The Upper Pitch is now known as Black Eagle Falls
The 1805 Trip
Surprises, illness & narrow escapes
by Phil Scriver
It had been especially cold that winter at Fort Mandan and every member of the Corps of Discovery was anxious to be on their way to the Pacific Ocean. Captains Lewis and Clark were pleased with the geographic information they had collected from the Mandan and Minnetaries. Their route was a simple one. Follow the Missouri River to its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains and after a short overland trip it was back on the waters of the Columbia River to the Pacific. The Minnetaries knew the route to the headwaters well from their frequent travels. One of their raiding parties had captured Sacajawea near those headwaters only a few years earlier.
So the list of geographic features the Captains had made from their talks with their hosts that winter seemed to be a check on how far they had traveled. Lewis and Clark knew where to expect rivers and large creeks to enter the Missouri, when to expect several island mountains and a waterfall that was a short distance from the Headwaters they sought.
As the Expedition labored up the Missouri passing through the almost storybook White Cliffs area, they reached the mouth of the Marias River in early June. They had been told about two other rivers that joined the Missouri from the north, but this one from the north was completely unexpected. Here was a river that did not appear on the maps Captain Clark had sketched as he talked with the Big White Chief and others during the long cold winter on the Dakota plains. The Expedition faced its first major geographic decision. They must determine which river was the correct river to continue following. In opposition to every other member of the group, the Captains selected the more southerly flowing of the two as the one to lead them over the mountains. Their accurate determination of which river was actually the Missouri enabled the Expedition to press on with the journey to the Pacific without the costly retracing of steps that would have been caused by taking the wrong route. It has been said that the wrong decision here would certainly have spelled failure for the Corps of Discovery by forcing them to abandon all efforts to reach the ocean and head back down river. Captain Lewis reflected on this very possible problem in an early June entry in his journal.
How could the Captains so boldly select the river to follow in direct opposition to every other Expedition member? Although the Captains were well accustomed to making decisions this one was very definitely not made quickly or without deliberate considerations. To get an idea how important this decision was, the Expedition spent eight days trying to determine which course to follow.
The Expedition had arrived at the mouth of the Marias the evening of June 2. The next day was spent trying to determine which river to follow. Sgt Pryor took a canoe and two men up the north fork about 10 miles while Sgt Gass took two men and a canoe up the south fork about 7 miles. Several small parties were sent out by land to try to determine where these rivers lead. All were to only go so far that they could return by nightfall. One of the overland parties was Joseph and Rueben Fields who followed the south fork about seven miles then turned north to the Teton and followed it back downstream to where it flowed into the Marias and then to the Missouri. The two Captains walked up to the high point of land between the two rivers but could not make any determinations so they busied themselves by taking some measurements of the rivers and trying to analyze the results. The north fork measured 200 yards across with a slower current than the south fork and deeper. The south fork measured 372 yards across.
Lewis noted that the north fork is very muddy and appears exactly like the river they had been following while the south fork was clear with a rocky bottom and much faster current. He deduced that the north fork gave color to the river downstream. For it to be so muddy it had to pass a great distance through the level plain. He suspicioned it did not enter the mountains to the west, but drew its waters from the plains to the north. The south fork was precisely characteristic of a river that comes out of the mountains. It had a gravely bottom and was the same clear color as the Mandans described the river at the falls. These deductions were still not adequate evidence. So when the parties all returned that evening with no real success in determining which river to follow, the Captains decided they had to take a party up each one far enough to be certain the course to take. Lewis would lead a party up the north fork and Clark would take a party up the south fork.
On June 4 Lewis departed with Pryor, Drewyer, Shields, Windsor, LePage and Cruzatte up the east side of the Marias River to a high hill that afforded them a commanding view of the countryside. The party spent two days traveling up the river 77 miles. On the morning of June 6 Lewis was convinced that the north fork went too much to the north to be the river to the great falls and determined to return to the mouth. To illustrate his decision, Lewis named the north fork the Maria’s River. They reached the main party’s camp the evening of June 8. As an interesting side note, not only had the party taken the latitude reading to determine where they were and studied the countryside to try to guess where the river they were following would lead, but they had time to identify two birds new to science; McCown’s longspur and the sage grouse.
