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An Army in Boats The Lewis and Clark Expedition, Corps of Discovery
If the purpose of studying history is to learn from the past to help plan for the future, then we must find a way to understand the past history as best we can. We need to see and understand both the good and the bad to enable us to universalize that which will endure the tests of time. It is relatively easy to understand the events, but to profit from knowing what happened we need to understand why the events happened. If we personalize that history, that is make the people involved as understandable as possible we must show them as real people instead of “heroes” placed on high pedestals by society, we will best accomplish our task of learning and better understanding the events of our past. The following article uses a detailed record of canoe counts during the Expedition’s journey to better understand their Journals and the writers. By tracking the number of canoes, including when and how they were obtained we can see that the explorers did not always record many details, including some important ones. We also see the need for several journalists to get a more complete story. We find that the journalists were not always objective, but had inherent prejudices. Examples like "these savages" made great canoes but had even greater skill on how to use them which gave them freedom to move about their environment. We need to sometimes go beyond what the journalists wrote to get the complete story. Good additional references are letters they wrote and other writers of their time. Toussaint Charbonneau and his life on the frontier is a good example of this need.
The Adventure Story When Jefferson and Lewis were making the initial plans for the journey to explore the Upper Louisiana Purchase, they knew a portage would be needed to go from the headwaters of the Missouri to the headwaters of the Columbia—across the Rocky Mountains—which they calculated would be just a short distance requiring one day to complete. The boats they would use to travel up the Missouri would be too large and heavy to haul across the portage. The solution worked out was to make canoes at Fort Mandan to replace the keelboat that was to return to St. Louis. Later, the iron framed boat would be assembled to replace the two pirogues since they could not be portaged. The iron framed boat would be the primary craft down the Columbia to the Pacific, then back upriver the next Spring. It would be re-portaged and the Expedition would use it for the trip down the Missouri and home. As unexpected events occurred and the plans started unraveling, the two Captains quickly adjusted the plans as needed to get the job done. Their boats are a good example of their abilities as commanders who were flexible and capable of getting the rest of the Corps to “buy in” to what needed to be done to get the job at hand successfully completed.
East of the Continental Divide, 1805 The Lewis and Clark Expedition is known as a trek by water from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back, along with a few times the exploring was on land. It is generally understood that the Expedition left Camp Dubois in a keelboat and two pirogues and made their way up the Missouri to the Mandan villages where they wintered. The next Spring the keelboat was sent back to St. Louis and the Expedition continued on up the Missouri River to where one pirogue was cached. The other pirogue was cached at the Lower Portage Camp. The rest of the trip was a mixture of boat and horse travel. Somewhere along the way during the 1806 return, after splitting into several groups, they got back together on the Missouri and finished the trip to St. Louis in boats. What many people do not realize is the Corps of Discovery made canoes in four different places along their water trail. They started the trip on the large eastern rivers that required larger boats. When they reached the upper Missouri, they were on smaller western waterways that called for smaller boats. Here is where the canoes became useful. After the keelboat left for St. Louis from Fort Mandan the Corps of Discovery needed more boats than the two pirogues they had, so men were sent five miles upriver where they had located six cottonwood trees large enough to make dugout canoes from. When Lewis left winter camp with his men, he had two pirogues and six canoes. All went well until they reached the mouth of the Marias River. At that place they cached part of their food supplies and other equipment that would not be needed on the journey over the mountains. With the reduction in “baggage” came a reduction in the number of water craft needed to carry it in. One of the pirogues was also cached at the Marias. The Corps of Discovery continued on about 50 miles until they encountered the Great Falls of the Missouri. The other pirogue was cached at the Lower Portage Camp because it was too big and heavy to portage around the waterfalls and it would be too big for the much smaller rivers above the falls. The collapsible, iron-framed boat had been carried along to replace the pirogues. It would be light but capable of hauling a large load of men and equipment. When that boat would not stay afloat, it was discarded. Once again, men were sent upriver to where cottonwood trees were found that were adequate for making dugout canoes from. Two canoes were made at this place which is about eight miles beyond the Upper Portage Camp. When The Expedition continued their travels toward the western sea, they were using eight canoes. The Expedition worked its way up the Missouri River to the Three Forks where the Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson Rivers join to form the Missouri River. From the Three Forks they followed the Jefferson since it appeared to go west into the mountains while the other two went in a more southerly direction. As they progressed along the upper reaches of the Jefferson River near the mouth of the Big Hole River (Lewis’ Wisdom River), they encountered an area of rapids that gave them particular trouble. While they were camped drying wet baggage, they cached one of the canoes there since they had used their supplies down to the point they could continue with one less canoe. Some fifty miles farther up the Jefferson, near its source, the Expedition cached their canoes at Camp Fortunate then traded for horses to cross the Rocky Mountains.
