Heading To the Mountains
The more I learn about the Lewis and Clark expedition, the more it continues to fascinate me. Traveling along with them (as much as anyone can do in 2025) brings the journey alive in a way I hadn’t expected. Even though I feel like I’m rushing from one important site to the next to the next, they all represent the remnants of an adventure that not many people, even today, get to experience. I love standing at or near the places they were and trying to imagine them being there. The journal entries are helpful in that regard, and I’m glad to have them with me.
Sadie is pretending to be Lewis and Clark, trying to decide whether they should follow the river to the left or to the right. They camped here for 9 days before making a decision. Hence the name “Decision Point.”
Regardless of the judgment of history in terms of what happened after they got back (which I’ve been reflecting on in my articles), this journey took an amazing amount of skill, physical endurance, planning, diplomacy, tenacity, perseverance, determination, and instinct for survival that was unusual for that time when you look at it from the perspective of the men forging ahead into the unknown wilderness. They didn’t know what they were signing up for, and yet they jumped into it with enthusiasm that didn’t waver once they were well into the journey. They all needed each other and knew it. When one of the pirogues almost capsized in a storm (with Lewis, Clark, Charbonneau, Sacagawea, baby Pomp, and all their most important valuables and papers on board), they somehow managed to avoid death and disaster. When Lewis got charged by a grizzly, he managed to escape by diving into the river and lucky for him the bear declined to follow. There are many detailed stories like this, reported dutifully by Lewis or Clark or one of the sergeants.
Roadtripping in 1805
Resuming the Journey
By the time the weather warmed up in spring 1805, everyone was chomping at the bit to get going. They had spent five months getting to Fort Mandan, and then spent five months staying in one place during the winter. They were resupplied, had new boats, food, everything was repaired that needed to be repaired, and now they just waited for the word from Lewis and Clark.
They left the Mandan villages on April 7 and made their way up the Missouri River toward the Rocky Mountains. They had no idea how easy or difficult getting over those mountains would be, and also had no clue how big they were. At the beginning of the voyage they didn’t think they would be any higher than the Appalachian range, which they knew well. After talking extensively with the traders and Hidatsa Indians who had experienced them first hand, they revised their thinking a bit, but still assumed there would be one big range to cross over and then they would be done.
Here is Lewis’s reflection as they left Fort Mandan behind and entered a part of the country that few white men had ever seen:
Our vessels consisted of six small canoes, and two large perogues. This little fleet altho’ not quite so rispectable as those of Columbus or Capt. Cook were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and I dare say with quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservations. We were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden; the good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these little vessells contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves…entertaining now as I do, the most confident hope of succeading in a voyage which had formed a darling project of mine for the last ten years of my life, I could but esteem this moment of our departure as among the most happy of my life. The party are in excellent health and sperits, zealously attatched to the enterprise, and anxious to proceed; not a whisper of murmur or discontent to be heard among them, but all act in unison, and with the most perfect harmony.
They were clearly excited to be on their way, wherever it might lead.
The Expedition Mascot
Seaman is a crew member I have not yet written about. Lewis acquired him for $20 when he was in Philadelphia in the summer of 1803. Seaman was apparently adept at retrieving game that had been shot by the men, whether on land or by swimming in the river to get it. Lewis even named a large creek he found along the way “Seaman’s Creek.” At one point an Indian offered to buy him which was refused, and at another point some Indian soldiers stole him away, but let him go when Lewis gave chase with the intent of shooting them down to get his dog back. They clearly weren’t willing to die for a dog, and Seaman returned to his duties with the expedition.
Sadie thinks she would have been just as good a mascot as Seaman.
It isn’t clear why Lewis decided to get himself a dog, and it isn’t clear why he chose the breed of Newfoundland. In any case, Seaman appears in Lewis’s journals right from the beginning, and endeared himself to all the men, who referred to him as “our dog.”
Unacknowledged and Underappreciated
Another crew member who doesn’t get much attention in the journals or much recognition in the history books (other than the fact that he existed on the journey) is York. York was a Black man who, in 1803, was enslaved by Clark, apparently “given” to Clark when they were both young boys, so they grew up together. York, like Sacajawea, had no choice about whether he was going to accompany the expedition. His job was to do whatever Clark told him, and that included going on this mission.
