouri”7—could be reached onfoot. Perhaps, too, the copper plateplaced there by Brower could stillbe found.

John Montague, another formerFoundation president who lives inPortland, after learning aboutBrower’s explorations visited theCentennial Valley in 1988 or 1989(neither he nor I can recall the ex-act year), and with his fellow DeltaAir Lines pilot G.L. Perry hikedup to the spring. To their surprisethey found a mound of rocks, andunder this cairn a glass jar placedthere by two other adventurersseveral years before. (The jar helda piece of paper declaring their in-tention to canoe the entire lengthof the greater Missouri-Mississippisystem, from near this spot all theway to New Orleans, a feat theyapparently accomplished.) To commemorate their ownvisit, John placed his Foundation business card in the jar.He put the jar back in place and rebuilt the cairn over it.

John related these events to the senior author, who natu-rally bristled with impatience to make the trip himself. Ittook him a year or so to do it, but he eventually organizedhis own little Corps of Rediscovery and, with 15 otherbrave souls from the Foundation’s recently formed Head-waters Chapter (based in Bozeman, Montana), made hisprilgrimage in the following summer.

The area we set out to explore lies within the jurisdic-

tion of two Ranger districts of the U.S. Forest Service.The rangers we spoke to were unfamiliar with Brower’sbook or its significance and expressed concern about ourclimbing in rugged terrain noted for sudden weatherchanges. The Centennial Mountains, which border thevalley on its south side, are unique in Montana: they runeast-west rather than north-south, an alignment that en-courages the incubation of severe storms producing rain,lightning, hail, and snow any month of the year.

DAY OF DISCOVERY

We left our base in Lima, Montana, at the western end ofthe Centennial Valley, on the morning of July 10, 1990.Our caravan drove east on U.S. 15, then picked up RedRock Pass Road, which we took up the valley to its junc-

tion with the Continental DivideTrail. We parked nearby to beginwhat turned out to be a hike ofabout three miles into Hell Roar-ing Canyon. At a point where thetrail veers west we left it and fol-lowed Hell Roaring Creek to itssource. With the aid of a map fromBrower’s book and several moderntopographic maps we found thespring without much difficulty—a trickle oozing out of a bed ofmoss—and the rock cairn thatJohn Montague had told us about.Under the rocks we found the jar.We added a slip of paper inscribedwith our names, then carefully re-buried the jar.

Unfortunately, we were unableto locate Brower’s copper plate, inpart because our search for it wascut short by a medical emer-gency—a broken ankle suffered by

John E. “Jack” Taylor, a well-known Lewis and Clarkguide from Helena. The rest of the day was a series ofadventures. A young couple took off on a 20-mile trip tofetch help from the closest Ranger station. In short ordera helicopter arrived but was driven off by a thunderstorm.We wound up helping Jack down to the trail head andloading him into a camper. While two of us drove him tothe Bozeman hospital via Red Rock Pass and the GallatinValley, the rest of us returned to our motel in Lima.

Despite the medical mishap and a thorough drench-ing by the thunderstorm, we felt exhilarated by our ex-

The authors’ group at Brower’s Spring in July 1990, re-building the rock pile covering the jar with their names.

CO

UR

TES

Y D

ON

NEL

L


perience on the mountain. It had been a supreme mo-ment. Like McNeal 190 years before, we too hadstraddled a creek on the Continental Divide. And weknew that our creek, unlike McNeal’s, was the true sourceof the Missouri.

THE MISSOURI SYSTEM

Two centuries after Lewis and Clark named them, the threebeautiful rivers that converge to form the Missouri still windtheir glistening ways through some of America’s most sce-nic landscapes. From east to west, they are the Gallatin,one of the nation’s few remaining undammed rivers; theMadison, a world-renowned trout fishery; and the Jeffer-son, where, several years after the Corps of Discovery’sreturn, Blackfeet Indians killed two of its former members,John Potts and George Drouillard, and set a third, JohnColter, running naked for his life.

The Gallatin rises in Yel-lowstone Park’s GallatinLake, some 12 miles south-west of Mammoth HotSprings. Gallatin Lake’s alti-tude is about 9,000 feet, andits geographic coordinates are110o 53” W by 44o 51” N. Af-ter issuing from the lake, theriver carves its way norththrough Gallatin Canyonand past the ski resort of BigSky and Bozeman to ThreeForks. Its total length is 115.4miles.8

The Madison River alsooriginates in the Park. Itssource, which lies at 8,500feet, is Madison Lake, about seven miles south of OldFaithful geyser. Madison Lake’s coordinates are 110o 52”W by 44o 21” N. The stream discharging from the lake iscalled the Firehole River for its many hot springs. TheFirehole flows north about 20 miles. It passes Old Faith-ful, Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, and joins the Gib-bon River coming in from the east; the Madison properbegins at their junction. From Madison Lake to ThreeForks the river is 177.3 miles long.

The Jefferson, as noted, issues from what we have cho-sen to call Brower’s Spring (to our knowledge, cartogra-phers have not officially named it). Brower’s Spring lies atroughly 8,500 feet, and its coordinates are 111o 29” W by44o 33” N. The Jefferson begins as Hell Roaring Creek,

named for the noise of its riffles and falls as it passesthrough a gap that Brower named Culver’s Cañon for hisco-explorer. After entering a subalpine valley, Hell Roar-ing Creek joins Red Rock Creek, which flows west intoUpper and Lower Red Rock Lakes. The larger streamthat emerges from the lower lake is called Red RockRiver. It bears north through the Lima Reservoir andpast the town of Lima, then joins Horse Prairie Creek atClark Canyon Reservoir (whose waters cover the site ofthe Corps of Discovery’s Camp Fortunate). Below ClarkCanyon Reservoir the river becomes first the Beaverhead,then, at its junction with the Big Hole just north of TwinBridges, the Jefferson. The river’s total distance fromBrower’s Spring to the junction with the Madison, atThree Forks, is 298.3 miles.9

The main stem of the Missouri runs 2,341 miles fromThree Forks to its junction with the Mississippi, north of

St. Louis.10 From there, amolecule of water that beganit journey to the ocean atBrower’s Spring would haveto travel another 1,003 milesto reach New Orleans and anadditional 103 miles after thatto reach the Gulf of Mexico.The total river distance fromBrower’s Spring to the oceanis 3,745 miles, making theMissouri system (includingthe main stem of the Missis-sippi) the world’s third long-est, after the Nile and theAmazon.11

Meriwether Lewis neversaw Brower’s Spring or knew

of its existence. For the captain, the “distant fountain” atthe head of Trail Creek was the source of the Missouri forpractical purposes if not in fact. From there on that morn-ing of August 12, 1805, it must have taken him only a fewminutes to go from the spring to “the top of the dividingridge from which I discovered immense ranges of highmountains still to the West.” However imposing or in-timidating those mountains must have seemed, he hadreached the Continental Divide. The going would still beperilous, but by early November they would at last becamped at the mouth of the Columbia River. The springat Trail Creek is not really the source of the Missouri, butit was an important milestone nonetheless, and for theCorps of Discovery it would do. ■

Tony Demetriades in August 2002, posting a historical marker on hisproperty. Hell Roaring Creek heads in the mountains behind him .

