The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates September 19, 1804 - September
24, 1804
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: September 19, 1804 - September 24, 1804
September 19, 1804
September 19. We this day enjoyed a cool clear morning,
and a wind from the southeast. We reached at three miles
a bluff on the south, and four miles farther, the lower
point of Prospect island, about two and a half miles in
length; opposite to this are high bluffs, about eighty feet
above the water, beyond which are beautiful plains gradually
rising as they recede from the river: these are watered
by three streams which empty near each other; the first
is about thirty-five yards wide, the ground on its sides
high and rich, with some timber; the second about twelve
yards wide, but with less timber; the third is nearly of
the same size, and contains more water, but it scatters
its waters over the large timbered plain, and empties itself
into the river at three places. These rivers are called
by the French Les trois rivieres des Sioux, the three Sioux
rivers; and as the Sioux generally cross the Missouri at
this place, it is called the Sioux pass of the three rivers.
These streams have the same right of asylum, though in a
less degree than Pipestone creek already mentioned.
Two miles from the island we passed a creek fifteen yards
wide; eight miles further, another twenty yards wide; three
miles beyond which, is a third of eighteen yards width,
all on the south side: the second which passes through a
high plain we called Elm creek; to the third we gave the
name of Night creek, having reached it late at night. About
a mile beyond this is a small island on the north side of
the river, and is called Lower island, as it is situated
at the commencement of what is known by the name of the
Grand Detour, or Great Bend of the Missouri. Opposite is
a creek on the south about ten yards wide, which waters
a plain where there are great numbers of the prickley pear,
which name we gave to the creek. We encamped on the south,
opposite the upper extremity of the island, having made
an excellent day's sail of twenty six and a quarter miles.
Our game this day consisted chiefly of deer, of these four
were black tails, one a buck with two main prongs of horns
on each side and forked equally. Large herds of buffalo,
elk and goats, were also seen.
September 20, 1804
Thursday, September 20. Finding we had reached the
Big Bend, we dispatched two men with our only horse across
the neck, to hunt there and wait our arrival at the first
creek beyond it. We then set out with fair weather and the
wind from S.E. to make the circuit of the bend. Near the
lower island the sandbars are numerous, and the river shallow.
At nine and a half miles is a sand island, on the southern
side. About ten miles beyond it is a small island on the
south, opposite to a small creek on the north. This island,
which is near the N.W. extremity of the bend, is called
Solitary island. At about eleven miles further, we encamped
on a sandbar, having made twenty-seven and a half miles.
Captain Clarke, who early this morning had crossed the neck
of the bend, joined us in the evening. At the narrowest
part, the gorge is composed of high and irregular hills
of about one hundred and eighty or one hundred and ninety
feet in elevation; from this descends an unbroken plain
over the whole of the bend, and the country is separated
from it by this ridge. Great numbers of buffalo, elk, and
goats are wandering over these plains, accompanied by grouse
and larks. Captain Clarke saw a hare also, on the Great
Bend. Of the goats killed to-day, one is a female differing
from the male in being smaller in size; its horns too are
smaller and straighter, having one short prong, and no black
about the neck: none of these goats have any beard, but
are delicately formed, and very beautiful.
September 21, 1804
Friday, September 21. Between one and two o'clock
the Sergeant on guard alarmed us, by crying that the sandbar
on which we lay was sinking; we jumped up, and found that
both above and below our camp the sand was undermined and
falling in very fast: we had scarcely got into the boats
and pushed off, when the bank under which they had been
lying, fell in, and would certainly have sunk the two pirogues
if they had remained there. By the time we reached the opposite
shore the ground of our encampment sunk also. We formed
a second camp for the rest of the night; and at daylight
proceeded on to the gorge or throat of the Great Bend, where
we breakfasted. A man, whom we had dispatched to step off
the distance across the bend, made it two thousand yards:
the circuit is thirty miles. During the whole course, the
land of the bend is low, with occasional bluffs; that on
the opposite side, high prairie ground, and long ridges
of dark bluffs. After breakfast, we passed through a high
prairie on the north side, and a rich cedar lowland and
cedar bluff on the south, till we reached a willow island
below the mouth of a small creek. This creek, called Tyler's
river, is about thirty-five yards wide, comes in on the
south, and is at the distance of six miles from the neck
of the Great Bend. Here we found a deer, and the skin of
a white wolf, left us by our hunters ahead: large quantities
of different kinds of plover and brants are in this neighborhood,
and seen collecting and moving towards the south; the catfish
are small, and not in such plenty as we had found them below
this place. We passed several sandbars, which make the river
very shallow and about a mile in width, and encamped on
the south, at the distance of eleven and a half miles. On
each side the shore is lined with hard rough gulleystones,
rolled from the hills and small brooks. The most common
timber is the cedar, though, in the prairies, there are
great quantities of the prickly pear. From this place we
passed several sandbars, which make the river shallow, and
about a mile in width. At the distance of eleven and a half
miles, we encamped on the north at the lower point of an
ancient island, which has since been connected with the
main land by the filling up of the northern channel, and
is now covered with cottonwood. We here saw some tracks
of Indians, but they appeared three or four weeks old. This
day was warm.