At the same time Lewis departed up the north fork, Clark set out up the south fork with Rueben Fields, Joseph Fields, Gass, Shannon and York. They traveled 25 miles upriver to present day Carter that day. They next day it only took 11 more miles until Clark discovered “the river run west of south a long distance and has a strong and rapid current, going up further would be useless.” Clark had made his decision that the south fork was the river that would take them to the great falls. He started back to their main camp striking out overland to the Tansey (Teton) River. They followed that river, reaching camp the following evening.
The Captains spent June 9 reviewing the results of their explorations. The maps Lewis had brought with him, although they were being proven inaccurate in some details showed only small streams coming from the mountains to the north, the direction the Marias River went. Additionally the south fork was the same clear color the Mandans had told them the river at the falls was. Finally the formation of the several mountain ranges to the southwest was more reasonable for navigatible rivers to flow through than the single unbroken chain of mountains farther north. After studying all the information the two Captains were convinced that the south fork was the true Missouri. In spite of the logic and analysis the men were united in their belief that the north fork was the proper route, but “they said very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us anywhere we thought proper to direct.”
Finally a deal was struck. Lewis would take a small, fast-moving party overland up the south fork until he reached the great falls while Clark would follow with the slower boats and rest of the party. When Lewis reached the falls he would send a message back down to Clark. After two days of final preparations Captain Lewis set out on June 11. Accompanying Lewis were Joseph Fields, Drewyer, Goodrich and Gibson. Captain Clark departed with the rest of the Expedition and the boats the following day.
Although this area was of no special importance to the nomadic tribes who wandered the area in the days before Lewis and Clark, it has always been important for the white men starting with the Corps of Discovery. A look at the Montana map shows that bands of Indians may have followed the Missouri River across the eastern part of the state from the mouth of the Yellowstone to the middle of the state, but the river makes a bend north just beyond the Judith River. Since they were riding horses and not bound to the river, they would probably have left the river at that point in favor of a shorter overland route to the rich hunting grounds at the great falls of the Missouri. Thus they would bypass the mouth of the Marias. The Captains were to later learn that the geographic information they had contained another surprise. They expected to find a single waterfall to be portaged instead of a series of five that Lewis was to find a few days later.
When Captain Lewis set forth with his little party, he was determined to find the great falls of the Missouri the Mandans and Minnetaries had told him about. Both he and Captain Clark were convinced the South Fork was the correct river course to follow, but there had to have been a little nagging doubt in his mind. Six days of reconnaissance and two more spent studying the results had failed to actually find those falls. All the evidence said the Captains were right, but nobody had actually seen them. All the rest of the Expedition was convinced the other river, the North Fork, was the right course. Adding to the situation, Lewis was just starting to recover from a severe case of diarrhea that had left him quite weakened.
The party’s course followed a valley with the Missouri River (South Fork) on the left and the Marias River (North Fork) on the right. The Teton River, Lewis named it the Tansey, soon branched off the Marias. The Marias continued in a northerly direction while the Teton went west. The party followed the valley between the Missouri and the Teton as these rivers meandered towards the west, sometimes close to each other then sometimes farther apart. After about nine miles the two rivers came so close they were only separated by a high ridge. The party climbed the ridge to discover the rivers were only 200 yards apart. From there the ridge opened to a “modest plain”. From that vantage point they spotted a small herd of elk that would serve well for dinner. However Lewis had a return of his illness accompanied by strong stomach pains such that he could not eat or continue the journey. They camped there by a small spring. Having left all their medicine with the main party, Lewis called upon his herbalist training and prepared a chokecherry drink that cured him. By the next morning he was totally recovered and ready to continue his march to the falls.
This narrow point where the Missouri and Teton Rivers came the closest to each other is now referred to as the “cracondunez”, a corruption of a French term for “bridge of the nose”. The spring is known as “grog spring”.
The next morning Lewis and his party continued up the little valley, but after about five miles the valley gave way to a large open plain. They went out on this plain one or two miles, far enough to bypass the coulees and ravines that form the river breaks. After traveling another seven or eight miles in a westerly direction, they swung a little to the south to get back down on the Missouri. That plain was getting quite large with no water on it and the temperature was getting higher. Another hour’s march and the party returned to the river where they ate and rested for two hours. They had traveled fifteen miles that morning.