DO

NN

A D

EMET

RIA

DES


Don Nell lives in Bozeman, Montana. He is a past presidentof the Foundation and remains active in regional Lewis andClark activities. Anthony Demetriades, an emeritus profes-sor of engineering at Montana State University and a pastdirector of the Gallatin Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Asso-ciation, lives in the Centennial Valley, just a few miles fromBrower’s Spring.

NOTES

1 Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Ex-pedition, 13 volumes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1983-2001), Vol. 5, p. 74. See also Donald F. Nell and John E.Taylor, Lewis and Clark in The Three Rivers Valleys (Tucson:Patrice Press, 1996), p. 76.2 Moulton, p. 7; Nell and Taylor, p. 35.3 Albert Gallatin was secretary of treasury and James Madisonsecretary of state. The Gallatin is the easternmost of the threerivers to enter the Missouri proper, followed by the Madisonand the Jefferson.4 See, for example, Montana Atlas and Gazetteer, 2nd Edition(Yarmouth, Me.: Delorme, 1997), p. 40. The Gallatin, whosemouth has shifted east over the years, now enters the Missouriapproximately one mile downstream of the junction of the Madi-son with the Jefferson.5 Jacob V. Brower, The Missouri River and Its Utmost Source:Curtailed Narration of Geologic, Primitive and Geographic Dis-tinctions Descriptive of the Evolution and Discovery of the Riverand Its Headwaters (St. Paul: Pioneer Press, 1896). This editionincludes the map shown on page 29; the more detailed mapshown above was pubished in an 1897 edition. Brower (1844-1905) led a multifaceted life. A soldier and sailor during the CivilWar, he later served as a Minnesota legislator and was the presi-dent of a railroad and owner of several newspapers. See the Website http://tigger.stcloudstate.edu/~brower/brower.html.6 Brower, pp. 112-113. Brower’s use of the term “little rivulet”echoes Lewis’s journal entry of August 12, 1805. This is prob-ably a coincidence, but maybe not. Elliott Coues’s edition ofthe Lewis and Clark journals had been published in 1893, and

Brower refers to it on p. 71. The Coues edition is based on the1814 paraphrase of the journals by Nicholas Biddle. In his de-scription of Lewis’s ascent of Trail Creek, Coues does not usethe term “little rivulet,” but in a footnote he quotes Lewis’sentry verbatim, and it’s reasonable to assume that Brower hadread this passage. In the same footnote Coues makes it clearthat the spring at the head of Trail Creek could not be the sourceof the Missouri, which instead must be “many miles eastward… at the highest fountain which feeds Red Rock lake.” SeeElliott Coues, ed., The History of the Lewis and Clark Expe-dition, 3 volumes (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1893), Vol. 2,p. 484.7 Ibid., p. 113.8 Here and in the following two paragraphs, the stream mile-ages are taken from River Mile Index of the Missouri River (Hel-ena: Water Resources Division, Montana Department of Natu-ral Resources and Conservation, January 1979), pp. 105-142.For their assistance the authors thank James Kalitowski of theNRSC’s Bozeman office and Gerry Daumiller of the MontanaNatural Resource Information System.

9 Ibid. According to the DNRC report, the main stem of theJefferson contributes 83.5 miles to its total length, the Beaverhead80.4 miles, and the Red Rock-Hell Roaring Creek system 134.4miles.

10 This is the Missouri’s “official” length, but readers should beaware that recorded lengths of the Missouri and, for that mat-ter, all rivers may vary according to the methodologies of geog-raphers and the shifting of river beds. See Missouri River Envi-ronmental Assessment Program (Lewistown, Mont.: MissouriRiver Basin Association Report, 1996).

11 David Crystal, ed., The Cambridge Factfinder, 4th edition(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 42. TheMississippi begins at Lake Itasca, in northern Minnesota—asource confirmed by Jacob V. Brower in 1893, two years be-fore he discovered the source of the Missouri. See Jacob V.Brower, The Mississippi River and Its Source (Minneapolis:Harrison & Smith, 1893). The Mississippi above its junctionwith the Missouri is about 1,070 miles long, less than half thelength of the Missouri above its junction with the Mississippi.

Detail from an 1897 map by Jacob Brower. He named a number of geographical features, but many of the names he bestowed have been changed.


Reviews

Lewis and Clark among theGrizzlies: Legend and Legacyin the American WestPaul SchulleryFalcon / Globe Pequot Press247 pages / $14.95 paper

A ramble through bear country with Lewis and Clark

R

This book would make a good gift forsomeone keen about wildlife, hunt-

ing, or the outdoors but put off by thickvolumes of western history and explo-ration. Lewis and Clark among theGrizzlies narrates all the encoun-ters the explorers had withbears—62 sightings of grizzlies(by a conservative count) alongwith observations of black bearsand evidence from skins, scat,and scuttlebutt along the trailfrom St. Louis to the Pacific andback.

This detailed informationcould make slow reading, butauthor Paul Schullery quickensthe pace with lore and questionsabout biology, history, mythol-ogy, geography, and archeology.He repeats some good huntingstories and tall tales, and includesmany apt illustrations. Havingwritten and edited many bookson the outdoors, he draws freelyon his own experiences and thoseof friends in the field. He’s notafraid to say “I” and to challengemany received assumptions byciting recent research.

The result is a conversational,even chatty ramble rather than ascholarly treatise. At his best,Schullery takes the reader alongon armchair forays, chasing ac-curate information about particular in-cidents and their implications. Hequotes all the available journals and sobrings out new dimensions of the mostfamous bear stories. By tracing the dis-tortions of hunters, naturalists, and edi-tors, he reveals how errors and legendshave grown over the years and cloudedthe sharp observations of the Corps of

Discovery. At the heart of this book,of course, he follows the great hunt theexpedition made in tracking grizzlies,confronting them, killing and measur-ing them, and watching new detailsabout them emerge day after day.

Critical readers will note some omis-sions. Lewis and Clark among theGrizzlies does not, in fact, say every-thing that could be said on its topic.

