Heading to Washington City, Lewis and the Mandan delegation continue on Virginia’s Wilderness Road. On or near this date, they climb up to Kane’s Gap north of Powell Mountain and descend to Little Flat Lick—present Duffield. From there, the road takes them around—but not through—Natural Tunnel and on to the Clinch River ford.[1]Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was … Continue reading
Elsewhere, Western explorer Zebulon Pike caches his blankets and food and attempts to summit the Rocky Mountain Face near Pikes Peak.
Over Kane Gap
we went up a big run, crossed Wallins Ridge which was verry Steep and Slippery as it rained on us, we encamped at the foot of it four miles from Scots. [Scott’s Station]
—William Fleming, May 18, 1780
We went up a bad run and bad road all the days march, passed a verry bad and Slippery hill [Kane Gap] as bad as any of the Mountains passed Flats Lick [Duffield] where the road comes in from the Rye Cove, the road down Stock Creek verry bad and long . . . . William Fleming, 19 May 1780[2]“Colonel William Fleming’s Journal of Travels in Kentucky,1779–1780” in Travels in the American Colonies, Newton D. Mereness, ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), 649, … Continue reading
Appalachian Mountains
View from Powell Mountain
Photo by Jackie Moore, August 2025, posted at Google Maps
The 1780 journal of Colonel William Fleming (1729–1795) is an account of his travels in Kentucky while heading a commission “for adjusting and settling titles of claimers to unpatented lands.” He would later investigate fraud in Kentucky including purchases made by George Rogers Clark.[3]Mereness, 618, 659. Quoted is W. W. Hening, Laws of Virginia, Vol. X, 35–50.
The Death of Boone’s Son
In this valley [Wallen Creek], on 10 Oct. 1773, Delaware, Shawnee, and Cherokee Indians killed Daniel Boone‘s eldest son, James, and five others in their group of eight settlers en route to Kentucky. Separated from Daniel Boone’s main party, the men had set up camp near Wallen’s Creek. At dawn the Indians attacked and killed James Boone, Henry Russell, John and Richard Mendenhall (brothers), a youth whose last name was Drake, and Charles (one of two slaves in the party). Isaac Crabtree and Adam, a slave, escaped. This event prompted Boone and his party to abandon their first attempt to settle Kentucky.
The Death of Boone’s Son
Photo by Craig Swain, 5 September 2010. Posted at The Historical Marker Database, www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=254045.
James Boone and Henry Russell were both shot in the hip and then slowly tortured to death with stab wounds. The attack prompted settlers to build forts and led to Dunmore’s War. For more on that war, see September 19, 1803. In 1806, area tavern keepers and settlers likely shared this tale with any traveler hearing it for the first time. One can only wonder if this story was shared with Sheheke and his family and what would their reaction have been.[4]“Abingdon Historic District (Additional Documentation”, National Register of Historic Places registration form (Abingdon, Virginia), p. 47, available at … Continue reading
Pikes Peak Excursion Day Three
Expecting to return to our camp that evening, we left all our blankets and provisions, at the foot of the mountain. Killed a deer of a new species, and hung his skin on a tree with some meat. We commenced ascending, found it very difficult, being obliged to climb up rocks, sometimes almost perpendicular; and after marching all day, we encamped in a cave, without blankets, victuals, or water.
—Zebulon M. Pike[5]Donald Jackson, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1:350.
Pike is not climbing the mountain that would be named after him, but likely Blue Mountain about 14 miles to the south. The view above is shows one of the many candidate peaks he could be climbing on this date.
Notes
| ↑1 | Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was interpreter René Jusseaume who brought one of his wives and two children. Expedition private François Labiche was included to translate between French and English. Finally, records indicate expedition sergeant John Ordway was serving as Lewis’s assistant. During this time, William Clark remained at his home at the Falls of the Ohio. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | “Colonel William Fleming’s Journal of Travels in Kentucky,1779–1780” in Travels in the American Colonies, Newton D. Mereness, ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), 649, available at www.archive.org/details/merenesscolonies00newtrich. |
| ↑3 | Mereness, 618, 659. Quoted is W. W. Hening, Laws of Virginia, Vol. X, 35–50. |
| ↑4 | “Abingdon Historic District (Additional Documentation”, National Register of Historic Places registration form (Abingdon, Virginia), p. 47, available at www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/140-0037_Abingdon_HD_2025_Updated_NRHP_Nomination_web.pdf. |
| ↑5 | Donald Jackson, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1:350. |
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The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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