This post covers the Corps’ trip toward the mountains, hoping that they could find the Shoshone who might provide horses so the expedition could get over the mountains. When they did meet up with the Shoshone it was a joyous time for Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark decided to leave their canoes behind since the water was no longer navigable. Clark was able to get these canoes on his way back home in 1806.
July 30-August 10, 1805. “The expedition proceeded onward, Clark’s group by water and Lewis’s by land. Lewis and his men were walking ahead of the boats, scouting for Indians. They saw some abandoned dwellings but no people. Clark began to have problems with the boats in the ever-narrowing, rock-strewn river. In spots, the water was so shallow that the boats had to be carried.”
On August 19, 1805, Lewis wrote, “Immediately in the level plain stands a high rocky mountain, the base of which is surrounded by the level plain; it has a singular appearance.” This is our description of the place too.
Sacagawea, who was with Clark’s party, spied the rock formation in the distance, recognizing it as one called Beaverhead Rock. She said the rock was not far from her tribe’s summer retreat—on a river just over the mountains to the southwest.
Although she was only a child when abducted, Sacagawea still remembered her life among the Shoshone. She began recognizing familiar scenes from her homeland.
She recalled trying to flee from the raiders. As 8 men and women were killed, a young Sacagawea and several other girls and boys were abducted. Lewis recorded that Sacagawea told her story with no show of emotion.
After Clark arrived at Lewis’s camp, the captains considered their options. Because of the condition of the river, which had narrowed to a stream, Lewis decided that the boats had come to the end of their usefulness. Clark continued walking with the canoes, and Lewis took off with three of his men.
Let’s look at Lewis’s adventures first. In the next post we’ll show you our pictures of what Lewis saw.
overview of Lewis exploits (details later)
At this point Lewis and Clark were almost at the beginning of the Missouri drainage since they had reached the upper reaches of a tributary they called “Jefferson’s River” (Beaverhead).
The captains had counted on securing horses from Indians living in this region so they could portage over the mountains to the Columbia River Drainage, but they hadn’t seen any Indians since leaving the Mandan village 4 months earlier. Time needed for crossing the mountains before winter set in was slipping away.
Lewis then returned to the “forks of Jefferson’s river” where he waited for Clark and the canoe party. The captains called this place “Fortunate Camp.” More about this camp later.
details of Lewis’s exploring (much of it from our photographic journey book)
In the next post we’ll show you the terrain Lewis and Clark traveled through to find out what was west of Camp Fortunate.
August 11, 1805. “At last Lewis sighted an Indian. Traveling ahead with a small party, he first glimpsed the mounted tribesman through a spyglass. Lewis laid down his gun, and with gifts in his hand slowly advanced. He signaled his men to stay back, but one of them kept moving on. The Indian, no doubt suspicious of a trap, turned his horse and galloped away. The party tried to follow him until a heavy shower erased his horse’s tracks.”
Sunday, August 11, 1805, Lewis wrote, “. . . with my glass I discovreed from his dress that he was a Sosone; and was mounted on an eligant horse without a saddle.”
He then approached, offering gifts, and rolled his shirtsleeve to expose his white skin and show he was not an enemy. He called out . . . a Shoshone word he thought meant “white man.” But the rider turned his horse and fled.
A distraught Lewis watched him go. “With him vanished all my hopes of obtaining horses for the present.”
August 12, 1805. “After the disappointment of losing sight of the Indian, Lewis and his men set off the next day and headed west over the mountains, the direction the Indian had gone, hoping to find a road that would take them to the Indian village. A few miles along, they passed some abandoned conical huts made of willow. Farther on, they followed a stream that led, as Lewis put it, to ‘the most distant fountain of the water of the mighty Missouri in search of which we have pent so many toilsome days and restless nights.'”
“The explorers moved on a short distance, and at the top of a ridge they beheld an enormous mountain range. Its towering, snow-covered peaks lined the western horizon as far as the eye could see—a sight Lewis was not prepared for. He must have been distressed; after all they had been through, they still had to face crossing this massive obstacle.”
“After crossing the ridge, the party descended about three-quarters of a mile and came to another creek, this one flowing west—the opposite direction of the stream they had been following on the other side of the ridge. Thus they knew they’d come to one of the headwaters of the Columbia River.”