It is odd, for example, that Schullerytraces overblown notions of grizzly fe-rocity directly back to Lewis’s experi-

ences at the Great Falls, amplified bysensational hunting tales of the later19th century. He makes no mention ofanother early sensation, Charles Will-son Peale’s exhibits at his famous mu-seum in Philadelphia. In 1803, Pealepurchased a “grisly coloured” bear, re-putedly from the upper Missouri, andnoted the ferocity of this species and

its unnerving trait of pursuing men.Months later, this bear broke out of itscage. Peale shot it and sent a hind quar-ter to Thomas Jefferson, then mountedthe skin and put it on display. In 1807,Jefferson returned the favor when hereceived two grizzly cubs from Zeb-ulon Pike and forwarded them to Peale.As these bears grew they proved toohard to handle. One broke loose, ram-paged through Peale’s house, and wasshot, and the other was killed as a pre-caution. Both these animals were

mounted and displayed alongwith the many specimens Pealereceived from Lewis and Clark.The idea of grizzly ferocity wasthus well advertised in the Eastbefore 1810.

Schullery also stresses the leg-endary or mysterious nature ofgrizzlies—the largest, most dan-gerous predators roaming theAmerican West. He refers attimes to mythic literature, suchas Beowulf and the Arthurianlegends. But he ignores an Amer-ican classic: William Faulkner’snovella The Bear, a brillianthunting story about a huge blackbear that embodies Americanwilderness.

These criticisms, however,may reveal a strength in Schul-lery’s book. In the main he keepshis eyes trained on western griz-zlies, the journal records, and up-to-date science. Readers willhave various opinions about thematters he discusses, and will beforced to think again with betterinformation. In this light, hisbook makes a neat introduction

to Lewis and Clark as members of theFoundation know them. It traces asingle, exciting thread of the expeditionexperience. Yet it points to the manykinds of learning the captains touchedand improved, and the many kinds ofquestioning we still practice in follow-ing their footsteps.

—Albert Furtwangler


Or Perish in the Attempt:Wilderness Medicine in theLewis & Clark ExpeditionDavid J. PeckFarcountry Press352 pages/$24.95 hardcover

The captains as medical men: doing the best with what they knew

Dr. Eldon G. Chuinard’s landmarkstudy, Only One Man Died: The

Medical Aspects of the Lewis and ClarkExpedition (1979) is now compli-mented by Or Perish in the Attempt:Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis &Clark Expedition, by Dr. David J. Peck.

An authority on wilderness medi-cine, Peck presents the medical prob-lems faced by the Corps of Discoveryand its two primary dispensers of medi-cal care, Meriwether Lewis and Will-iam Clark. He describes the illnessesand injuries as the two captains sawthem, then offers his own observationsconcerning the validity of their diag-noses and treatments.

Blood letting and the use of cath-artics for patients with dysentery arejust two of many examples of the cap-tains’ methods that make Peck andother modern practitioners tremble.The author reminds us, however, thatthey did the best they could given thecircumstances and the state of medicalknowledge at the time. He also suggeststhat curing an ailment or at least reliev-ing its symptoms can owe as much tothe “laying on of hands” as it can toscientifically valid diagnosis and treat-ment. This placebo effect probablyhelped “cure” Bratton’s chronically badback and may also account for some ofthe effectiveness of the captains’ treat-ment of Indians they met along the trail.As Peck reminds us, their ministra-tions—especially those of Clark—byenhancing tribal diplomacy helped en-sure the corps’s survival.

Any student of Lewis and Clarkmedicine attempting modern diagnosesof illnesses encountered by the captainsmust resort to informed guesswork.Peck acknowledges this and for the

most part handles the problem well.Consider, for example, the nature ofSergeant Charles Floyd’s fatal illness.Most authorities have attributed hisdeath to peritonitis resulting from aruptured appendix. Unfortunately, thejournals provide so little evidence inthis case that many causes are possible.Peck describes the symptoms and mod-ern-day treatment of a burst appendixand speculates on how the captains mayhave treated Floyd’s condition—bleed-ing and purging, if administered, mayhave hastened his demise. He then citesseveral alternative possibilities for whatkilled the young sergeant: peritonitisresulting from a stomach ulcer (“lessprobable, but certainly not beyond thescope of possibility”) and a gastrointes-tinal form of tularemia, “an extremelynasty” bacterial infection.

In a chapter devoted to the explor-ers’ post-expedition lives, Peck ana-lyzes the various arguments over pos-sible medical causes of Lewis’s pre-sumed suicide. He is skeptical that ei-ther malaria or syphilis may have beenprimary contributors, believing insteadthat he suffered from clinical depres-sion exacerbated by probable addictionto alcohol and opium. Peck acknowl-edges that Lewis may have been mur-dered but believes the evidence pointsto suicide, whatever the cause.

The author concludes with two ap-pendices, one tracing the developmentof medicine from the Greeks and theother focusing on the medicines of theexpedition, a helpful reference. Hecredits the visionary Thomas Jeffersonfor initiating the expedition but doesn’tmention that Jefferson also changedmedical education in this country byencouraging scientific observation overtheoretical speculation.

The occasional minor error creepsinto the narrative: Jefferson was vice-president under John Adams, not sec-retary of state, a position he held un-der Washington; and Floyd was buriedabove the Missouri River, not aboveFloyd’s River, which enters the Mis-

souri about a mile upriver from hisgrave. Such nitpicking aside, Or Perishin the Attempt makes for informativereading. After finishing it, one mightagree with an observation by Jefferson:“The patient treated in a fashionabletheory sometimes gets well in spite ofthe medicine.”

—White McKenzie Wallenborn, M.D.

E.S. Paxson’s painting of Sacagawea, from TheTrail of Lewis and Clark, by Olin D. Wheeler.

• The Trail of Lewis and Clark, by OlinD. Wheeler. Originally published in1904 as part of the Lewis and Clarkcentennial celebration and long out ofprint, Wheeler’s history and travelog ofthe expedition retraces the explorers’steps from Camp River Dubois to FortClatsop and back. Wheeler stopped atall the principal landmarks, and it isinteresting to juxtapose his early 20th-century descriptions of Floyd’s Bluff,

In Brief: Olin Wheeler;Larry McMurtry; Gass

Reviews


the Great Falls, Pompeys Pillar, andother places with our knowledge ofthese sites today.

Wheeler was an accomplished jour-nalist who knew the West intimatelyfrom writing and editing special publi-cations for the Northern Pacific Rail-road, and early in his career he workedwith John Wesley Powell in his surveysof the Colorado River. His narrativeincludes thumbnail biographies ofLewis, Clark, and several other mem-bers the Corps of Discovery, and hefairly gushes over the role of Sacagawea,the “one heroine in this band of immor-tals.” Wheeler also offers some inter-esting insights into the death of Lewis.Like most of his contemporaries, heleaned toward murder rather than sui-cide but recognized that the evidenceon both sides was “circumstantial, con-tradictory, and indeterminate.”