Lewis remarked that the place they stopped was a nice little bottom on the river. There they also had a confrontation with two grizzlies who thought the party was intruding. Both grizzlies were killed, each requiring only one shot. Lewis noted in his journal entry that day that was “a circumstance which I believe has never happened before.” Most grizzly kills required a much greater number of shots.
When the group continued they came back up on the plain away from the river breaks heading northwest. Once on the plain they turned west. By now the Missouri’s course is fairly regular to the southwest, while the Teton flows to the west and a little north. After about six or seven miles the party climbed a ridge that runs east to west through their plain. Lewis recorded “from this height we had a most beautiful and picturesque view of the Rocky Mountains” Which run from the southeast to the northwest. He discovered that they were made of “several ranges, each getting higher.” He must have had second thoughts about the view since he continued to say it was “an august spectacle” still more formidable because they had to get through those mountains.
Today we call the mountains he saw, from east to west, the Highwoods, then the Little Belts, Big Belts, and the Lewis Range all of which are lesser ranges before actually reaching the final range Lewis saw that he said reached into the clouds. Those were the main range of the Rockies.
Lewis’ view of the Highwoods was into the side so to speak since they are a smaller mountain range that runs east to west. He saw the ends of the Little Belts and Big Belts and the Lewis Range as they run more southeast to northwest. By the time he turned his view to the main range of the Rockies, he was again looking into the side of that range since it runs more north to south.
From that ridge Lewis adjusted his course to the southwest to get back down to the Missouri River. After another two hours traveling the party reached that river. They had gone a total of twenty-seven miles that day.
The third day on the trek from the Marias started shortly after daybreak as the little group left their camp on the Missouri and headed back out of the river breaks onto the prairies. They traveled southwest for about six miles pausing at a small rise. They noted the river now turns to the south. Before them was a large open plain of fifty or sixty miles in length. Lewis’ gaze fixed on “two curious mountains” in front of them. He described them as “square with sides perpendicular to the ground, 250 feet high and of yellow clay with a flat grassy plain on top.”
Lewis directed his companions to spread out in an attempt to find the necessary game for dinner and to head south so as not to lose sight of the river and risk bypassing the great falls. In his journal entry for June 13, Lewis says he heard the roaring of the falls well before he reached them at noon. They had traveled fifteen miles that morning.
The party made camp near the falls to wait Clark’s arrival. That afternoon Goodrich caught “six very fine trout.” Lewis examined them carefully recording the descriptions in his journal. Today we know these trout to have been cutthroat trout, which were a new species discovered by the Expedition. The cutthroat trout is Montana’s state fish. Also that afternoon Lewis pondered over the various colors of the grizzly bear they had seen, but concluded they are all of the same species.
At sunrise the next morning Lewis dispatched Joseph Fields downriver with a note to Clark telling him that he had found the falls. Fields reached Clark and the main party by mid afternoon. As he handed Clark Lewis’ note he also informed him they were about 20 miles below the falls. Lewis’ note told Clark that the falls “in part answer the description given them by the Indians, much higher (and) the eagle’s nest which they describe is there.” He continued by saying he was going upriver and try to find “a point where we can make a portage” which he thought would be about five miles long.
Clark departed from the mouth of the Marias with the boats and the rest of the Expedition on June 12. Their course was also up the South Fork. Today we know it as the Missouri River. Their first camp was about three miles upriver from the Grog Springs where Lewis had camped the night before. By the evening of June 14, Clark and the main body of the Expedition had made it to the place Lewis camped on the 12th, near present day Floweree. The next day Clark arrived stopping five miles downstream from Lewis’ camp at the falls at the beginning of a series of difficult rapids. Clark’s party had traveled 54 miles by river in 84 hours compared to Lewis’ 51 miles over land in 52 hours.