On August 12, Lewis wrote, “This pure and ice cold water . . . issues from the base of a low hill.”
Again he wrote, “We proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immense ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow.”
In the next post we’ll show you the spot where the Missouri River started and the mountain range that Lewis and his men saw.
August 13, 1805. “About ten miles west of the ridge, Lewis sighted three Indians—who he correctly assumed were Shoshone—on a hill, but as the explorers neared them they disappeared over the crest. Shortly afterward they came upon three Shoshone women, one of whom ran away. The other two sat down on the ground, as if resigned to their fate. Lewis convinced them that he was friendly, presenting them with gifts. He managed to communicate that he and his men wished to be taken to their village, and the women agreed to lead them.”
“Along the way, about sixty Shoshone warriors rode up. When the women showed their chief the presents they had received, the chief dismounted and embraced Lewis. After stopping to smoke the pipe that Lewis proffered, the Indians led the explorers to their village. There Lewis and his men smoked again with the chief, whose name was Cameahwait, and they were given something to eat.”
“One of Lewis’s men was able to communicate in sign language. During the two days at the village, he explained to the chief the purpose of the Corps of Discovery and that the explorers needed horses to take them west over the mountains. He also communicated that Lewis wanted the chief to accompany him back over the ridge and beyond to meet with Clark and the remainder of the party, which include a woman of his nation. The chief agreed.”
He dropped his gun, the women showed their gifts, and the tension broke. Convinced of Lewis’s peaceful intent, the warriors greeted him with hearty hugs. Chief Cameahwait and about fifteen warriors accompanied Lewis back to the Jefferson forks to await Clark.
August 16, 1805. Three days later, in the early morning, Sacagawea, walking ahead of Clark’s party with her husband, saw some Indians in the distance. They were the Shoshone accompanying Lewis and his men. She began to dance joyously and suck her fingers—a sign indicating that they were her people. Shortly she was recognized by some of the women and they ran to embrace her. The campsite was dubbed ‘Camp Fortunate.'”
As the sun rose over their camp on the morning of August 17, 1805, Lewis dispatched his interpreter George Drouillard downstream to search for Capt. Clark and the rest of the expedition. Lewis had spent a restless night worried over the fate of Clark and the rest of his party.
Five days later, Clark’s party finally arrived and met the Shoshone. When called to interpret, Sacagawea recognized the chief as her brother. Throwing her blanket around him as a symbol of their kinship, she could not stop crying for happiness.
They found the Shoshone camped on a river over the mountains on the west in president-day Idaho. [We’ll show you this area later on in our trip.] Returning on the evening of August 16 with a small party from the village, they made their camp just below the forks [Camp Fortunate]. Expecting to meet Clark, “the chief with red hair,” they nervously waited in the predawn light.
As Drouillard prepared to ride, the Shoshone Chief Cameahwait, concerned for the safety of his people, sent several of his men to accompany Drouillard in his search for Clark. The Shoshone had been reluctant to follow the strangers in fear that they were being led into a trip. Lewis assured them Clark would be here with trade items. He desperately needed their help, and hoped to procure horses from them in order to continue his journey. His focus now turned to holding their confidence. If they did not find Clark as he had promised, the Shoshone would leave.
what’s been happening with Clark
Drouillard and the warriors rode less than two miles downstream when they found the men dragging the canoes over a gravel bar. Captain Clark had heard the Shoshone warriors singing before they came into view. Sacagawea, walking out in front of everyone, recognized the riders as those of her tribe, the Salmon Eaters.
As Clark, Sacagawea,and her husband Charbono entered camp, Lewis, Cameahwait, and the rest of the Shoshone gathered to greet him. From this small waiting party an excited young woman ran out to embrace Sacagawea. Five years earlier two young girls had been captured in a raid. One escaped and was able to return to her people, while the other had been taken to the Mandan villages where she would became a vital member of the Corps of Discovery.
Camp Fortunate
Few points along the route of the expedition have the significance of this site that is now under the waters of the Clark Canyon Reservoir (pictures following). Noted on their maps as “Fortunate Camp,” the Corps was hoping to get horses from Sacagawa’s people.
At this meeting, Sacagawea recognized her brother, Chief Cameahwait, whom she had not seen for five years.
