Lewis and Clark: Up the Missouri to the Pacific

The Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1803 to 1804 at Camp Dubois, on the east bank of the Mississippi, so that it was still US territory. On 14 May 1804 Clark set out from here at 4 o'clock with about 30 others, "in the presence of many of the Neighbouring inhabitents", and went up the Missouri under a gentle breeze. They made four miles before camping on an island. The river has since moved and the original site cannot be reached, but the state historic site at Hartford has an outdoor replica of the camp.

Location precision: The river has changed course and the original camp site is inaccessible; the pin marks the replica site near it.

Visitor guidance: The Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois, has an interpretive center and an outdoor replica of the camp.

Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only member of the expedition to die. On 20 August 1804 Clark wrote that he "Died with a great deel of Composure", telling Clark: "I am going away. I want you to write me a letter." The men buried him on the bluff with the honors of war and fixed a cedar post at his grave. Erosion later threatened it, and his remains were moved about 200 metres east. Today a 100-foot sandstone obelisk, finished in 1901, marks the spot: the first National Historic Landmark in the United States.

Visitor guidance: The monument stands in Sioux City, Iowa.

On 25 September 1804 the captains held a council with the Teton Sioux on a sandbar at the mouth of the Teton River, under a flagstaff and a shade. It went wrong when the second chief grew insolent. Clark felt "Compeled to Draw my Sword", Lewis ordered every man in the boat under arms, and the grand chief took hold of the rope and sent the young warriors away. Clark named a nearby island "bad humered Island" for the party's mood. Fort Pierre now stands near the Bad River mouth where the talks were held.

Location precision: The journal places the council on a sandbar at the mouth of the Teton River; the pin marks Fort Pierre, near the Missouri and Bad rivers.

Building began in November 1804 with cottonwood cut along the riverbanks, and on 2 November Lewis wrote: "This place we have named Fort Mandan in honour of our Neighbours." The winter was bitter, with temperatures sometimes dipping to -45 °F. Here the captains probably first met Sacagawea, and on 11 February 1805 her son was born. On 7 April Lewis wrote that they had "dismissed the barge and crew" to return to St. Louis, and the party went on up the Missouri. The original fort is lost, but a replica stands near the original site.

Location precision: The original fort site is not known for certain and is believed to lie under the river; the pin marks the replica built near it.

Visitor guidance: The replica fort and the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center are near Washburn, with walking trails along the river.

On 13 June 1805 Lewis heard the roar before he saw the spray, then "hurryed down the hill" to gaze on a "sublimely grand specticle": the great cascade "formes the grandest sight I ever beheld." While scouting upstream he was attacked by a grizzly bear. He ran more than 80 yards and launched himself into the Missouri. The falls meant a portage that took nearly a month. The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center now overlooks the river near Crooked Falls.

Location precision: Five falls stretch along the river; the pin marks the Great Falls of the Missouri near the city of Great Falls.

Visitor guidance: The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center, built in 1998, overlooks the river near Crooked Falls.

On 12 August 1805 Lewis crossed the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass and drank from "the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri". Two miles below, McNeal had "exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri." Over the ridge Lewis "first tasted the water of the great Columbia river." The pass sits at 7,373 feet on the Montana-Idaho border.

Visitor guidance: Reached by gravel roads: Lemhi Pass Road from Montana and the Lewis and Clark Highway from Idaho.

In September 1805, guided by Old Toby of the Shoshone, the party crossed the Lolo Trail through early snow. On 16 September Clark wrote that he had been "wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life"; that night the hungry men ate a colt and "thought it fine meat". Lolo Pass, 5,233 feet up, is the highest point of the trail between the Bitterroot Valley in Montana and the Weippe Prairie in Idaho. The name Lolo does not appear in the journals. U.S. Highway 12 now crosses the pass.

Location precision: The trail is long; the pin marks Lolo Pass, its highest point, not Clark's camp of 16 September.

Visitor guidance: U.S. Highway 12 crosses Lolo Pass.

On 7 November 1805 Clark wrote: "Great joy in camp we are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we been So long anxious to See." Eleven days later he went overland to the cape, where the men watched "with estonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks & this emence ocian." The British fur trader John Meares had named the headland Cape Disappointment in 1788. Today it holds a state park and a lighthouse, and it sees about 2,552 hours of fog a year.

Location precision: Clark's party reached the cape and the ocean shore on 18 November; the pin marks the headland.

Visitor guidance: Cape Disappointment State Park and its lighthouse stand on the cape.

Before building here, everyone voted on where to winter, including Sacagawea and York. The fort took just over three weeks to build and was named for the local Clatsop tribe on Christmas Day. Clark's dinner that day was "pore Elk boiled, Spilt fish & Some roots, a bad Christmass diner"; his gift from Lewis was a shirt, drawers and socks. The winter was long and rainy, and the camp lasted until 23 March 1806. The replica that stands today is not on the exact site; it was rebuilt by about 700 volunteers in 2006 after a fire.

Location precision: No remains of the original fort have been found; the pin marks the replica, thought to be close to the original site.

Visitor guidance: Fort Clatsop is part of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.

On 25 July 1806 Clark climbed this sandstone rock and "had a most extensive view in every direction." He first called it Pompy's Tower, after Sacagawea's son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, whom he nicknamed Pompey; it got its present name in 1814. Near the figures of animals engraved on the face by the people living here, he marked his name and the date. That signature is the only physical evidence left along the route the expedition followed. An interpretive center opened here in 2006.

Visitor guidance: Pompeys Pillar National Monument has an interpretive center, opened in 2006.

On 23 September 1806 the party came down the Mississippi to St. Louis at about noon. Clark wrote: "we Suffered the party to fire off their pieces as a Salute to the Town", and "we were met by all the village and received a harty welcom from it's inhabitants." Little of that town remains. The memorial planners found the original platted site on the riverfront in poor condition, and almost all its historic buildings had been replaced. Gateway Arch National Park now stands near the expedition's starting point.

Location precision: Clark does not name the landing; the pin marks Gateway Arch National Park on the original riverfront.

Visitor guidance: Gateway Arch National Park is on St. Louis's riverfront.