Navigating Western Waters, 1805-1806 From this camp at the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains, they continued on horses across the Continental Divide and down the west side of the mountains to the Clearwater River. Here they left the horses in the care of friendly Nez Perce and built five canoes to make their way down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia to the Pacific. By October 7, 1805 the Corps of Discovery had completed the five canoes they needed to make the rest of their trip. These were different from the cottonwood dugouts they had used on the east side of the Rockies. These were made from what Clark called pine and most of the inside had been burned out rather that chopped out with an adz. Journal records of the trip to the Pacific are filled with tales of adventures of split, sunk, banged up and broken canoes. The rivers were in low water time so many large boulders and dangerous rapids had to be overcome. But there are also reports that they repaired all of the damaged canoes. As the Expedition spent the winter at the fort they named Fort Clatsop, they were absorbed in making salt and hunting for the food they needed to survive. There was a constant parade of Indians coming to visit and trade that took much of the group’s attention. Although the Indians’ prices were high these trading sessions often proved to be the only source of the food the Corps of Discovery needed to survive. Basic transportation in the coastal area of the fort was by canoe. Canoes were needed to cross the numerous small streams, lakes and travel on the rivers. The Expedition canoes were in constant use by the hunters that were out daily. As might be expected during the time at Clatsop, the journals record lost canoes, found canoes, broken or bashed in canoes, and repaired canoes. But when the time came to leave Fort Clatsop and head home, the Corps of Discovery had six canoes; this is the number the two Captains determined they needed to carry the Expedition members and their baggage. The canoes the Expedition had included the famous one that was stolen from the Indians. However, when the owner of the canoe saw it, he was pleased to take some elk skins in payment for it. The next Spring the Expedition retraced its route east along the Columbia River and over the Rockies to Travelers Rest. The return up the Columbia from March 23 when they left Clatsop until they reached the Falls of the Columbia saw little or no transportation problems. Most efforts were overcoming the current of the river and finding enough food. After the Expedition portaged the Falls, they would try to trade their canoes for horses. The idea was that they would go cross country to the Clearwater saving time and miles. By April 24, 1806 all the canoes were disposed of and the Corps of Discovery was traveling on horses. They would have no more canoes until they reached Camp Fortunate. Throughout the travels down the western rivers in 1805 and back up again in 1806 many times a canoe is reported as damaged or sunk, but it is always repaired and useable again. The reader must be very careful and read ahead and backward to maintain an accurate count of the canoes. The journals of all the journalists must be referenced because the events did not include all members of the Corps at the same time. If this section of the Expedition’s travels is read like a normal book, page 1 then 2 etc., canoe count results will be impossible. They actually only lost one canoe at the Great Falls of the Columbia on 4/12/06 and one canoe they lost while hunting in the swamps etc. on 3/8/06 before leaving Fort Clatsop. While at Camp Chopunnish on the Clearwater River waiting for the snow to melt in the Rockies, Lewis had a canoe built for local use by the hunters. Tragically, on its maiden voyage it got caught in the dangerous currents of the river and sank. Nobody, Nez Perce or Corps of Discovery, could recover the boat.
Back to the East Side of the Rockies, 1806 Following the plans they made during the winter at Fort Clatsop on the Pacific coast, Clark and his party of twenty-two made their way from Travelers Rest by land to Camp Fortunate on the Jefferson River. Part of Clark’s group, under Sergt Ordway’s command, was to recover the canoes they had cached there the year before and take them down the Jefferson, then the Missouri River to the Great Falls. They would reportage the falls and recover all their cached items, including the two pirogues. Successfully getting the canoes from Camp Fortunate to the Missouri River and below the Great Falls was a very key element to the entire plan. This group would eventually meet the rest of the Expedition and provide the water transportation to St. Louis. Clark and the rest of his group continued overland to the Yellowstone where they made two dugout canoes that, once they were fastened together, worked satisfactory. These were used by Clark as he traveled down the Yellowstone and became a part of the recombined Expedition’s flotilla farther on down the Missouri. The Ordway’s party took six canoes from Camp Fortunate down the Jefferson, stopping at the camp at the mouth of the Big Hole River (Lewis’ Wisdom River) where they had cached one other canoe the year before. It was in good order, but Ordway determined they did not need it so it was cut up for canoe paddles. Ordway reached the Great Falls without incident. There they reportaged five canoes, retrieved the pirogue cached at the Lower Portage Camp then headed for the mouth of the Marias. At the Marias they discovered the pirogue they cached there had become too rotten to be useful so it was left behind. When all the groups were re-united in western North Dakota, their “navy” consisted of one pirogue that had been cached at the Great Falls, two bullboats Pryor had made at Pompey’s Pillar, two canoes lashed together that Clark had built at the Yellowstone Canoe Camp, and five canoes Ordway had brough downriver from Camp Fortunate and the Great Falls. Six weeks later the Corps of Discovery was back in St. Louis.
Plans vs Reality While planning at Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark calculated they would have eight canoes and two pirogues, plus whatever Clark made for his trip down the Yellowstone, to carry them from their reunion point back down the Missouri to St. Louis. What they actually had when the Expedition was reunited was less than that. Lewis recorded that the pirogue left at the Marias was rotted so we know it was left behind. Pryor’s bullboats lasted until August 12. That was the day Lewis and his party caught up with Clark. The combined group must not have needed the bullboats since Clark wrote that when the combined Expedition continued down the river, they left the two “leather canoes” laying on the bank. An interesting side note is that earlier that day Clark had one of the men repair a rip in one of the bullboats. When finished the boat worked fine and without any leaks. The two small canoes Clark built and had fastened together on the Yellowstone remained in use almost all the way home to St. Louis. At the Osage River on September 20, several of the men were unable to work so the Corps was consolidated and left Clark’s catamaran behind. But what happened to the three canoes that were unaccounted for? Journal records show that the one canoe cached at the Big Hole River (Lewis’ Wisdom River) was cut up for other uses. A bit of investigation shows that one of the canoes at Camp Fortunate was badly damaged so it too was cut up for other uses. The third canoe was left at the Upper Portage Camp at the Great Falls because it was damaged and according to the Sergeants, not needed. Interestingly, Capt. Clark said the damaged canoe at Camp Fortunate was repaired, but Ordway said it was cut up for other uses. Maybe Clark just assumed they would fix it.