By all accounts, York was a full participant in any of the work that was needed to make this voyage a success. Whatever Clark asked of him, he did, including going on hunting parties. Many of the Indians they encountered had never seen a Black man, so he was somewhat of a novelty or curiosity. It’s impossible to know how York experienced his uniqueness on the journey or how that impacted him. There is at least one entry by Clark that mentions the other men taunting him and throwing things at him. It couldn’t have been easy to be that isolated and alone, with virtually no friends or anyone he could confide in, or even have a normal conversation. I hope I’m wrong about that, but there is nothing in the journals to suggest otherwise.
Sadly for York, despite his record of stellar service to the expedition, which does not seem to be in doubt, he wasn’t named in the list of men Lewis provided to Jefferson as deserving of compensation and land for what they had contributed to the journey. All the other men received money for their services during the trip, plus 320 acres each, appropriated by Congress.
I suppose it isn’t surprising for the time they were living in that York wasn’t included in the list Lewis sent Congress. What does seem surprising to me is Clark’s failure to recognize him for what he had done during the voyage, not to mention for the years of service he had provided prior to the expedition. In fact, Clark was downright callous and mean about it.
York begged Clark for his freedom, which he clearly felt he had earned by his dedication and loyalty during the expedition, but Clark refused. He stayed in St. Louis after the expedition was over, and expected York to continue to serve him there. York’s wife was enslaved by someone else and was living in Louisville, Kentucky, the area where they had lived before Clark joined Lewis.
The most Clark agreed to do was to give York permission to go visit his wife for a few weeks. But even after all those years of loyalty and service, there was still no trust in York’s integrity. In a November 1808 letter to his brother explaining that he was allowing York to return to Kentucky for a few weeks, Clark said: he wishes to Stay there altogether and hire himself which I have refused. (York was apparently proposing that he either be allowed to stay in Louisville, hire himself out and send the proceeds back to Clark, or that he be sold to someone in Louisville so that he could be closer to his family) He prefers being Sold to returning here but he is Serviceable to me at this place and I am determined not to Sell him, to gratify him, and have derected him to return…to this place, this fall. If any attempt is made by York to run off, or refuse to proform his duty as a Slave, I wish him Sent to New Orleans and sold, or hired out to Some Sevare Master untill he thinks better of Such Conduct. I do not wish him to know my determination if he conducts himself well.
Such scheming against York on the eve of his visit to his wife whom he had not seen in several years, is the height of cruelty and highly disappointing (even if not all that surprising…).
York did not want to take no for an answer, and in another letter to his brother, Clark said: I did wish to do well by him but as he has got Such a notion about freedom and his emence Services on the expedition that I do not expect he will be of much Service to me again.
York eventually did as Clark asked, made his visit and returned to St. Louis in May 1809, but I am sure he was a broken man at that point. He had to be bereft at being forced to leave his wife and family, not knowing if he would ever see them again. He was probably bitter toward the man he had protected and served so faithfully and admirably for his whole life, particularly during the expedition. After he got back, Clark wrote his brother again: York brought my horse. He is here byt of very little Service to me, insolent and sulky, I gave him a Severe trouncing the other Day and he has much mended.
What a heartbreaking story. Even though these two had been in each other’s company since they were children (when Clark’s father “gave” York to his son), at the end of the day York was no more than a piece of property in the eyes of William Clark. This despite seeing the true character of York during the journey when they were all dependent upon each other for their very survival. For more about what happened to York after the return from the expedition, the Smithsonian Magazine published an article about him in 2018.
York’s existence in the United States as a Black man in 1809 put him in a much worse position than any of the Indians that were pushed onto reservations and who became victims of broken promises and treaties. As Stephen Ambrose described it, although the tribes were considered by the Americans to be “savages” they were also considered to be highly intelligent and amenable to learning the American way of life. In other words, the American government’s intent with the Indians was to assimilate them, forcibly if necessary, into the new post-revolutionary American culture so that they could prosper like their European immigrant counterparts. Their intellect and integrity was never questioned, and it never occurred to the government that the native population wouldn’t eventually want what the white Americans had. Hence the proliferation of the infamous Indian Schools all over the country (and Canada).
