After arriving at Cape Girardeau, Lewis takes letters of introduction to Louis Lorimier, whose store was burned to the ground by William Clark‘s brother—George Rogers Clark—in 1782. Sgt. Pryor doesn’t return from a hunting trip, and Clark’s illness continues.
Mississippi River
View South from Trail of Tears State Park
Courtesy U.S. National Park Service, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Lost Hunter
N. Pryor, the man who was hunting yesterday has not yet arrived, had several guns fired again and the [sounding] horn wlown [blown]; waited untill half after 7 OC. and then set out without him
—Meriwether Lewis
Lorimier’s Red House
© 2021 by Robert Heacock. Used by permission.
According to the Red House Interpretive Center, “Lorimier’s Trading Post was the largest and most well known trading post between St. Louis and Memphis.” Today, it is an interpretive center themed around Lewis’s visit there on 23 November 1803. Learn more at City of Cape Girardeau.
A Former Enemy
The Comdt. is Canadian by birth of French extraction; he was on[c]e a very considerable trader among the Shawness & Delewares; About the year 1781 a party under the command of Genl. George Rogers Clark of Kentuckey burnt the Store of this man . . . . the value of the property Lorimier lost on this occasion is estimated at 20 thousand dollars, this broke him as a mercht. bt he seems to have entirely recovered his losses, and is now a man of very considerable property;
[H]e treated me with much politeness in his way
—Meriwether Lewis
Lorimier’s Shawnee Wife
this man agreeably to the custom of many of the Canadian Traders has taken to himself a wife from among the aborigines of the country his wife is a Shawnee woman, from her complexion is half blooded only. she is a very desent woman and if we may judge from her present appearance has been very handsome when young, she dresses after the Shawnee manner with a stroud leggings and mockinsons, differing however from them in her linin which seemed to be drawn beneath her girdle of her stroud, as also a short Jacket with long sleeves over her linin with long sleeves more in the stile of the French Canadian women; by this woman Lorimier has a large family of very handsome Children . . . .
—Meriwether Lewis
Horse Traders
these people have some specia among them, but their circulating medium is principally Horses, Cattle, Cotton & lead—Horses from 50 to 200$. Cattle from 8 to 10$, Cotton & lead are less fluctuating in their price, the former is estimated a $100 a Ton and the latter at $80 pr. Ton—
—Meriwether Lewis
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).