This new edition, by Digital Scan-ning, Inc., is the first reissue of OlinWheeler’s work since 1976. The print-on-demand digital technology used toproduce it has some drawbacks—theroughly 200 illustrations are not assharp as the original halftones, and be-cause the text has been electronicallyscanned rather than photographed, thetypography suffers a bit and is marredby the very occasional typo (e.g., PaulAllen, the editor of the 1814 Biddle edi-tion of the L&C journals, is rendered“Paul Allek”). Like many other reissuesof out-of-print Lewis and Clark books,this one lacks a modern introductionthat would tell us something about theauthor and place the work in historicalcontext. Biographical sketches of OlinDunbar Wheeler (1852-1925) can befound on the Web and in a short articleby Robert E. Lange in the Fall 1975 WPO.

Such quibbles aside, the availabilityof this important work at a reasonableprice is a boon to L&C enthusiasts. (2-volume set, $49.95 paper, $89.95 hard-cover; Digital Scanning, Inc.)

• Sacagawea’s Nickname: Essays on theAmerican West, by Larry McMurtry.This collection of 12 pieces originallypublished in The New York Review of

Books reflects on the literature of theAmerican West. The title essay and an-other, titled “America’s Epic,” deal atlength with the Lewis and Clark jour-nals as edited by Gary Moulton.McMurtry, a prolific novelist bestknown for Lonesome Dove, his saga ofthe open-range cowboy, regards thejournals as the first and best of all west-ern narratives, looming over later ac-counts “as the Rockies loom over therivers that run through them.” Al-though his take on the West is mostlyironic, McMurtry remains sympatheticto traditionally romantic and heroicviews. As he notes, frontier scholarshiphas been engaged in “a long, hot de-bate between revisionists andtriumphalists [and] the revisionists aresolidly in command.” The Lewis andClark story is a reminder that the he-roic still has its place in the story ofwestward expansion. In the journals,Lewis and Clark and the expedition’sother diarists, observes McMurtry, “ac-complished the one essential that writ-ers must do: they brought the readeralong with them, up that meanderingriver and over those snowy peaks.”($19.95, hardback; New York ReviewBooks.)

• Sergeant Patrick Gass, Chief Carpen-ter: On the Trail with Lewis & Clark,by William Kloefkorn. This is not a bi-ography of PatrickGass—at least not inany conventionalsense— but rather acollection of un-titled free-verse po-ems that collec-tively form a narra-tive of the expeditionas told in the voice of Gass. As the au-thor states in his preface, “Though nota poet, Sergeant Gass nonetheless hada lot of poetry in him; he observedclosely both flora and fauna, and hiskeen eye and wry sense of humor indi-cate that he had some of the essentialsfor the making of a bard.”

Kloefkorn’s “imaginative extrapola-tions” of what he knows of Gass

through his journal and those of thecaptains and other members of theCorps of Discovery take us inside themind of “a carpenter whose respect fortimber and for the life-sustaining shel-ter that timber can provide was akin topassion.” As Gass the poet-narratorputs it, “Give me time, a river, and acluster of tools / and I will build us ahouse made of driftwood.” ($12, paper;Spoon River Poetry Press.)

• Best Little Stories from the Wild West,by C. Brian Kelly. This fast-paced, epi-sodic history of the American Westcomprises a series of brief narratives,starting with eight vignettes relating inone way or another to the Lewis andClark Expedition. There are pieces onthe two captains, Blackbird (the Omahachief buried astride his horse on a hilloverlooking the Missouri), the con-spiratorial General James Wilkinson(the U.S. Army’s top commander andLewis’s predecessor as governor ofLouisiana), York, and yet another re-view of the facts and theories sur-rounding Lewis’s death. A little fur-ther along are pieces on the post-ex-pedition lives of John Colter, BaptisteCharbonneau (a.k.a. Pompey), andSacagawea, who appears in an ex-tended essay on “Fascinating Womenof the West,” by Ingrid Smyer—allpart of a grand flow of mountain men,lawmen, outlaws, Indians, and otherfrontier archetypes.

The author, who quotes liberallyfrom secondary sources ranging fromthe works of popular historians suchas Stephen Ambrose to recent articlesin WPO to various Web sites, makes nopretense at writing serious scholarlyhistory, and his breezy style may putoff some. But it’s all done engaginglyand in a way that connects the Corpsof Discovery with the larger stream ofwestward expansion. ($16.95, paper;Cumberland House.)

These titles can be ordered through localand Web-based bookstores and in mostcases from the publisher’s Web site (checkgoogle.com or other search engines). ■

Reviews (cont.)


Digital Scanning, Inc.,8-volume

Thwaites edition ofthe L&C Journals

1/2 page horizontal

PICKUP from p. 39,August 2002 WPO

Digital Scanning, Inc. -Olin Wheeler, 2 volume

“The Trail of Lewis & Clark”1/2 page horizontal

7 1/4” x 4 5/8”Rebecca will send.


NEW PRESIDENTLarry Epstein, of Cut Bank, Montana,was elected the Foundation’s presidentat the annual board meeting held in Julyin Louisville, Kentucky. Epstein’s in-terest in Lewis and Clark goes back 40years, to his days as a Boy Scout in CutBank, when he and other members ofhis troop located what he believes tobe the “Fight Site” where on July 27,1806, Lewis and three others tangledwith a band of Indians (either Blackfeetor Gros Ventres of the Prairie).

A Navy veteran and an alumnus ofthe University of Montana (B.A. andLL.B.) Epstein is a partner in the CutBank law firm founded by WilburWerner, one of the Foundation’s earlypresidents. In the 1980s, Werner en-listed Epstein and his wife, Callie, asunofficial tour guides of the Fight Site.He also “volunteered” Epstein forFoundation committee assignmentsand eventually a position on the boardof directors.

“It’s so exciting and interesting to beserving during the first year of theLewis and Clark Bicentennial,” saysEpstein. “What an opportunity! Mygoal will be to stress education aboutthe expedition at all levels, from pre-school to college. The Foundation is the‘keeper of the story,’ and we will becalled upon to provide the underlying,accurate educational component to thiscommemoration.”

OTHER OFFICERSBesides Epstein, Foundation officersfor 2002-03 include president-electRon Laycock, of Benson, Minnesota;

vice-president Gordon Julich, of BlueSprings, Missouri; secretary JaneSchmoyer-Weber, of Great Falls,Montana; and treasurer Steven G. Lee,of Clarkston, Washington. Appointedto three-year terms as directors wereCharles Cook, of Billings, Montana;James Gramentine, of Meguon, Wis-consin; and Roger Wendlick, of Port-land, Oregon.

2002 KUDOSSave a landmark from the gravelcrusher, shed new light on the life ofWilliam Clark, and return a piece ofprairie to legend—the LCTHF recog-nized all these efforts, and more, in thisyear’s Foundation awards, presented atthe annual meeting in Louisville.