While everyone was busy setting up camp Clark sent Fields back to Lewis to let him know the main party’s location. The next morning Fields was back at Clark’s camp informing him that Lewis and the others would rejoin the party, which they did that afternoon. Lewis told Clark about his adventures of the 14th and of finding four more waterfalls. He now realized the best portage route was on the south side of the river (he had traveled on the north side earlier) and that it would be “no less than 16 miles.” Camp was now moved across the river to the south side and upstream a short distance; the Expedition is now at Lower Portage Camp. Lewis would spend the next four days making preparations for the portage while Clark would survey the overland route to be used.
When the two Captains were trying to determine which was the right river to follow, Lewis went up the North Fork (Marias River) and Clark up the South Fork (Missouri River). Neither one actually saw the great falls on those trips, but they each decided the South Fork was the correct choice. Curiously enough, if Clark had not been so quick in making his decision and had continued on another ten miles, he would have reached the falls, confirming the correct river about a week earlier than they eventually did.
The Expedition spent the next month in the great falls area as they portaged around the series of five falls and assembled Lewis’ experiment, the collapsible iron-framed boat they had carried with them from Harper’s Ferry. When that boat proved to be of no value because of leaks that could not be stopped two more dugout canoes were made. The Lewis and Clark Expedition made their final preparations and departed Canoe Camp and the area of the Great Falls of the Missouri on July 15th. They now had 8 dugout canoes, each on heavily loaded with baggage. Lewis bemoaned that it was “extremely difficult to keep the baggage of many of our men within reasonable bounds; they will be adding bulky articles of but little use or value to them.” During the next three days it took the Expedition to reach the Rockies many of the men walked on shore to help lighten the load in the canoes. They found this mode of travel quite satisfactory since the ground was not rocky and the cactus could be avoided. Two rivers were named on this part of the trek that still carry those original names; the Smith River and Dearborn River, named in honor of the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Lewis also named a large creek Ordway Creek but that stream now is called Prickly Pear Creek. Standing as if it were a guardian of the Missouri River’s entrance into the Rocky Mountains was a large rock Lewis estimated to be 400 feet tall, surrounded on three sides by a modest plain with the river against it on the fourth side. When he climbed “with some difficulty nearly to the summit” Lewis commented on the most pleasing view of the country they were about to leave. This rock was named The Tower or Tower Rock.
Surprises, illness & narrow escapes
by Phil Scriver
It had been especially cold that winter at Fort Mandan and every member of the Corps of Discovery was anxious to be on their way to the Pacific Ocean. Captains Lewis and Clark were pleased with the geographic information they had collected from the Mandan and Minnetaries. Their route was a simple one. Follow the Missouri River to its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains and after a short overland trip it was back on the waters of the Columbia River to the Pacific. The Minnetaries knew the route to the headwaters well from their frequent travels. One of their raiding parties had captured Sacajawea near those headwaters only a few years earlier.
So the list of geographic features the Captains had made from their talks with their hosts that winter seemed to be a check on how far they had traveled. Lewis and Clark knew where to expect rivers and large creeks to enter the Missouri, when to expect several island mountains and a waterfall that was a short distance from the Headwaters they sought.
As the Expedition labored up the Missouri passing through the almost storybook White Cliffs area, they reached the mouth of the Marias River in early June. They had been told about two other rivers that joined the Missouri from the north, but this one from the north was completely unexpected. Here was a river that did not appear on the maps Captain Clark had sketched as he talked with the Big White Chief and others during the long cold winter on the Dakota plains. The Expedition faced its first major geographic decision. They must determine which river was the correct river to continue following. In opposition to every other member of the group, the Captains selected the more southerly flowing of the two as the one to lead them over the mountains. Their accurate determination of which river was actually the Missouri enabled the Expedition to press on with the journey to the Pacific without the costly retracing of steps that would have been caused by taking the wrong route. It has been said that the wrong decision here would certainly have spelled failure for the Corps of Discovery by forcing them to abandon all efforts to reach the ocean and head back down river. Captain Lewis reflected on this very possible problem in an early June entry in his journal.
How could the Captains so boldly select the river to follow in direct opposition to every other Expedition member? Although the Captains were well accustomed to making decisions this one was very definitely not made quickly or without deliberate considerations. To get an idea how important this decision was, the Expedition spent eight days trying to determine which course to follow.