Through her, Lewis and Clark negotiated for horses and a guide critical for the expedition’s journey across the mountains to the Columbia River drainage. In exchange, the Shoshone were promised that future trade would include guns and ammunition critical for their defense against enemy tribes.
In the next post we’ll see how difficult it was for this negotiating to happen.
On August 17, [1805], Lewis wrote that “. . . it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render to us such aids as they had it in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home, that such were their horses to transport our baggage without which we could not subsist, and that a pilot to conduct us through the mountains was also necessary if we could not decent the river by water.”
of the guns and ammunition.
August 17, 1805. “The campsite was dubbed ‘Camp Fortunate.’ The majority of the Corps would remain there eight days, gathering information from the Shoshone about the lands, the waterways, and the tribes to the west—the Flathead and the Nez Perce.”
On August 17, 1805, Lewis described the area of Camp Fortunate. “We now formed our camp just below the junction of the forks on the larboard side in a level smooth bottom covered with a fine turf of greensward.”
The failure to find an easy portage over the mountains meant leaving their canoes behind. Clark set out ahead to determine if the river (Salmon) to the west was suitable travel by water.
“Meanwhile, Clark took a small party, including some Shoshone, to reconnoiter a sizable river that lay to the west (the present-day Salmon River). Clark wanted to ascertain whether the river was navigable, even though the Indians had told him it was not.”
“While Clark was away, Lewis was busy bartering for horses with the Shoshone. He also cached some supplies and sank the pirogues in a pond to conceal them, hoping to retrieve them on the return trip.”
Lewis stayed at the camp and prepared the expedition for the portage over what is known today as Lemhi Pass. The men fashioned pack saddles and harnesses using rawhide thongs and the blades from the oars and planks from storage boxes. Equipment and supplies were sorted and packaged. Some supplies (including tobacco and medicine) and specimens were cached 3/4 of a mile downstream from camp.
“I also laid up the canoes this morning in a pond near the forks; sunk them in the water and weighted them down with stone, after taking our plugs of the gage holes in their bottoms; hoping by this means to guard against both the effects of high water, and that of the fire which is frequently kindled in these plains by the natives.”
The gauge holes in the bottom of the canoes were drilled by the men during the construction to “gauge” the depth of thickness of the wood, then plugged when completed. Clark recovered the canoes and supplies on July 8, 1806, during the return trip from the Pacific.
The expedition was ready to take off. On August 23, 1805, Lewis wrote, “. . . at twelve Oclock we set out and passed the river below the forks . . . most of the horses were heavly laden, and it appears to me that it will require at least 25 horses to convey our baggage along such roads as I expect we shall be obliged to pass in the mountains.”
August 25, 1805. Lewis and the rest of the Corps, accompanied by the Shoshone, made their way back to the village to wait for Clark’s party to return. There he met the messenger Clark had dispatched to let him know the Indians were right: The river was not a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Clark rejoined Lewis at the village [in the mountains] on August 29.
August 30, 1805. The Shoshone had told Lewis and Clark of a trail through the mountains used by the Nez Perce, and the captains decided that it would be the only feasible way west. So on August 30, with twenty-nine horses and one mule, the Corps, including Sacagawea and her family,headed north toward the trail. On the way, they had to cross a high, snowy pass before descending into a valley. Lewis named the river running through it the Clark (the present-day Bitterroot River.)
More about the pass and the Bitterroot River in a coming post.
Camp Fortunate today
From our campsite in Dillon, Montana, we drove toward the Clark Canyon Reservoir that has now covered up Camp Fortunate. But the scenery shows us what the land must have looked like in 1805.
This site was the pivotal point in the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The party camped here in August 1805. They cached their boats and, aided by the influence of Sacagawea, obtained horses from her people, the Shoshone Indians.
The expedition’s successful accomplishment was largely due to the guidance and loyalty of the Indian girl, Sacagawea.
Camp Fortunate was located near the base of the prominent island in the Clark Canyon Reservoir. The “singular mountain in the open plain” that Lewis described is a limestone rock outcrop that separated the “two forks of the Jefferson River” prior to submergence in 1964.
The next post highlights how everyone “talked” with each other during the negotiations, what the land looked like to get to the mountains, the beginning of the river that became the Missouri River, Lemhi Pass, and the Continental Divide.
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