Winners of the 2002 MeritoriousAchievement Awards are CherylHutchinson, of Cascade, Montana;James J. Holmberg, of Louisville; andthe Lewis and Clark–Spirit MoundTrust. In other kudos, Youth Achieve-ment Awards went to the Lewis &Clark Fife & Drum Corps of St.Charles, Missouri, and to students andteachers at Wydown Middle School, inClayton, Missouri. Certificates of Ap-preciation were awarded to Holmberg;James Mallory, of Lexington, Ken-tucky; and Jane Henley, of Char-lottesville, Virginia.

Cheryl Hutchinson convinced thestate of Montana to keep Tower Rockin public ownership. Tower Rock over-looks the Missouri River near the Gatesof the Mountains, about 30 miles southof Great Falls. It was here that Meri-wether Lewis noted “a most pleasingview” of immense herds of buffalo.Hutchinson drives past Tower Rockdaily and two years ago saw a “ForSale” sign at its base, near where somequarrying had already occurred. Shealerted the LCTHF and also called theMontana Department of Transporta-tion, which owns the site, and pointedout its significance. Her efforts led tothe decision to keep Tower Rock inpublic ownership. As president of the

Foundation’s recently formed Reach-ing the Rockies Chapter, Hutchinsonis now working for the erection of aninterpretive sign to be placed at a high-way interchange near Tower Rock.

James Holmberg, curator of specialcollections at the Filson Historical So-ciety, led the Foundation effort to re-print an updated version of Robert B.Betts’s In Search of York: The SlaveWho Went to the Pacific with Lewis andClark. He also edited the acclaimedDear Brother: Letters from WilliamClark to Jonathan Clark, jointly pub-lished this year by Yale University Pressand the Filson Historical Society.

The Lewis and Clark–Spirit MoundTrust was established to restore SpiritMound, a Lewis and Clark site on theMissouri five miles north of Vermillion,South Dakota. The Corps of Discov-ery stopped there on August 24, 1804.Clark recorded that the Indians re-garded the mound as “a place ofDeavels” that in human form stood 18inches high, with “remarkable largeheads,” and whose arrows could kill “ata great distance.” After the region wassettled, Spirit Mound became a farmand eventually a feedlot. Members ofthe trust, including Larry Monfore andAmond Hanson, raised public and pri-vate funds to purchase the 320-acre siteand reseed it with prairie grasses. KentScribner and Jim Peterson acceptedthe award on behalf of the trust.

The Lewis & Clark Fife & DrumCorps of St. Charles, Missouri, is theonly organization of its type dedicatedto Lewis and Clark and the time pe-riod of the expedition. It was formedin 1992, and more than 100 studentsages 9-18 have performed with thegroup throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Students and teachers at WydownMiddle School, in Clayton, Missouri,have developed an interdisciplinarycurriculum based on the expedition. Anexample of the work they have doneinvolves calculating the shape, size, andproportions of the lead canisters hold-ing the explorers’ gunpowder. Other

L&C Roundup L

New Foundation leadership; annual awards; Bush honors explorers

JIM

MER

RIT

T

Larry and Callie Epstein


students produced a Web cast of the St.Charles–based Discovery Expedition,the well-known group of reenactorswho cruise the Missouri in replicas ofthe Corps of Discovery’s keelboat andtwo pirogues. The Web cast sends livesimages and sound from the boats to theclassroom, enabling students to inter-act with the reenactors in real time. Thestudents plan to expand the Web caststo other schools around the nation.

The Certificates of Appreciationrecognized the recipients’ efforts overmany years to preserve and perpetuatethe historical legacy of the Lewis andClark Expedition. James Holmberg andJames Mallory have been instrumentalin publicizing the importance of theFalls of the Ohio area, where many ofthe expedition’s core members were re-cruited. Jane Henley was a founder ofthe Charlottesville-based HomefrontChapter and is the Foundation’s imme-diate past president.

WHITE HOUSE CEREMONIESPictured right, un-der a portrait ofThomas Jefferson,are Hal Stearns,Carol Bronson,and Jane Henley,who helped repre-sent the Founda-tion at a WhiteHouse ceremonyheld July 3 recog-nizing the impor-tance of the Lewis and Clark Expedi-tion and the upcoming bicentennial.President Bush issued a proclamationcommending the Corps of Discoveryfor its “resourcefulness, determination,and bravery.”

In his remarks, the President notedthat the “expedition lasted just a coupleof years, but it changed the face of ourcountry forever. It opened up theAmerican West for future development.It increased our knowledge of our natu-ral resources. It helped us gain a betterunderstanding of America’s native cul-

tures. Most importantly, the Lewis andClark Expedition will stand forever asa monument to the American spirit, aspirit of optimism and courage and per-sistence in the face of adversity.” Bushsingled out Sacagawea, whose “courageand strength remind us that AmericanIndians have played a central role in ourhistory, and their unique culture mustnever be lost”—and stressed the impor-tance of tribal colleges in helping to pre-serve “irreplaceable languages and cul-tural traditions.” L&C editor GaryMoulton also spoke at the ceremony—see page 44 for his remarks. For thecomplete texts of all remarks, see theWeb site www.white house.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020703-9.html.

FOUNDATION RESUMES GRANTSThe LCTHF has reactivated it mon-etary grants program, whose purposesince its founding more than 20 yearsago has been to stimulate and increasepublic knowledge about the Corps ofDiscovery. Over two decades it hassupported a variety of projects withgrants ranging from $200 to $1,000, in-cluding scholarly research, musical andtheatrical productions, museum exhib-its, community events, and youth ac-tivities. Grant applications are pro-cessed by the Monetary Grants Com-mittee, chaired by Barb Kubik. In de-scending order, the committee’s pref-erences are projects related to scholarlyresearch and publication, research anddevelopment of interpretive signage,construction or restoration projects,constructions and installation of inter-pretive signage, youth activities, andcreative and performing arts. The ap-plication deadline is March 15. For fur-ther details, call the Foundation’s of-fice in Great Falls (888-701-3434).

SACAGAWEA STANDS TALLResidents of Idaho have honoredSacagawea by commissioning Boisesculptor A. Vincen “Rusty” Talbot toproduce a 6-foot-3-inch bronze statueof the celebrated Shoshone. The re-

cently completed work willbe erected in Boise at cer-emonies planned forJanuary as the kickoffevent of Idaho’s bicen-tennial commemora-tion. A duplicate of thestatue will be placed atthe new interpretivecenter near Salmon,Idaho. The projectwas initiated in 1998by Lydia JusticeEdwards, then Idaho’ssecretary of state, andcarried on by Don Riley,a retired businessman,and Talbot, aided by his-torian Carol Lynn MacGregor, Saca-gawea author Ken Tomasma, and oth-ers. Riley and Talbot have raised morethan $17,500 for the project, much of itfrom school children, and received an-other $16,500 from the state.

