On or near this date, the expedition encounters the dangerous islands and shoals of the Ohio River between Yellow Banks and Red Banks—present Owensboro and Henderson, Kentucky. The captains’ journals appear to remain silent, but Eliza Trist and Thomas Rodney describe the journey here.[1]Neither captain appears to be keeping a journal as the expedition travels between Louisville and Fort Massac and their precise location on this date is unknown.
Islands and Shoals
Henderson Bridge
© Richard Hunt. Used by permission.
Originally built for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1885, the bridge is now owned by the CSX Transportation.[2]“Henderson Bridge (Ohio River)”, Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Bridge_(Ohio_River), accessed 20 September 2024.
1814 Map of the Ohio
Zadok Cramer, The Navigator, 1814.
The numbers on this map refer to river hazards between present Owensboro (Yellow Banks) and Henderson. The edition of Zadok Cramer’s The Navigator carried down the Ohio by Meriwether Lewis did not include this map.
continued all day nothing remarkable but passing a great many Islands and geting into very shoal water on a sand bar, we were very apprehensive our boat woud ground but with great care we got clear—
—Eliza House Trist, 8 June 1774[3]The Travel Journal of Eliza House Trist 1783–84, Karen A. Chase, ed. (Richmond, Virginia: 2024), 44.
Stuck on a Log
[W]e were in the strength of the current; and a fair wind and sail up, our skiff swung on a log that the boat run very near and broke her pointer and loged on a log. We had to down sail, row back, and cast ankor near her; and I threw her off with the setting pole.
—Thomas Rodney, 27 October 1803[4]Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 142.
A Poor Miserable Place
This is a poor miserable place, composed of logged huts and most of them deserted. It was first inhabited by renegads and planters and they upon governments being extended here were obliged to decamp and leave their huts, and few others are yet settled here. Nothing is to be had here. It is however a hansome cite for a town, but not favorable to business.
—Thomas Rodney, 27 October 1803[5]Rodney, Journal, 141.
The renegades of Henderson were Samuel Mason and his notorious gang of pirates and highwaymen. In the fall of 1803, his capture, escape, and death were big news. For more on the Mason Gang, see November 7, 1803
Henderson would become the home of John James Audubon . Although he never met Meriwether Lewis, America’s greatest ornithologist, was just starting his career when Lewis and Clark returned, and there is ample evidence that he drew inspiration from Lewis and Clark’s writings.
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Notes
| ↑1 | Neither captain appears to be keeping a journal as the expedition travels between Louisville and Fort Massac and their precise location on this date is unknown. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | “Henderson Bridge (Ohio River)”, Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Bridge_(Ohio_River), accessed 20 September 2024. |
| ↑3 | The Travel Journal of Eliza House Trist 1783–84, Karen A. Chase, ed. (Richmond, Virginia: 2024), 44. |
| ↑4 | Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 142. |
| ↑5 | Rodney, Journal, 141. |
