Day-by-Day / August 18, 1805

August 18, 1805

Searching for a navigable river

Clark, the Charbonneau family, several enlisted men, and many Lemhi Shoshone cross Shoshone Cove on their way to find a navigable branch of the Columbia River where they can build dugout canoes.

Remaining at Fortunate Camp at the end of the Beaverhead River, Lewis writes a melancholy meditation on his 31st birthday.

Captain Lewis Trades for Horses

by Yellowstone Public Radio[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading

Trading for Horses

I soon obtained three very good horses for which I gave an uniform coat, a pair of legings, a few handkerchiefs, three knives and some other small articles the whole of which did not cost more than about 20$ in the U’ States. the Indians seemed quite as well pleased with their bargin as I was. the men also purchased one for an old checked shirt a pair of old legings and a knife.
—Meriwether Lewis

Searching for a Canoe Camp

Captain Clarke and 11 more, with our interpreter [Toussaint Charbonneau] and his wife [Sacagawea], and all the Indians set out at 11 o’clock to go over to the Columbia.— The Indians went for horses to carry our baggage, and we to search for timber to make canoes for descending the Columbia.
Patrick Gass

Crossing Shoshone Cove

We proceeded on thro’ a wide leavel vallie without wood except willows & Srubs for 15 miles and Encamped at a place the high lands approach within 200 yards
William Clark

Preparing for Horse Travel

I had all the stores and baggage of every discription opened and aired. and began the operation of forming the packages in proper parsels for the purpose of transporting them on horseback . . . . I had the raw hides put in the water in order to cut them in throngs proper for lashing the packages and forming the necessary geer for pack horses
Meriwether Lewis

Lewis’s Birthday Meditation

This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation.
—Meriwether Lewis

 

Weather Diary

State of the Thermometer at sun symbol rise Weather at sun symbol rise Wind at sun symbol rise State of the Thermometer at 4 P.M. Weather at 4 P.M. Wind at 4 P.M.
45 [above 0] cloudy S. W. 78. [above 0] rain S W.

Capt. Clark sets out with the Indians and 11 men
—Meriwether Lewis[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column and spelled out some abbreviations.

Notes

Notes
1 Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio.
2 To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column and spelled out some abbreviations.

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Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.