Garrison Reservoir Geology, Paleontology, Archeology, History>

The exploring expedition to the Pacific under the joint command of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark is one of the most stirring and significant episodes in the history of our nation. Every school boy knows something of the story, the purchase of the vast territory of Louisiana from France in 1803, the decision of President Jefferson to explore the new country, followed by long months of careful preparation and toilsome travel that ultimately brought the explorers to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark expedition has become part of our national heritage, yet even in its day it was a unique venture: a scientific expedition, mounted by a weak and fledging country at an expense it could little afford, to explore an area of unknown extent and of dubious value.

The scientific results, the observations, the maps and the collections made by the explorers are of extraordinary interest and importance. Even today, historians, anthropologists, and others rely upon the Lewis and Clark journals for an understanding of Indian cultures and of the growing fur trade in the northern Plains and beyond. What is more, Lewis and Clark were highly successful leaders. They ascended the Missouri River to its headwater streams; then, crossing to the Pacific slope, they followed a tortuous course through the Columbia Basin to the sea. This was a journey that made fantastic demands upon their courage and ingenuity, and required the most careful diplomacy in dealing with the Indian groups through whose territories they passed. Nor was the journey to be completed in a single year. President Jefferson directed the leaders of the expedition to explore the course of the Missouri to its headwaters and then to proceed westward to discover whether the Columbia, the Colorado, or some other river, might offer a route to the coast suitable for commerce. In addition, it was necessary to study and describe the Indian tribes, the topography, and flora and fauna of the country through which they were to travel. Not only was every step of the route recorded and mapped in detail, but the need for the hunting of game, as a supplement to their food supply, and the constant struggle with rivers and mountains must have made progress seem painful at times.

Captain Meriwether Lewis wearing Indian dress, from an engraving published in The Analectic Magazine, 1816.

The "Corps of Discovery" left Wood River, near St. Louis, on May 4, 1804, traveling by keelboat and bateaux. Gradually they moved up the Missouri, drawing away from the "civilized" frontier, but surprisingly, they were not pathfinders; the country ahead of them, at least as far as the villages of the Mandan, was not entirely unknown. Commercial adventurers, traders from St. Louis and Canada, had been active along the Missouri for an unknown number of years. Free trappers, descendants of the "coureurs des bois" of an earlier generation, and other traders, had spent long periods in the Indian villages, had learned the languages, and in some instances had taken Indian wives. One such, Toussaint Charbonneau (Charbonie, Chaboneau) was engaged as an interpreter by the expedition. His wife, Sakakawea, or Sacajawea, a captive Shoshone girl, was to prove exceedingly helpful when the travelers moved toward her homeland in the Rocky Mountains.

The "Corps of Discovery" arrived in the country of the Mandan, the region north of the present Bismarck, North Dakota, late in October. In these northern latitudes it was already winter; further travel was impractical and some sort of shelter was essential. A site on the east bank of the Missouri, just across the river from the Mandan village called Matootonhah, was selected for winter quarters.

The Mandan villages provided an excellent station for wintering. During the eighteenth century and earlier, the Mandan were a numerous and powerful group, but by 1804, disease and constant pressures from other Siouan peoples moving from the east had so reduced their numbers that they no longer constituted a real power. Nonetheless, the Mandan villages were important as a focal point for traders based in Canada, and increasingly so for the growing fur empire centered at St. Louis. Indians and White traders from over much of the northern Plains came here to trade. The exploring party was never at a loss for information or talk, even with educated company, during the long winter of 1804-1805. While relations with the Montreal traders, on the whole, were congenial, Captain Lewis and Captain Clark felt it necessary to counter their influence whenever possible. After all, the Canadians represented foreign commercial interests in opposition to the asserted national rights of the growing United States. Lewis and Clark were soldiers playing a diplomat's game.

The first timbers for what was to become Fort Mandan were cut on November 3. In this diary entry for that date, but written sometime later, Sergeant Patrick Gass describes the construction of the buildings:

"The following is manner in which our huts and fort were built. The huts were in two rows, containing four room each, and joined at one end forming an angle. When (the huts were) raised about 7 feet high a floor of puncheons or split plank were laid, and covered with grass and clay; which made a warm loft. The upper part projected a foot over and the roofs were made shed fashion, rising from the inner side, and making the outer wall about 18 feet high. The part not enclosed by the huts we intend to picket. In the angle formed by the two rows of huts we built two rooms, for holding our provisions and stores." (Gass, Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Introduction and Notes by James K. Hosmer, Chicago, 1904.)

