Clark and several Shoshones cross Lemhi Pass. He trades for a mule and camps on Pattee Creek in present Idaho.
At Fortunate Camp at the end of the Beaverhead River, Lewis starts a multi-day treatise describing Lemhi Shoshone lifeways and manners. Sacagawea‘s first husband extracts payment from Charbonneau, and some fishermen catch several trout and longnose suckers.
The Shoshone Indians
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
The Bitterroot Mountains
View west from Lemhi Pass
© 9 September 2008 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Clark Enters Idaho
Describing Lemhi Pass
we saw snow on the top of a mountain, and in the morning there was a severe white frost: but the sun shines very warm where we now are . . . . It is not more than a mile from the head spring of the Missouri to the head of one of the branches of the Columbia.
—Patrick Gass
Mule
East of Lewis and Clark Pass, 20 July 2011. © by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Trading for a Mule
Encamped on a Small Stream the Indians with us we wer oblige to feed— one man met me with a mule & Spanish Saddle to ride, I gave him a wistoat [waistcoat] a mule is considered a of great value among those people
—William Clark
Lewis at Fortunate Camp
New Work Details
This morning I arrose at dylight and sent out three hunters. some of the men who were much in want of legings and mockersons I suffered to dress some skins. the others I employed in repacking the baggage, making pack saddles &c.
—Meriwether Lewis
Sacagawea’s First Husband
The father frequently disposes of his infant daughters in marriage to men who are grown or to men who have sons for whom they think proper to provide wives . . . . Sah-car-gar-we-ah [Sacagawea] had been thus disposed of before she was taken by the Minnetares [Hidatsas], or had arrived to the years of puberty. the husband was yet living and with this band. he was more than double her age and had two other wives. he claimed her as his wife but said that as she had had a child by another man, who was Charbono [Toussaint Charbonneau], that he did not want her.
—Meriwether Lewis
Caution with Shoshone Wives
I have requested the men to give them [Lemhi Shoshones] no cause of jealousy by having connection with their women without their knowledge . . . . to prevent this mutual exchange of good officies altogether I know it impossible to effect, particularly on the part of our young men whom some months abstanence have made very polite to those tawney damsels. no evil has yet resulted and I hope will not from these connections.—
—Meriwether Lewis
Longnose Sucker
Catostomus catostomus
Provided by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
Drag-net Fishing
this evening I made a few of the men construct a sein of willow brush which we hawled and caught a large number of fine trout and a kind of mullet about 16 Inhes long which I had not seen before. the scales are small, the nose is long and obtusely pointed and exceedes the under jaw.
—Meriwether Lewis
Taking Celestial Observations
today I observed time and distance of
and
nearest limbs with sextant
—Meriwether Lewis
Weather Diary
State of the Thermometer at Weather at Wind at State of the Thermometer at 4 P.M. Weather at 4 P.M. Wind at 4 P.M. 30 [above 0] fair after rain S W 71 [above 0] fair after rain S W ice on Standing water 1/8 of an inch thick.
—Meriwether Lewis[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column and spelled out some abbreviations.
Lemhi Pass is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The pass is managed by the US Forest Service.
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. |
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
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.
This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
- Montana Committee for the Humanities
- Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
- The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
- Yellowstone Public Radio
Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).