no great distance. This piece of information has cheered the sperits of the party, who now begin to console themselves with the anticipation of shortly seeing the head of the Missouri, yet unknown to the civilized world.” Three days later, Clark’s party reached the Three Forks of the Missouri and found the river split into three streams, each nearly ninety yards wide.
Although he was coming down with a high fever, Clark spent a couple of days looking for signs of Indians. He had found a campfire still burning, but no Indians in sight. On July 27, he rejoined Lewis and the main party, which had reached the Forks. Lewis gave Clark a dose of Dr. Rush’s pills and made him rest and bathe his feet, which were full of prickly pear thorns. The expedition was being slowed by other ailments and injuries, Lewis noted: “We have a lame crew just now, two with tumers or bad boils on various parts of them, one with a bad stone bruise, one with his arm accedently dislocated but fortunately well replaced, and a fifth has streigned his back by sliping and falling backwards on the . . . canoe.”
To let Clark recover and to rest the men, Lewis decided to stay at the Three Forks for a few days. He used the stars to calculate the latitude and longitude of the spot, which he considered “an essential point in the geography of this western part of the continent.”
Sacagawea said their camp was on the precise spot where her band of Shoshones had been five years earlier when the Minnetarees had attacked, killing and capturing a number of her tribe and taking her prisoner.
“I cannot discover that she shews any immotion of sorrow in recollecting this event,” Lewis wrote, “or of joy in being restored to her native country; if she has enough to eat and a few trinkets to wear I believe she would be perfectly content anywhere.” But Lewis had never had much sympathy or understanding for Sacagawea.
After studying the Three Forks area, the captains decided that none of the three nearly equal branches could be considered the Missouri’s continuation. In naming these tributaries, Lewis chose to honor three men without whom the expedition would have never taken its first step. He called the southeast branch the Gallatin River for Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, who had helped finance the Louisiana Purchase; the middle fork the Madison River for Secretary of State James Madison, who had helped win its approval; and the southwest branch the Jefferson River for President Thomas Jefferson, “the author of our enterprize.”
On July 30, they started up the Jefferson River, convinced it would lead them directly into the mountains. Clark’s fever had subsided, but he was nearly crippled by what he called “the rageing fury of a turner on my anckle.” Captain Lewis came down with dysentery. Private Joseph Whitehouse’s leg was badly bruised when his canoe overturned and ran over him; “had the water been two inches shallower,” Lewis noted, “it must inevitably have crushed him to death.” On August 1, the expedition passed a small stream that Lewis named Birth Creek in honor of Clark’s thirty-fifth birthday, but the gesture was of little consolation to the captain.
To add to their troubles, George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery, had gotten lost - something he did frequently. The previous summer he had been lost for sixteen days and kept himself alive by eating wild grapes and, according to Clark, one rabbit “which he Killed by shooting a piece of hard Stick in place of a ball.” This time, the party spent three days searching for the eighteen-year-old before he returned to camp, exhausted but unhurt.
Clark had sent Shannon to scout a tributary of the Jefferson River that Lewis had named Wisdom River, which was thought to be the preferred route. After hiking nearly twenty-five miles up the Wisdom, Shannon had determined the stream was not navigable by canoe and turned back to rejoin the
Although he was coming down with a high fever, Clark spent a couple of days looking for signs of Indians. He had found a campfire still burning, but no Indians in sight. On July 27, he rejoined Lewis and the main party, which had reached the Forks. Lewis gave Clark a dose of Dr. Rush’s pills and made him rest and bathe his feet, which were full of prickly pear thorns. The expedition was being slowed by other ailments and injuries, Lewis noted: “We have a lame crew just now, two with tumers or bad boils on various parts of them, one with a bad stone bruise, one with his arm accedently dislocated but fortunately well replaced, and a fifth has streigned his back by sliping and falling backwards on the . . . canoe.”
To let Clark recover and to rest the men, Lewis decided to stay at the Three Forks for a few days. He used the stars to calculate the latitude and longitude of the spot, which he considered “an essential point in the geography of this western part of the continent.”
Sacagawea said their camp was on the precise spot where her band of Shoshones had been five years earlier when the Minnetarees had attacked, killing and capturing a number of her tribe and taking her prisoner.
“I cannot discover that she shews any immotion of sorrow in recollecting this event,” Lewis wrote, “or of joy in being restored to her native country; if she has enough to eat and a few trinkets to wear I believe she would be perfectly content anywhere.” But Lewis had never had much sympathy or understanding for Sacagawea.
After studying the Three Forks area, the captains decided that none of the three nearly equal branches could be considered the Missouri’s continuation. In naming these tributaries, Lewis chose to honor three men without whom the expedition would have never taken its first step. He called the southeast branch the Gallatin River for Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, who had helped finance the Louisiana Purchase; the middle fork the Madison River for Secretary of State James Madison, who had helped win its approval; and the southwest branch the Jefferson River for President Thomas Jefferson, “the author of our enterprize.”
On July 30, they started up the Jefferson River, convinced it would lead them directly into the mountains. Clark’s fever had subsided, but he was nearly crippled by what he called “the rageing fury of a turner on my anckle.” Captain Lewis came down with dysentery. Private Joseph Whitehouse’s leg was badly bruised when his canoe overturned and ran over him; “had the water been two inches shallower,” Lewis noted, “it must inevitably have crushed him to death.” On August 1, the expedition passed a small stream that Lewis named Birth Creek in honor of Clark’s thirty-fifth birthday, but the gesture was of little consolation to the captain.
To add to their troubles, George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery, had gotten lost - something he did frequently. The previous summer he had been lost for sixteen days and kept himself alive by eating wild grapes and, according to Clark, one rabbit “which he Killed by shooting a piece of hard Stick in place of a ball.” This time, the party spent three days searching for the eighteen-year-old before he returned to camp, exhausted but unhurt.
Clark had sent Shannon to scout a tributary of the Jefferson River that Lewis had named Wisdom River, which was thought to be the preferred route. After hiking nearly twenty-five miles up the Wisdom, Shannon had determined the stream was not navigable by canoe and turned back to rejoin the
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