Tired and physically sick, the travelers recover and those who can, build five dugout canoes at camp on the Clearwater River. With no time for portages and despite the help of two Nez Perce river guides, several canoe accidents happen while negotiating rapids on the Clearwater and lower Snake. At the Columbia River, they are greeted by a large group of Yakamas and Wanapums.
Through Nez Perce Eyes
An interview with an elder
by W. Otis Halfmoon
We call ourselves Ni-mee-poo, which means “The People.” We also call ourselves Tsoopnitpeloo, and Tsoopnitpeloo means “The Walking-Out People”—people from the mountains come to the plains, to hunt buffalo.
Synopsis Part 4
Lemhi Valley to Fort Clatsop
by Harry W. Fritz
After trading for horses with Sacagawea’s people, the expedition turned north and then west, on what would indisputably be the most exhausting and debilitating segment of the entire journey, the passage across the Bitterroot Mountains.
Weippe Prairie Villages
Nez Perce camas grounds
by Joseph A. Mussulman
For countless generations, Weippe Prairie (prounouced WEE-yipe), like Travelers’ Rest, was a major node in the transportation, trade, and social networks of the Rocky Mountain West.
The Clearwater River
Looking for a canoe camp
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Clark spent the night of 21 September 1805 at Twisted Hair’s camp on an island in the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The next morning the chief and his son accompanied him back up to the village on Weippe Prairie where he expected to rendezvous with Lewis.
The Clearwater Canoe Camp
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Still sick and exhausted from their recent crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains, Lewis, Clark, and their crew arrived on 26 September 1805, at what they called Canoe Camp, on the Clearwater River.
Clearwater Canoe Camp Observations
30 September–6 October 1805
by Robert N. Bergantino
Determining the latitude of a location from a meridian observation of the sun is among the simplest celestial observations to take and to calculate. On 5 October 1805, Clark writes: “Latitude of this place from the mean of two observations is 46°34’56.3″ North.”
October 1, 1805
The Nez Perce method
At Clearwater Canoe Camp near present Orofino, Idaho, the men employ the Nez Perce method of hollowing out dugout canoes with fire. Lewis adds a specimen of ponderosa pine to his plant collection.
October 5, 1805
Two Nez Perce guides
At Clearwater Canoe Camp, two new dugouts are put in the water. The horses are rounded up, branded, and given to Nez Perce caretakers, and two guides volunteer to take them down the river.
October 7, 1805
Down the Clearwater
After a busy day, thirty-three expedition members, Lewis’s dog, Seaman, and the two Lemhi Shoshone guides start down the Clearwater in their five new dugout canoes. Challenging rapids test their skills.
Colter’s Creek
Today's Potlatch River
by Joseph A. Mussulman
At 3 p.m. on 7 October 1805, the Corps loaded their five new dugout canoes–four large ones plus a small one “to look ahead”–and set out down the Clearwater River toward the Columbia and the Pacific beyond.
October 8, 1805
A canoe accident
On the Clearwater River, the paddlers navigate numerous rapids and pick up guides Twisted Hair and Tetoharsky. After a canoe accident at Colter’s Creek—present Potlatch River—travel abruptly stops.
Meeting the Snake
Water color
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The Corps’ four-day trip to this point from Canoe Camp on the Clearwater in their five crowded dugouts was a taste of things to come.
October 10, 1805
Clearwater and Snake confluence
The paddlers navigate several rapids, and one canoe is damaged when it hits a rock. By day’s end, they reach the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers at present Clarkston, Washington.
Columbia River Basalts
by John W. Jengo
The region of the lower Snake River and the Columbia River’s course through the Columbia Plateau and Gorge experienced volcanic activity starting some 55 million years ago, although the expedition would primarily encounter rock units of Miocene-age.
October 13, 1805
Fast water
To start the day, the non-swimmers portage rifles and scientific equipment while the boatmen navigate a long Snake River rapid. Late in the day, they run a two-mile rapid which “ran like a mill race.”
Tucannon and Palouse Rivers
"rugid rocks"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Now they entered a four-mile-long torrent, its climax a “narrows or narrow rapid” through which a channel 25 yards wide was confined between “rugid rocks” for a solid mile and a half.
Monumental Rock
Clark's Ship Rock
by John W. Jengo
Dubbed “Ship Rock” on Clark’s route map, but now known as Monumental Rock, this distinct outcropping of the Lower Monumental Member of the Saddle Mountains Basalt is located on the south bank of the Snake River in Walla Walla County, Washington, just upriver of Lower Monumental Dam.
Snake River Rapids
"Stuk fast"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The boating didn’t improve on 14 October 1805. At the head of a particularly bad three-mile-long rapid, three canoes “Stuk fast for some time . . . and one Struk a rock in the worst part.”
Lake Missoula Floods
Route of the Lake Missoula Floods
by John W. Jengo
From the moment they dipped their paddles into the Snake River, the Lewis and Clark expedition would not only be following the path of multiple flood basalt flows, but also the route of the colossal Lake Missoula floods that so markedly scoured the basaltic landscape.
October 16, 1805
A musical welcome
The paddlers negotiate the last of the Snake River rapids and the expedition arrives at the Columbia River. Soon after, they are given a musical welcome from a large group of Yakamas and Wanapums.
Meeting the Columbia
A welcoming fanfare
by Joseph A. Mussulman
In the afternoon of 16 October 1805, the expedition portaged around “the last bad rapid as the Indians Sign to us”–the last on the Snake River, that is–and soon arrived at the “Great River of the West,” the Columbia.
The Snake-Columbia Confluence Observations
17–18 October 1805
by Robert N. Bergantino
On 17 October 1805, at the junction of the Snake and Columbia rivers, Lewis set out the artificial horizon and got the sextant out of its case. One of the men stood by with the chronometer, ready to read and record the time of Lewis’s measurements.