THE PHILADELPHIA CONNECTIONDr. Benjamin Rush, the physician whoadvised Meriwether Lewis on medicineand other scientific topics, was recentlyrecognized by the city of Philadelphia,which declared last June 20 “Dr. Ben-jamin Rush Day” during the unveilingof a historical marker at the site ofRush’s boyhood home. Local historybuff Marty Munizza led the effort toerect the marker and did the official un-veiling. The house where Rush wasborn is located in the city’s northeast-ern quadrant. It was built in 1690 andstood until 1969, when it was razed tomake room for an apartment complex.The site will be one of the tour stops at

L&C Roundup

CO

UR

TES

Y F

RA

NK

MU

HLY

CO

UR

TES

Y J

AN

E H

ENLE

Y

Marty Munizzaand Rush sign


next summer’s 35th annual meeting ofthe Foundation. Titled “The Quest forKnowledge: Lewis in Philadelphia,” itwill be held August 10-13. Events willinclude historic house tours and visitsto the American Philosophical Societyand the Academy of Natural Sciencesto examine original journals of the ex-pedition and plant specimens collectedby Lewis. For more information, seethe Web site www.lewisandclarkphila.org/annual.html. Registrationforms and other materials are includedin the mailing of this issue of WPO.

ST. LOUIS SYMPOSIUMThe Jefferson National Expansion Me-morial, in conjunction with the Mis-souri Historical Society and the Span-ish Colonial Research Center of theNational Park Service, will host a sym-posium next March 20-22 in St. Louis,entitled “Lewis and Clark: Observa-tions on an Expedition.” The focus willbe on topics relating to the Lewis andClark Expedition and its preparations,personnel, relations with Europeangovernments and American Indian na-tions, and the difficulties of the jour-ney. The 32 speakers will include JamesRonda, John Logan Allen, Daniel Bot-kin, James Holmberg, Roger Kennedy,Landon Jones, William Foley, JonKukla, Carolyn Gilman, David Peck,Joseph Mussulman, Jay Buckley, CarolLynn MacGregor, James Thom, andAmy Mossett.

For registration forms and addi-tional information, see the insert in thisedition of WPO or the Web site www.nps.gov/jeff/LewisClark2/TheBicentennial/Symposium2003/Symposium2003.htm. Questions may also bedirected to Bob Moore, Historian, Jef-ferson National Expansion Memorial,11 North 4th Street, St. Louis, MO63102. (314-655-1629; Fax: 314-655-1642; Bob_Moore @nps.gov.)

MISSOULA CONFERENCE“A Confluence of Cultures: NativeAmericans and the Expedition of Lewisand Clark” is the title of a symposiumto be held next May 28-31 in Missoula,

Montana. Sponsored by the Universityof Montana–Missoula and the MontanaLewis and Clark Bicentennial Commis-sion, the conference will examine andcompare the cultural practices of thenew United States and those of the In-dian nations encountered by the Corpsof Discovery. The conference plannersencourage the involvement of facultyand students from tribal colleges anduniversities. For more information, seethe Web site www.umt.edu/cultures; e-mail [email protected]; call 406-243-6093; or write Symposium Coor-dinator, Confluence of Cultures, JamesTodd Building, University of Montana,Missoula, MT 59812.

BRONZE UNVEILEDA 14-foot bronze sculp-ture of Lewis and Clarkand Lewis’s New-foundland dog, Sea-man, was unveiled onAugust 15 in SiouxCity, Iowa, in cer-emonies that alsoincluded the raisingof a 30-by-50-footreplica of the 15-star, 15-stripe flagcarried by the Corpsof Discovery.

Titled “The Spiritof Discovery,” the bronze was createdby Pat Kennedy, a sculptor fromLoveland, Colorado. The bronze andthe flag are on the same site on the Mis-souri River as the city’s new L&C in-terpretive center. Among other exhib-its, this $3.5 million, 8,750-square-footfacility, which opened September 21,features panoramic murals and anima-tronic mannequins of Lewis and Clark.The costs of the bronze, flag, and cen-ter are underwritten by Missouri RiverHistorical Development, Inc., a non-profit organization whose income de-rives from gaming aboard the riverboatBelle of Sioux City.

CHARLOTTESVILLE KICKOFF“Jefferson’s West, a Lewis and ClarkExposition,” will be held in Char-

L&C Roundup (cont.)

RockyMountain

Discovery Tours1/3rd V

Rebecca will send.


Southern IndianaConvention Bureau

1/2 H

JA-P to place - ad ison enclosed Zip disc

South Dakota SHS1/2 H

Rebecca will send.


L&C Adventures1/3rd sq.

Rebecca will send.

L&C Roundup (cont.)

lottesville, Virginia, January 14-19. Thehighlight of the six-day event—the for-mal kickoff of the L&C Bicentennial—will take place Saturday, January 18, atMonticello, Jefferson’s mountaintophome. For more information, see thead on page 5 or the Web site www.monticello.org/jefferson/lewisandclark.

Future bicentennial signature eventswill be held at Louisville, Kentucky,October 14-26, 2003; St. Louis, March12-14, 2004; Hartford, Illinois, May 13-16, 2004; St. Charles, Missouri, May 14-23, 2004; Atchison, Kansas, July 3-4,2004; Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, July 31-August 3, 2004; Chamberlain, SouthDakota, August 27-28, 2004; Bismarck,North Dakota, October 23-31, 2004;Great Falls, Montana, June 1-July 4,2005; Astoria, Oregon, November 24-27, 2005; Billings, Montana, July 22-25,2006; Bismarck, North Dakota, August17-20, 2006; Lewiston, Idaho, June 14-17, 2006; and St. Louis, September 23,2006. For more details, see the Web sitewww.lewisandclark200.org/calendar/signature_events/sig_events2.html.

L&C IN OTHER PUBLICATIONS“Iron Will,” an article in the AugustSmithsonian by Landon Y. Jones, tellsthe story of William Clark in his post-expedition role as the chief arbiter ofIndian-white relations on the frontier.“The record is clear,” writes Jones,“that Clark’s efforts to reconcile theclashing interests of Indians, westwardmoving settlers and the federal govern-ment consumed—and profoundly dis-appointed—him [and] led to an over-whelming tragedy: the forced reloca-tion of tens of thousands of Indiansfrom their home in the East and South,across the Mississippi to lands in Okla-homa and Kansas.”

The July issue of William and MaryQuarterly includes a lengthy analyti-cal essay by Andrew R.L. Caytonabout three important Lewis and Clarkbooks: Dayton Duncan’s Out West: AJourney Through Lewis and Clark’sAmerica, the 13-volume Journals of theLewis & Clark Expedition (edited byGary E. Moulton), and James P.