In contrast, the intent with the enslaved Black population was to keep them subservient. They were never considered to be equals in the economic, political, cultural, or human realm by the white Americans of that time, even those who favored the abolition of slavery. I’d like to think there were exceptions, but I’m afraid they were few and far between.
The fact remains that York was a man whose dignity and independence was limited by force, and no amount of humanizing now can change his reality. That said, I appreciate the efforts to do so when today’s historians and scholars look back on that time. My own Lewis and Clark quest would not be complete if I did not also lift him up as someone who did not deserve the lot in life he was handed, and who earned full recognition as a valued member of the Corps of Discovery, even though he did not receive any compensation or tangible recognition at the time.
This statue of York stands in Louisville, Kentucky, where he lived before the expedition.
The various interpretive centers I have visited so far sometimes try to highlight York and his contributions, and I appreciate the statues and monuments that I see here and there.
Other Interesting (to me) Lewis and Clark Tidbits
1. The Great Portage. After leaving the Mandan Villages, the expedition made its way to the Great Falls. The Hidatsa had told them about the falls, and Lewis knew they would be required to portage around them. What he didn’t realize until he took a walk and scoped it out was that there were in fact five big falls covering several miles before the river smoothed out again. There was no way they could push the boats up the falls against the current, so had no choice but to portage the 18 miles around the falls. What they thought was going to take a half day turned out to be two weeks of arduous work. To get it done they had to cut down trees and build wagons, using the tree trunks as wheels, then pull the 6 canoes (which were dugout logs so they had to be heavy), plus all the loaded gear up the cliff to the prairie where they could pull across relatively flat land until they reached the point where they put everything back into the river. They reloaded the boats and continued on toward the mountains and the forks in the river where the Missouri effectively came to an end (or its beginning, depending on which direction you were traveling…). They stashed the two larger pirogues with some weapons and gear to retrieve on the way back, and built two more dugout canoes to take their place once they got going again on the other side of the falls.
It’s hard to imagine the effort it took to pull dugout canoes up the bank of the river, then 18 miles across rough plains.
It was also at this time that Lewis decided to try out the collapsible boat he had designed and so carefully packed. After getting it out and setting it up, they were unable to seal the seams sufficiently to prevent leaks, and the whole effort was deemed a disappointing failure. If there had been pine trees in the region they could have used pine tar as a sealant. Without that key ingredient needed for success, the collapsible boat sank or was left behind somewhere, and was never found.
One side note: during the two week portage, Sacagawea was extremely ill, and not responding to any of the treatments or medicines they had brought with them. They had not yet met the Shoshones, and they desperately needed her language skills when they did, so it was a pretty dire situation for them. There is some speculation that giving her waters from a nearby sulphur spring that Lewis had discovered, may have made the difference. In any case, she was able to move on with the group and fully recovered.
2. Sexual Exploitation and Disease. Apparently it was not uncommon for the men of certain tribes to treat their women as commodities to be traded and offer their girls and women to other men passing through (which may help explain Sacagawea’s predicament), whether traders, men from other tribes, or the men of the Lewis and Clark expedition. As a result, virtually all the men of the expedition, as well as all the men of the different tribes who took advantage of this custom, suffered from venereal diseases. Not clear if Lewis and Clark were included in this group. Although the women of the tribes made important contributions to the cohesiveness of tribal society, it doesn’t appear that they had much choice about how they lived their lives or who they lived that life with, or any real control over their bodies. I make no attempt to differentiate among the tribes regarding these customs or practices. I’m sure some did and some didn’t, but this practice and the resulting venereal disease running rampant among the men of that time appear to be documented often enough in the journals that I thought it worth a mention.
3. Buffalo Diet. The arduous physical work required of every member of the expedition meant that they required large amounts of calories to keep their energy levels up - six to eight thousand calories was not unusual. The main food they ate was protein from the various animals they killed along the way. Buffalo and elk were the most common, and buffalo tongue was apparently the most flavorful. They also had fish from the river. The Indians taught them about the value of corn, but they didn’t have that on a day to day basis. As a result, the journals describe various ailments and symptoms among the men that scholars believe indicate severe malnutrition. They simply were not getting enough nutrients in all those calories they were eating. Once Sacajawea joined the group she introduced some vegetables and herbs into the diet, and that seemed to help provide some much-needed vitamins and minerals.