The Expedition had arrived at the mouth of the Marias the evening of June 2. The next day was spent trying to determine which river to follow. Sgt Pryor took a canoe and two men up the north fork about 10 miles while Sgt Gass took two men and a canoe up the south fork about 7 miles. Several small parties were sent out by land to try to determine where these rivers lead. All were to only go so far that they could return by nightfall. One of the overland parties was Joseph and Rueben Fields who followed the south fork about seven miles then turned north to the Teton and followed it back downstream to where it flowed into the Marias and then to the Missouri. The two Captains walked up to the high point of land between the two rivers but could not make any determinations so they busied themselves by taking some measurements of the rivers and trying to analyze the results. The north fork measured 200 yards across with a slower current than the south fork and deeper. The south fork measured 372 yards across.
Lewis noted that the north fork is very muddy and appears exactly like the river they had been following while the south fork was clear with a rocky bottom and much faster current. He deduced that the north fork gave color to the river downstream. For it to be so muddy it had to pass a great distance through the level plain. He suspicioned it did not enter the mountains to the west, but drew its waters from the plains to the north. The south fork was precisely characteristic of a river that comes out of the mountains. It had a gravely bottom and was the same clear color as the Mandans described the river at the falls. These deductions were still not adequate evidence. So when the parties all returned that evening with no real success in determining which river to follow, the Captains decided they had to take a party up each one far enough to be certain the course to take. Lewis would lead a party up the north fork and Clark would take a party up the south fork.
On June 4 Lewis departed with Pryor, Drewyer, Shields, Windsor, LePage and Cruzatte up the east side of the Marias River to a high hill that afforded them a commanding view of the countryside. The party spent two days traveling up the river 77 miles. On the morning of June 6 Lewis was convinced that the north fork went too much to the north to be the river to the great falls and determined to return to the mouth. To illustrate his decision, Lewis named the north fork the Maria’s River. They reached the main party’s camp the evening of June 8. As an interesting side note, not only had the party taken the latitude reading to determine where they were and studied the countryside to try to guess where the river they were following would lead, but they had time to identify two birds new to science; McCown’s longspur and the sage grouse.
At the same time Lewis departed up the north fork, Clark set out up the south fork with Rueben Fields, Joseph Fields, Gass, Shannon and York. They traveled 25 miles upriver to present day Carter that day. They next day it only took 11 more miles until Clark discovered “the river run west of south a long distance and has a strong and rapid current, going up further would be useless.” Clark had made his decision that the south fork was the river that would take them to the great falls. He started back to their main camp striking out overland to the Tansey (Teton) River. They followed that river, reaching camp the following evening.
The Captains spent June 9 reviewing the results of their explorations. The maps Lewis had brought with him, although they were being proven inaccurate in some details showed only small streams coming from the mountains to the north, the direction the Marias River went. Additionally the south fork was the same clear color the Mandans had told them the river at the falls was. Finally the formation of the several mountain ranges to the southwest was more reasonable for navigatible rivers to flow through than the single unbroken chain of mountains farther north. After studying all the information the two Captains were convinced that the south fork was the true Missouri. In spite of the logic and analysis the men were united in their belief that the north fork was the proper route, but “they said very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us anywhere we thought proper to direct.”
Finally a deal was struck. Lewis would take a small, fast-moving party overland up the south fork until he reached the great falls while Clark would follow with the slower boats and rest of the party. When Lewis reached the falls he would send a message back down to Clark. After two days of final preparations Captain Lewis set out on June 11. Accompanying Lewis were Joseph Fields, Drewyer, Goodrich and Gibson. Captain Clark departed with the rest of the Expedition and the boats the following day.
Although this area was of no special importance to the nomadic tribes who wandered the area in the days before Lewis and Clark, it has always been important for the white men starting with the Corps of Discovery. A look at the Montana map shows that bands of Indians may have followed the Missouri River across the eastern part of the state from the mouth of the Yellowstone to the middle of the state, but the river makes a bend north just beyond the Judith River. Since they were riding horses and not bound to the river, they would probably have left the river at that point in favor of a shorter overland route to the rich hunting grounds at the great falls of the Missouri. Thus they would bypass the mouth of the Marias. The Captains were to later learn that the geographic information they had contained another surprise. They expected to find a single waterfall to be portaged instead of a series of five that Lewis was to find a few days later.