HOW WILL THE FUTURE FIND US?xcitement is high now as we approach the Bicentennialthat will dramatically share the Story and the Trail with

thousands who at this time know them only vaguely.

The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation has been key toreadiness for the Bicentennial, and the Foundation needs toremain on duty and on guard long after the last Signature Eventhas followed Corps I and II into history.

How well will we handle that task? Recent times have been hard, with incomebarely adequate to cover the basic programs. Our Library, with its rich resourcesfor research and study, has been particularly handicapped, understaffed, and oftenclosed.

But as we look ahead, we can see a path, a way that will take us over ourMountains! You read in the May 2002, issue of WPO, page 44, about the late,longtime LCTHF member, Bob Shattuck, who made several generous estate giftsto the Foundation: valuable, interesting books, and a monetary portion of hisassets. What incredible provisions for the Foundation’s journey forward!

To do this — and much like the Captains before him — Mr. Shattuck had tolook ahead, think ahead, and act. He wanted to add strength to an organizationwhose mission resonated with his own goals and interests, and he knew thatfinancial stability is vital to that mission. He saw that he could help, and he did.

Thank you, Bob Shattuck! There are still mountains ahead, butfriends like youcan help the Foundation over them and into a strongfuture of service to ournation’s heritage!

E


Innovative Fabricators1/3rd Sq.

PICKUP P. 43, 8/02 WPO

LCIA(Lewis & Clark

InterpretiveAssociation)

1/2 HRebecca will send.

WPO DISPLAY ADSInside front or back cover:Black & white, $650; color, $750Outside back cover:Black & white, $800; color, $900

Inside pages (black & white only):Full page: 71/4 X 91/2 $6002/3rd vertical: 43/4 X 91/2 $4001/2 horizontal: 45/8 X 71/4 $3001/3rd square: 43/4 X 45/8 $2001/3rd vertical: 21/4 X 91/2 $2001/6th vertical: 21/4 X 45/8 $1001/12th: 21/4 X 23/16 $50

Address inquiries to Rebecca Young,P.O. Box 3434, Great Falls, MT59403. 406-454-1234/fax: [email protected].

THE MYSTERY OF LOST TRAIL PASS

A Quest for Lewis and Clark’sCampsite of September 3, 1805

WPO Supplementary Publication$12, plus $3 shipping

Lost Trail Book / P.O. Box 3434Great Falls, MT 59403

1-888-701-3434


t is a great honor to be here today for the unveilingof this portrait and the display of items from theexpedition, an occasion which gives us an opportunity

to celebrate and contemplate the life of Meriwether Lewis,especially his expedition across the continent with his goodfriend, William Clark, and the band of men they came tocall the Corps of Discovery. Our earliest school-daymemories probably include stories of Lewis and Clark, andthe names have become so intertwined that we can hardlysay one without the other, LewisandClark.But today our attention is given to Lewis.

July the third, 1806, one hundred andninety-six years ago today, was one ofthose pivotal days for Lewis and Clark.Two men—inseparable in history—wereabout to separate. It was the first timeduring the expedition that they were tobe apart for such a long time and over sogreat a distance. Lewis admitted, “I couldnot avoid feeling much concern on this occasion[,] althoughI hoped this seperation was only momentary.” It was, infact, nearly six weeks before these friends were together onceagain.

Just three days earlier, the party had established camp ata spot that has come to be called Travelers’ Rest, after thecaptains’ name for the adjacent creek. It is modern LoloCreek, near today’s Missoula, Montana. The party had alsocamped here on the outbound journey—resting up after adifficult journey through the Rocky Mountains and revivingthemselves before taking on the laborious Lolo Trail. Lewiscalled that trail the “wretched portion of our journey …where hungar and cold in their most rigorous forms assailthe waried traveller.” Now on the return, the camp was alsoa respite for weary travelers who had trudged through deepmountain snows to get to this point.

But rest was never a priority for Lewis, especially at a placethat afforded so many opportunities for discoveries ofpreviously unknown plants. The day after arriving at TravelersRest Lewis went on a botanical excursion and gathered anumber of new plants, among them a small plant that he mayhave noticed earlier. The previous year he had tasted the plant’sroot, a staple of the Rocky Mountains Indian diet, and calledit “naucious to my pallate.” Now he saw it in bloom andcollected a specimen from the dry, sandy soil. We don’t knowwhat drew the captain’s attention to the plant, but it wasblooming late that year and its delicate pink flowers may havecaught his eye. The showy little plant was plucked from theground, pressed between collecting sheets, and preserved forscientists in the East. Lewis knew that he was seeing a plantnew to science, so he was fulfilling his mission to describeand collect the flora of the West. Then he carried it and therest of his collection some 3,000 miles by boat, horseback,and carriage to Philadelphia and to his scientific advisers.

In Philadelphia Lewis hired Frederick Pursh, a Germanbotanist then in the city, to examine and describe his

collection in preparation for his history of the expedition.Lewis died before the book was completed and Pursh turnedto writing his own book about the flora of North America,in which Lewis’s botanical collection formed an essentialpart. Despite Lewis’s significant contributions Pursh gavehim little credit, but he did name the pink plant of theRockies in Lewis’s honor and designated it, Lewisia rediviva.It is better known by its common name, bitterroot, a†termthat is also applied to the Bitterroot River and to the

Bitterroot Mountains, terrain well-known toLewis and Clark. And the plant itself is the

state flower of Montana.Pursh chose the second part of the

name scientific name, rediviva (or revivingone), because of a singular phenomenonhe noticed about the plant. After beingpacked away in Lewis’s collection for morethan a year, the root was taken out, planted,and it sprang to life in spite of the damp

climate and inhospitable soil of Philadelphia. After Pursh’swork with the collection, the bitterroot, along with theremainder of Lewis’s herbarium, weas deposited inPhiladelphia, where the bitterroot specimen rests today. It’sbut a shadow of the plant Lewis collected. The root is gone,of course, used up in reviving itself one last time, and onlysix tiny flowers and a few stems remain.

Yet, it speaks to our presence in this room today. Thereviving powers of a small plant of the Bitterroots reflectthe restoration of the Lewis and Clark story from onegeneration to the next. Stories of endurance, courage, andaccomplishment such as those of Lewis and Clark never die.They revive our spirits by reminding us of humanachievement in the face of seemingly insurmountable oddsand for the greater good of humankind.

Once again we have the chance to tell the Lewis and Clarkstory to another generation. And we now have an incrediblearray of resources in place to enable us to get it out. WithStephen Ambrose’s estimable biography of Lewis, KenBurns’s superb film of the expedition, and NationalGeographic’s grand IMAX, plus scores of books, essays,pamphlets, and periodicals, and the modern means of Websites, CDs, and curriculum guides, we can teach, learn, andrevel in the story as never before. Monticello will inauguratethe event in January, the Missouri Historical Society willmount a national traveling exhibit, and organizations likethe National Park Service, the National Council of the Lewisand Clark Bicentennial, and the Lewis and Clark TrailHeritage Foundation will guide us as we’re swept alongacross the continent with Lewis and Clark and their twenty-first century followers.