It seems incredible to me that these men were able to do what they did - long hours of hard, grueling, physical labor day after day after day - in the presence of illnesses that would be debilitating to us mortals today. The treatments were crude, and who really knows how much suffering they had to put up with. But Lewis repeatedly described the men as uncomplaining, even cheerful as they toiled. They all knew, I suppose, that there wasn’t much alternative if they were to survive this expedition. In fact, after they all got back, several of the men went back into the wilderness to seek their fortunes on their own, a testament to how much they learned while there and loved that life.
Roadtripping in 2025
Taking a Detour
When I reached the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers I made a decision. This confluence was an important point because the Yellowstone was large and navigable and Lewis and Clark wanted to know more about it. Therefore, on the return trip Lewis and Clark split up, Lewis taking the northern route to stay on the Missouri and also explore the Marias, and Clark taking a more southern route that would allow him to explore the Yellowstone. They agreed to meet back up at the confluence.
I decided to head south following Clark’s trail on the Yellowstone, only the reverse of the way he went. I did so for two reasons, even though it meant that I would have to miss out on some spectacular points of interest and beauty on the Missouri Breaks part of Lewis’s trip west. But I decided that I wanted to see Pompey’s Pillar, which is the one remaining, clearly visible piece of physical evidence that Clark passed through the area. On his return up the Yellowstone, Clark got out of his boat, climbed a bluff, surveyed the landscape and then carved his name into a rock beside some Indian pictographs. Amazingly, his graffiti is still visible, and is accessible to Lewis and Clark buffs like myself. Of course I had to go see it!
Protected behind glass, the name and date are still clearly visible, and match with the journal entry Clark made on that date. Pretty cool!!
Not far from Pompey’s Pillar is the site of the Little Big Horn Massacre. I have been stumbling across Custer and Sitting Bull off and on since entering the Dakotas, and have been absorbing some of that history from the 1870’s along with the Lewis and Clark trivia. I decided that the massacre was such a pivotal moment in the lives of the tribes as well as the government that I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass to see where this particular battle played out. It was sobering, to say the least. One more example of the American government reneging on a treaty - this time when Custer took it upon himself to explore the Black Hills, which belonged to the Sioux, in search of gold. When he found it, the treaty was ignored and the white man’s rush to the area was on. The Sioux justifiably were angry and responded. And the rest is the sad history of the Indian victory at Little Big Horn, Custer’s slaughter, followed by the total destruction of the Sioux way of life.
White Knuckle Driving
Speaking of stressful driving on small roads, I left out of my last article the factor of wind. I spent an entire day getting from New Town, North Dakota to Glendive, Montana, battling 50+ mile per hour winds. Other than the wind the day was gorgeous. Blue skies, stunning vistas, rolling hills as the terrain began changing the closer I got to the Montana border. But I missed most of the beautiful vistas because I spent the entire day with my eyes glued to the road and my hands gripping the steering wheel, focused on keeping NelyBly steady on the two lane road. This was especially important whenever I saw a great big, huge semi tractor-trailor (or several) coming toward me from the opposite direction (speed limit was 70 on this two lane road with narrow or no shoulder). My worst fear was a) being blown into the oncoming lane, or b) being blown into a ditch or over the railing of a bridge into the Missouri River. Slow and steady all day got me to my destination, and I am happy to report there was no wind the next morning. Sadie and I enjoyed beautiful hikes in the Montana badlands in the state park where we stayed for two nights.
I’m sure there will be an update to the white-knuckle driving adventures as I attempt to traverse the Rockies. I gave myself permission to bail out of the more challenging part of vehicular mountain climbing when my gut kept telling me (along with all the research and reviews I found) that I’d be making a mistake trying to do it in my van alone. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, and NELYBLY doesn’t need to experience 20 miles of curvy, single lane dirt road at over 7000 feet up and then down through a narrow mountain pass. I’ll miss a couple of key Lewis and Clark landmarks, but so be it. Safety first. Stay tuned.