When Captain Lewis set forth with his little party, he was determined to find the great falls of the Missouri the Mandans and Minnetaries had told him about. Both he and Captain Clark were convinced the South Fork was the correct river course to follow, but there had to have been a little nagging doubt in his mind. Six days of reconnaissance and two more spent studying the results had failed to actually find those falls. All the evidence said the Captains were right, but nobody had actually seen them. All the rest of the Expedition was convinced the other river, the North Fork, was the right course. Adding to the situation, Lewis was just starting to recover from a severe case of diarrhea that had left him quite weakened.
The party’s course followed a valley with the Missouri River (South Fork) on the left and the Marias River (North Fork) on the right. The Teton River, Lewis named it the Tansey, soon branched off the Marias. The Marias continued in a northerly direction while the Teton went west. The party followed the valley between the Missouri and the Teton as these rivers meandered towards the west, sometimes close to each other then sometimes farther apart. After about nine miles the two rivers came so close they were only separated by a high ridge. The party climbed the ridge to discover the rivers were only 200 yards apart. From there the ridge opened to a “modest plain”. From that vantage point they spotted a small herd of elk that would serve well for dinner. However Lewis had a return of his illness accompanied by strong stomach pains such that he could not eat or continue the journey. They camped there by a small spring. Having left all their medicine with the main party, Lewis called upon his herbalist training and prepared a chokecherry drink that cured him. By the next morning he was totally recovered and ready to continue his march to the falls.
This narrow point where the Missouri and Teton Rivers came the closest to each other is now referred to as the “cracondunez”, a corruption of a French term for “bridge of the nose”. The spring is known as “grog spring”.
The next morning Lewis and his party continued up the little valley, but after about five miles the valley gave way to a large open plain. They went out on this plain one or two miles, far enough to bypass the coulees and ravines that form the river breaks. After traveling another seven or eight miles in a westerly direction, they swung a little to the south to get back down on the Missouri. That plain was getting quite large with no water on it and the temperature was getting higher. Another hour’s march and the party returned to the river where they ate and rested for two hours. They had traveled fifteen miles that morning.
Lewis remarked that the place they stopped was a nice little bottom on the river. There they also had a confrontation with two grizzlies who thought the party was intruding. Both grizzlies were killed, each requiring only one shot. Lewis noted in his journal entry that day that was “a circumstance which I believe has never happened before.” Most grizzly kills required a much greater number of shots.
When the group continued they came back up on the plain away from the river breaks heading northwest. Once on the plain they turned west. By now the Missouri’s course is fairly regular to the southwest, while the Teton flows to the west and a little north. After about six or seven miles the party climbed a ridge that runs east to west through their plain. Lewis recorded “from this height we had a most beautiful and picturesque view of the Rocky Mountains” Which run from the southeast to the northwest. He discovered that they were made of “several ranges, each getting higher.” He must have had second thoughts about the view since he continued to say it was “an august spectacle” still more formidable because they had to get through those mountains.
Today we call the mountains he saw, from east to west, the Highwoods, then the Little Belts, Big Belts, and the Lewis Range all of which are lesser ranges before actually reaching the final range Lewis saw that he said reached into the clouds. Those were the main range of the Rockies.
Lewis’ view of the Highwoods was into the side so to speak since they are a smaller mountain range that runs east to west. He saw the ends of the Little Belts and Big Belts and the Lewis Range as they run more southeast to northwest. By the time he turned his view to the main range of the Rockies, he was again looking into the side of that range since it runs more north to south.
From that ridge Lewis adjusted his course to the southwest to get back down to the Missouri River. After another two hours traveling the party reached that river. They had gone a total of twenty-seven miles that day.
The third day on the trek from the Marias started shortly after daybreak as the little group left their camp on the Missouri and headed back out of the river breaks onto the prairies. They traveled southwest for about six miles pausing at a small rise. They noted the river now turns to the south. Before them was a large open plain of fifty or sixty miles in length. Lewis’ gaze fixed on “two curious mountains” in front of them. He described them as “square with sides perpendicular to the ground, 250 feet high and of yellow clay with a flat grassy plain on top.”