September 22, 1804
September 22. A thick fog detained us until seven
o'clock; our course was through inclined prairies on each
side of the river, crowded with buffalo. We halted at a
point on the north side, near a high bluff on the south,
and took a meridian altitude, which gave us the latitude
of 44° 11' 33-3/10". On renewing our course, we reached
first a small island on the south, at the distance of four
and a half miles, immediately above which is another island
opposite to a creek fifteen yards wide. This creek, and
the two islands, one of which is half a mile long, and the
second three miles, are called the Three Sisters: a beautiful
plain extending on both sides of the river. This is followed
by an island on the north, called Cedar island, about one
mile and a half in length and the same distance in breadth,
and deriving its name from the quality of the timber. On
the south side of this island, is a fort and a large trading
house, built by a Mr. Loisel, who wintered here during the
last year, in order to trade with the Sioux, the remains
of whose camps are in great numbers about this place. The
establishment is sixty or seventy feet square, built with
red cedar and picketted [80]in with the same materials.
The hunters who had been sent ahead joined us here. They
mention that the hills are washed in gullies, in passing
over which, some mineral substances had rotted and destroyed
their moccasins; they had killed two deer and a beaver.
At sixteen miles distance we came to on the north side at
the mouth of a small creek. The large stones which we saw
yesterday on the shores are now some distance in the river,
and render the navigation dangerous. The mosquitoes are
still numerous in the low grounds.
September 23, 1804
Sunday, September 23. We passed, with a light breeze
from the southeast, a small island on the north, called
Goat island; above which is a small creek, called by the
party Smoke creek, as we observed a great smoke to the southwest
on approaching it. At ten miles we came to the lower point
of a large island, having passed two small willow islands
with sandbars projecting from them. This island, which we
called Elk island, is about two and a half miles long, and
three quarters of a mile wide, situated near the south,
and covered with cottonwood, the red currant, and grapes.
The river is here almost straight for a considerable distance,
wide and shallow, with many sandbars. A small creek on the
north, about sixteen yards wide, we called Reuben's creek;
as Reuben Fields, one of our men, was the first of the party
who reached it. At a short distance above this we encamped
for the night, having made twenty miles. The country, generally,
consists of low, rich, timbered ground on the north, and
high barren lands on the south: on both sides great numbers
of buffalo are feeding. In the evening three boys of the
Sioux nation swam across the river, and informed us that
two parties of Sioux were encamped on the next river, one
consisting of eighty, and the second of sixty lodges, at
some distance above. After treating them kindly we sent
them back with a present of two carrots of tobacco to their
chiefs, whom we invited to a conference in the morning.
September 24, 1804
Monday, September 24. The wind was from the east,
and the day fair; we soon passed a handsome prairie on the
north side, covered with ripe plums, and the mouth of a
creek on the south, called Highwater creek, a little above
our encampment. At about five miles we reached an island
two and a half miles in length, and situated near the south.
Here we were joined by one of our hunters, who procured
four elk, but whilst he was in pursuit of the game the Indians
had stolen his horse. We left the island, and soon overtook
five Indians on the shore: we anchored and told them from
the boat we were friends and wished to continue so, but
were not afraid of any Indians; that some of their young
men had stolen the horse which their great father had sent
for their great chief, and that we could not treat with
them until he was restored. They said that they knew nothing
of the horse, but if he had been taken he should be given
up. We went on, and at eleven and a half miles, passed an
island on the north, which we called Good-humored island;
it is about one and a half miles long, and abounds in elk.
At thirteen and a half miles, we anchored one hundred yards
off the mouth of a river on the south side, where we were
joined by both the pirogues and encamped; two thirds of
the party remained on board, and the rest went as a guard
on shore with the cooks and one pirogue; we have seen along
the sides of the hills on the north a great deal of stone;
besides the elk, we also observed a hare; the five Indians
whom we had seen followed us, and slept with the guard on
shore. Finding one of them was a chief we smoked with him,
and made him a present of tobacco. This river is about seventy
yards wide, and has a considerable current. As the tribe
of the Sioux which inhabit it are called Teton, we gave
it the name of Teton river.
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