OF WOODS AND WATER






The Expedition reaches the Great Falls of the Missouri River on June 13, 1805.  Two months later the Corps of Discovery finally meet the Shoshone. At a council with the Shoshone on August 17th, Sacagawea recognizes the chief as her brother. The Shoshone supply the Expedition with horses and a guide for the arduous trek across the Rocky Mountains along the Lolo Trail to the Nez Perce village.


The two pirogues were used as far as the upper reaches of the Missouri River in what would become Montana. The smaller white pirogue was 39-feet long, had six pairs of oars, held six people, and eight tons of cargo. The larger red pirogue was 42-feet long, had seven pairs of oars, held eight people, and nine tons of cargo. The men cached the red pirogue near the mouth of the Marias River and contin-ued on for a few days with the white pirogue. Upon reaching the Great Falls they concealed the pirogue for the return trip and portaged the canoes around the falls.





MERIWETHER LEWIS
July 28, 1805

"... we called the S.W. fork, that which we meant to ascend, Jefferson's River in honor of that illustrious personage Thomas Jefferson. [the author of our enterprize.] the Middle fork we called Madison's River in honor of James Madison, and the S.E. Fork we called Gallitin's River in honor of Albert Gallitin. ... the beds of all these streams are formed of smooth pebble and gravel, and their waters perfectly transparent; in short they are three noble streams."


On July 30, 1805, the Corps moved up the Jefferson River.  Now in Shoshone country, the Corps had to find Sacagawea's people before winter set in.


Beaverhead Rock, recognized by Sacagawea from her childhood, proved very helpful to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, for it meant her people, the Shoshones, were nearby.  Beaverhead Rock is 14 miles northeast of Dillon, Montana.


Sacagawea created much excitement on August 8, 1805, when she recognized Beaverhead Rock in the distance as the area in which her people, the Shoshones, had been when she was kidnapped as a child several years earlier.

Lewis remembered in his journal:

". . . The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived re[se]mblance of it's figure to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of it's source; which from it's present size cannot be distant. as it is now all important with us to meet with those people as soon as possible I determined to proceed tomorrow with a small party to the source of the principal stream of this river and pass the mountains to the Columbia; and down that river untill I found the Indians; in short it is my resolution to find them or some others, who have horses if it should cause me a trip of one month. for without horses we shall be obliged to leave a great part of our stores, of which, it appears to me that we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length of the voyage before us . . ."



With Beaverhead Rock as their landmark, the explorers were confident they would soon find the Shoshone Indians.
Lewis, Drouillard, John Shields and Hugh McNeal set out for Beaverhead Rock over land on August 9, 1805, to find the Shoshones while Clark and the rest of the men continued down the river.

Contact between the Americans and Shoshone Indians was made three days later when Lewis stumbled upon an old Shoshone woman and two teenage girls.

They were soon met by a party of 60 warriors on horseback led by Chief Cameahwait.  After exchanging trinkets and signs of peace, the explorers set up camp with the Indians on the banks of the Lemhi River to await Clark and his companions.

Throughout the next few days, Lewis learned much from Chief Cameahwait, most importantly that "he had understood from the persed nosed [Nez Perce] Indians who inhabit this river below the rocky mountains that it ran a great way toward the setting sun and finally lost itself in a great lake of water which was illy taisted."  Historian Stephen Ambrose explained the significance of this information:  "For the first time, a white man had a map, however imperfect and imprecise, to connect the great rivers of the western empire."


LEMHI PASS ON THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE--LOOKING TOWARD MONTANA
On August 12, 1805 they reached the Continental Divide at today's Lemhi Pass, where Lewis saw "immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow."

When they crossed the Divide into today's Idaho, they also left the Louisiana Purchase and moved into territory that European nations claimed.

The next day, August 13, 1805 they met the Shoshones.


BESTRIDE THE MIGHTY MISSOURI
August 12, 1805

Michael Haynes
http://www.mhaynesart.com/


The simple act depicted in this painting would have seemed inconceivable to the men of the Lewis and Clark expedition just a few weeks before. For almost a year and a half they had battled the river and later its feeder stream--the Jefferson--wrestling a keelboat, pirogues, dugout canoes and thousands of pounds of supplies and equipment against its relentless and powerful strength.

Expecting to see a relatively short and gentle route to the Pacific Ocean, they were greeted with a panorama of mountain ranges, taller than any they'd yet seen, stacked one after the other to the horizon.  Clearly that long and ultimately victorious struggle up the Missouri River was just one obstacle to their final success.

". . . at the distance of 4 miles further the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the Mighty Missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights.  thus far I had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind has been unalterably fixed for many years, judge then of the pleasure I felt in all[a]ying my thirst with this pure and ice-cold water which issues from the base of a low mountain or hill of a gentle ascent ... here I halted a few minutes and rested myself.  two miles below McNeal had exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri.  after refreshing ourselves we proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow. ... here I first tasted the water of the great Columbia river."


LEWIS'S WOODPECKER
(Melanerpes lewis)

FIRST NOTED BY EXPEDITION:
July 20, 1805, north of Helena in Lewis and Clark County, Montana.

PINYON JAY
(Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus)

FIRST NOTED BY EXPEDITION:
August 1, 1805, along Jefferson River, Montana.

PINYON JAY
A stocky, short-tailed jay.  Long slender bill gives it a resemblance to Clark's nutcracker.  Gray-blue, darkest on head, with white streaking on throat.  Crowlike flight and flocking habits.  Length: 9-11.8 inches (23-30 cm).

The pinyon jay is resident from central Oregon and Montana southward to central Arizona, New Mexico, and extreme northwestern Oklahoma.  He feeds principally on pine nuts, which they store in fall and consume during winter and spring.  They will visit your feeders and devour black-oil sunflower seeds.












ROCKY MOUNTAINS AT CONTINENTAL DIVIDE







GIRL AT THE PIANO






This sweetest of all fruits has a 55% sugar content. The tree has no blossoms because the flower is inside the fruit. What is this physically unusual fruit

???

PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!






Wild Hyacinth (Douglas' brodiaea)

This Montana wildflower prefers grassy prairies or sagebrush plains to open pine forest in the foothills.  It grows east of the Cascades from B.C. to western Montana and south to northern Utah.  Seven species of Brodiaea inhabit the Pacific Northwest, but only this one grows in the Rockies.  Ann Telling photo











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