Cottonwood Trees

Cottonwood trees along the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Montana.  NPS/K. Schlawin

Of all the species of trees found along the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, none contributed more to the success of the Corps than the cottonwood.

The men of the Expedition quickly learned from the Native peoples the many different ways in which cottonwoods helped in everyday life. The timber provided them building materials for shelter, fuel for heating and cooking, food for horses, nutrition and medicines for the people, and forests in which to hunt. Members of the Expedition were trained on how to make clothes and moccasins from animal hides, which were strengthened and protected by smoking them with cottonwood.

But the most significant thing the Corps learned was how to make a dugout cottonwood canoe. At various points along the journey, the journals mention the construction of 10 dugout canoes from cottonwood logs. At Fort Mandan they hewed six large cottonwoods into canoes; near the Great Falls of the Missouri, they carved two more; and on the return journey two small cottonwood dugouts were made by Clark’s party along the Yellowstone River. (It’s believed that all of the canoes carved on the west side of the Rockies were from Ponderosa or other species of pine.)

Generally, the cottonwood dugouts were about 30 feet long and up to two to three feet wide, with a capacity of between two and three tons. Empty, it’s likely the canoes could have weighed as much as a ton.