Join us as we revive once more this wonderful story of anexpedition of discovery.

Gary E. Moulton is editor of the 13-volume Journals of theLewis & Clark Expedition (University of Nebraska Press).

L&C scholar Gary E. Moulton’s remarks at the White House, July 3, 2002

The bitterroot: Lewisia rediviva

I

DR

AW

ING

FR

OM

PET

ERS

ON

’ S F

IELD

GU

IDE

TO

RO

CK

Y M

OU

NT

AIN

WI L

DFL

OW

ERS


Kay Your Star Shining1/2 H

NOTE TO TONY / MEG:You will have to place this

ad - it needs convertingfrom Quark Xpress. See thefile “7.25 YourStarShining

Ad.sea” - first you will needto unstuff it.

Ronda’s Finding the West: Explorationswith Lewis and Clark. The title of theessay is “Looking for America withLewis and Clark.” Observes Cayton,“The expedition has all the elements ofan adolescent male adventure. No smallpart of the enduring appeal of the Lewisand Clark expedition, in fact, is that itseems relatively benign. Their motiveswere good, their behavior generallydecent (notwithstanding Lewis’s out-bursts of temper and hostility to Na-tive Americans), their expedition diffi-cult but not impossible, dangerous butnot deadly.” Available online throughwww.historycooperative.org/wmindex/html.

The April issue of National Geo-graphic includes an article by CathyRiggs Salter titled “Lewis and Clark’sLost Missouri.” The magazine’s Website has the first few paragraphs of thearticle, some of the photos, and a listof the magazine’s previous articles re-lating to Lewis and Clark (dating from

L&C Roundup (cont.)

1895). See http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0204/feature5/index.html.

National Geographic Traveler’sMarch issue features “Lewis & Clark:Trouble on the Trail?” This article, byGeoffrey O’Gara, focuses on trail stew-ardship as land owners gird for theL&C Bicentennial.

The online magazine Slate (www.slate.com) has an article by David Plotzposted August 16 and titled “Lewis andClark: Stop celebrating. They don’tmatter,” which argues that the expedi-tion “produced nothing useful” andessentially had no bearing on the futurehistory of westward expansion. “Likethe moon landing,” the author asserts,“the Lewis and Clark expedition wasinspiring, poetic, metaphorical, and ul-timately insignificant.”

EDUCATION PROJECTThe National Lewis and Clark Educa-tion Project is seeking educators and in-

stitutions interested in participating inits efforts. Based at the University ofMontana, the project supports L&C-related education throughout the coun-try through an interactive Web site(www.lewisandclarkeducationcenter.com). Its facilities include a mobilecomputing lab and GPS technology toexplore landscape changes along theL&C Trail. For more information, con-tact Jeff Crews (406-243-2644; [email protected]).

CHAPTER NEWSThe Foundation welcomes seven newregional chapters, bringing the totalnumber of chapters to 38. They are theMissouri-Yellowstone ConfluenceChapter, encompassing the northwestNorth Dakota–northeast Montana area(Robert Thomson, president); the Cen-tral South Dakota: Encounter on thePrairie Chapter (Bill Stevens, presi-dent); the Florida Chapter (Art Litka,president); the Reaching the Rockies


Chapter, in Cascade, Montana (CherylHutchinson, president); the Celilo/TheDalles Chapter, in Oregon (GaryHonald, president); and the Meri-wether Lewis Chapter, in Hohenwald,Tennessee (Patty Choate, president).

CAMPSITE FOUND?What may be a Corps of Discoverycampsite has been located at Lolo,Montana. Archaeologists excavating apossible latrine used by the Lewis andClark Expedition at Travelers’ Restfound a 50-centimeter-deep layer of soilwith significant concentrations of mer-cury, a metal absent from layers aboveand below. The archaeologists theorizethat the mercury was in the excrementof those explorers treated with “Rush’sthunderbolts,” the powerful purgativeand all-purpose medicine whose pri-mary active ingredient was mercury.

FOR THE RECORDSeveral items in the May 2002 WPO: Thecaption on page 13 accompanying thedrawing of the Teton Sioux’s run-inwith the Corps of Discovery at BadRiver should have stated that the war-rior locked his arms around the mastof one of the pirogues, not the keelboat.The caption on page 16 should havesaid that the Teton Sioux ceremonydepicted by artist George Catlin oc-curred 28 years after Lewis and Clark’sencounter with that tribe, not 29 years.The item about the Crimson Bluffs onpage 40 should have said that the corpspassed the bluffs in July 1805, not May1805 (the exact date was July 24).

In the May 2001 issue, page 8, wemisspelled the name of Tetoharsky, oneof the explorers’ Nez Perce guides whoaccompanied them during part of theirdescent of the Columbia River. Onpage 11, we said that Clark in his firstjournal reference to Beacon Rock onthe Columbia called it “Beaten” Rock;we should have noted that on the re-turn trip he spelled it correctly.

Our thanks go to Carl Camp, ofOmaha, Nebraska, and Barb Kubik, ofVancouver, Washington, for pointingout some of these items. ■

L&C Roundup (cont.)


Gib Floyd -America’s First Laptop

1/2 HPICKUP from inside front

cover, 8/02 WPO andconvert to BW

Great FallsAdvertising Association

1/2 HRebecca will send.


Louisville, July 2002: Foundation convenes at the Falls of the Ohio

Some 460 Lewis and Clark buffsgathered in Louisville July 28-31 for

the 34th annual meeting of the LCTHF. Itwas here at the Falls of the Ohio Riverthat Meriwether Lewis linked up withWilliam Clark to form the most famouspartnership in the history of exploration.It was here too that the famed NineYoung Men from Kentucky—the “core”of the Corps of Discovery—wererecruited. Louisville was also the homeof York, Clark’s African-Americanmanservant and slave, who would playa key role in the expedition. The four-day celebration included lectures andvisits to many L&C-associated sites. ■

PhotographerTaylor Haynes at

Clarksville,where the

explorers set off. Locust Grove, site of the captains’ welcome-home celebration in November 1806.

Latter-day explorers view L&C-era cabin at Clark’s Point, Indiana, overlooking the Ohio.

PHO

TOS

BY

JIM

MER

RIT

T

Interpreterperforms on

Indian flute atJefferson CountyMemorial Forest.

Visiting the Filson HistoricalSociety in downtown Louisville.

Skip Jackson, a.k.a.Meriwether Lewis, andadmirers on the wharfwith paddle wheelerBelle of Lousiville.

11/02 layout - lewis and clark trail heritage foundation

Documents