Pittsburgh in 1803

Map of Pittsburgh, 1796. Shows ruins of Fort Pitt, location of Fort Lafayette, settlements, and topography.

George Henri Victor Collot, David Rumsey Map Collection

Pittsburgh may seem far from New Orleans, but the two towns were closely connected via the Mississippi watershed. Trade items went up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, connecting Spanish, French, and American territories. The Missouri River, which Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would take all the way to its headwaters in present-day Montana, also connected into this same riverine system.

The Ohio River Valley had, for millennia, been a travel corridor for Indigenous people seeking refuge from expanding empires of Britain, France, and eventually, the United States. Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot, Huron, Mahican, and Haudenosaunee people had moved down the Ohio in search of places to live away from these land-hungry new arrivals.

Following the American Revolutionary War, even more settlers moved farther west.

By 1800, Pittsburgh had a population of 2,400, growing to nearly 5,000 by 1810. Boat building was the city’s most important industry: ample woods nearby were filled with trees with the right kinds of toughness and rot-resistance to build strong and long-lasting boats. Other industries started by American settlers included iron works, grist mills, salt works, powder works, sawmills, oil mills, paper mill, glassworks, and breweries.

By 1803, Indigenous people of many different cultures and backgrounds, American settlers, French traders, and Spanish settlers and traders all lived within this massive watershed. This was the year that France sold to the United States the vast tract of land they “controlled” between the Mississippi River and the Continental Divide, in the Rocky Mountains—land that Indigenous people have lived on since time immemorial.

When Lewis left Pittsburgh, he was not heading to a vast, unpopulated wilderness. He was traveling into heavily populated areas that were and had been the home of Indigenous people for millennia.

About this article: This article is part of a series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

This map shows a range of features associated with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which commemorates the 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. The trail spans a large portion of the North American continent, from the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The trail is comprised of the historic route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an auto tour route, high potential historic sites (shown in black), visitor centers (shown in orange), and pivotal places (shown in green). These features can be selected on the map to reveal additional information. Also shown is a base map displaying state boundaries, cities, rivers, and highways. The map conveys how a significant area of the North American continent was traversed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and indicates the many places where visitors can learn about their journey and experience the landscape through which they traveled.