Although work progressed rapidly, the post was not ready for occupancy for several weeks. Living under canvas, the men were suffering severely from the cold before adequate protection could be provided.

Winter on the northern Plains, far removed from the amenities of the frontier settlements, brought its problems. In early November, a number of men, French voyageurs hired to aid the party as far as the Mandan country, were sent downriver to St. Louis, but still there were many mouths to feed. Food was a constant worry. Quantities of staple foods had been brought from Wood River, but the explorers, not knowing what lay before them, were reluctant to exhaust their supplies. They relied heavily upon hunting and hoped to secure additional food from their Mandan neighbors. The search for game was constant. As winter advanced and snows deepened, it was necessary to send hunting parties farther and farther afield but even then, they were not always successful. At first, the Mandan were reluctant to provide either corn or meat, but soon a brisk trade developed, exchanging foodstuffs for the manufactures of the blacksmith. Iron and steel tools, particularly war axes or tomahawks, were greatly desired, so much so that the forge could scarcely keep up with the demand.

The weather continued cold, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees below zero on occasion. Frostbite and other winter-caused afflictions were frequent. The Captains were constantly busy ministering to the medical needs of their men, but also extending their limited skills and inadequate medicines to such Indians as sought their help. But this was not all; the weather brought further problems. The keelboat became frozen in the thick ice of the Missouri, requiring the concerted efforts of the party to chop it loose and to drag it up the steep river bank and away from the dangerous pressures of the ice mass. To make matters still worse, there were frequent alarms caused by the Sioux and constant threats by the Arikara. The expedition leaders were compelled to placate the fears of the Mandan, even offering military aid in their defense, and acting as peacemakers whenever possible. All in all, it was a busy winter; there were dangers and hardships aplenty, but there was little occasion for boredom.

The building of Fort Mandan, 1804, from a wood-cut accompanying the "Journal of the voyages and travels of a corps of discovery, under command of Lewis and Clarke," by Sergeant Patrick Gass, published in 1807.

STAR VILLAGE AND HEART VILLAGE

Star Village, a group of 90 house depressions enclosed within a well defined ditch, was one of the villages built by the Arikara just before they became part of the Like-a-Fishhook community of Mandan and Hidatsa. The village was occupied in 1862 but only for three months, as known from the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The approach of spring brought a new flurry of activity. Canoes were to be built from cottonwood logs, supplies had to be inventoried and sorted, and the expedition readied for its last thrust to the Pacific. On April 7, 1905, the keelboat was sent down the river, carrying records and dispatches to St. Louis. The remainder of the party moved upstream but now reduced to 34 persons, including the interpreters, "George Drewyer and Tauasant Carbono also a Black man by the name of York, servant to Capt. Clark, an Indian woman (Sakakawea) wife to Charbono with a young child, and a Mandan man who had promised to accompany us as far as the Snake Indians with a view to bring about a good understanding and friendly intercourse between that nation and his own..." (Russell Reid, ed., Lewis and Clark in North Dakota, 1947-48).

The flotilla consisted of six small dugout canoes and two larger pirogues. "This little fleet, altho not quite so rispectable as thos 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 preservation: 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 vessels contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves." (ibid.)

At first, it seemed that despite their careful forethought, accident and miscarriage of plans were not to be avoided. On April 8, one of the canoes "had filled with water and all her loading wet. We lost half a bag of busquit and about thirty pounds of pouder by this accident; the pouder we regard as a serious loss, but we spread it to dry immediately and hope we shall still be enabled to restore the greater part of it." (ibid.) The following day, the Mandan who had agreed to accompany the party as far as the "Snake" Indians, had second thoughts and returned to his village. But at last, passing into the reach of the river that was to become the Garrison Reservoir, the fates seemed to smile on the travelers. The countryside through which they passed was spectacular, with bluffs rising grandly from heavily wooded bottoms, and wild game was abundant, with flights of migrating ducks and geese in almost constant view. Unfortunately this was not to last. On April 18, blustery headwinds drove them to shore. The following days brought no improvement in the weather. The travelers were forced to remain in sheltered camps, or at best covered no more than a few miles in a day. On the 25th, Captain Lewis and four men set out by land for the mouth of the Yellowstone, now only a short distance upstream. The following day, the nagging winds now abated, the remainder of the expedition joined them. From this point, now outside the Garrison Reservoir, the entire party proceeded upriver, ultimately, after adventure and hardship, to traverse the breadth of the continent.