Lewis directed his companions to spread out in an attempt to find the necessary game for dinner and to head south so as not to lose sight of the river and risk bypassing the great falls. In his journal entry for June 13, Lewis says he heard the roaring of the falls well before he reached them at noon. They had traveled fifteen miles that morning.
The party made camp near the falls to wait Clark’s arrival. That afternoon Goodrich caught “six very fine trout.” Lewis examined them carefully recording the descriptions in his journal. Today we know these trout to have been cutthroat trout, which were a new species discovered by the Expedition. The cutthroat trout is Montana’s state fish. Also that afternoon Lewis pondered over the various colors of the grizzly bear they had seen, but concluded they are all of the same species.
At sunrise the next morning Lewis dispatched Joseph Fields downriver with a note to Clark telling him that he had found the falls. Fields reached Clark and the main party by mid afternoon. As he handed Clark Lewis’ note he also informed him they were about 20 miles below the falls. Lewis’ note told Clark that the falls “in part answer the description given them by the Indians, much higher (and) the eagle’s nest which they describe is there.” He continued by saying he was going upriver and try to find “a point where we can make a portage” which he thought would be about five miles long.
Clark departed from the mouth of the Marias with the boats and the rest of the Expedition on June 12. Their course was also up the South Fork. Today we know it as the Missouri River. Their first camp was about three miles upriver from the Grog Springs where Lewis had camped the night before. By the evening of June 14, Clark and the main body of the Expedition had made it to the place Lewis camped on the 12th, near present day Floweree. The next day Clark arrived stopping five miles downstream from Lewis’ camp at the falls at the beginning of a series of difficult rapids. Clark’s party had traveled 54 miles by river in 84 hours compared to Lewis’ 51 miles over land in 52 hours.
While everyone was busy setting up camp Clark sent Fields back to Lewis to let him know the main party’s location. The next morning Fields was back at Clark’s camp informing him that Lewis and the others would rejoin the party, which they did that afternoon. Lewis told Clark about his adventures of the 14th and of finding four more waterfalls. He now realized the best portage route was on the south side of the river (he had traveled on the north side earlier) and that it would be “no less than 16 miles.” Camp was now moved across the river to the south side and upstream a short distance; the Expedition is now at Lower Portage Camp. Lewis would spend the next four days making preparations for the portage while Clark would survey the overland route to be used.
When the two Captains were trying to determine which was the right river to follow, Lewis went up the North Fork (Marias River) and Clark up the South Fork (Missouri River). Neither one actually saw the great falls on those trips, but they each decided the South Fork was the correct choice. Curiously enough, if Clark had not been so quick in making his decision and had continued on another ten miles, he would have reached the falls, confirming the correct river about a week earlier than they eventually did.
The Expedition spent the next month in the great falls area as they portaged around the series of five falls and assembled Lewis’ experiment, the collapsible iron-framed boat they had carried with them from Harper’s Ferry. When that boat proved to be of no value because of leaks that could not be stopped two more dugout canoes were made. The Lewis and Clark Expedition made their final preparations and departed Canoe Camp and the area of the Great Falls of the Missouri on July 15th. They now had 8 dugout canoes, each on heavily loaded with baggage. Lewis bemoaned that it was “extremely difficult to keep the baggage of many of our men within reasonable bounds; they will be adding bulky articles of but little use or value to them.” During the next three days it took the Expedition to reach the Rockies many of the men walked on shore to help lighten the load in the canoes. They found this mode of travel quite satisfactory since the ground was not rocky and the cactus could be avoided. Two rivers were named on this part of the trek that still carry those original names; the Smith River and Dearborn River, named in honor of the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Lewis also named a large creek Ordway Creek but that stream now is called Prickly Pear Creek. Standing as if it were a guardian of the Missouri River’s entrance into the Rocky Mountains was a large rock Lewis estimated to be 400 feet tall, surrounded on three sides by a modest plain with the river against it on the fourth side. When he climbed “with some difficulty nearly to the summit” Lewis commented on the most pleasing view of the country they were about to leave. This rock was named The Tower or Tower Rock.