Eric Friedebach, https://flickr.com/photos/friedebach/50797337918/ Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is excited to announce a new web article series called Pivotal Places. Each article describes a place to visit that is pivotal to historical events as described in the Lewis and Clark journals and through tribal histories. Explore Pivotal Places by region, state, or theme and enjoy this new way to explore the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail online. Simply copy and paste the posts below for a ready-made social media post. The posts are divided by region. See the NP Map below for a visual representation of all the Pivotal Places. Ohio River Sites Pittsburgh: where Meriwether Lewis started his westbound journey in 1803. https://www.nps.gov/places/lewis-s-departure-from-pittsburgh.htm Pittsburgh may seem far inland, but the rivers it sat on connected it to other towns across the continent and beyond. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/pittsburgh-in-1803.htm On one of the first stops of Meriwether Lewis’s journey, someone got shot. https://www.nps.gov/places/accidental-shooting-at-brunot-island.htm Meriwether Lewis showed off a novelty gun to Indigenous people across the continent. Did they really like it, or were they just being polite? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/lewis-s-air-gun.htm Meriwether Lewis said Steubenville was “five years since wilderness.” But what did that mean, since Shawnee, Delaware, French, Cherokee, and other people lived here? https://www.nps.gov/places/lewis-in-steubenville.htm Steubenville’s Federal Land Office was a place where White, mostly male American settlers received land that had previously been the home of Delaware and Shawnee people. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/federal-land-offices.htm Patrick Gass was a carpenter and an Army veteran. He never had a formal education. And yet, his account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first to be published. https://www.nps.gov/places/patrick-gass-gravesite.htm Where did Moundville, West Virginia, get its name, and what does it have to do with Lewis and Clark? https://www.nps.gov/places/grave-creek-mound.htm Meriwether Lewis was one in a long line of people of European descent who were curious about the burial mounds in the Ohio River Valley, but his writings helped contribute to looting of sacred sites. How can we all be better stewards of Indigenous cultural heritage? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/desecration-of-indigenous-burials-and-other-sacred-sites.htm Seaman, a dog, joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition right near its outset. He was particularly good at chasing squirrels in the river. https://www.nps.gov/places/lewis-buys-seaman.htm Seaman was no one-trick puppy: he had many skills that made him a valuable member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/seaman-s-contributions-to-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition.htm When Meriwether Lewis set out on the Ohio River, he entered a busy highway. https://www.nps.gov/places/the-ohio-river.htm Indigenous communities in the Ohio Valley had a long history of welcoming refugees. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ohio-river-valley-a-place-for-refugees.htm The fossils of Big Bone Lick were already a tourist attraction in 1803, when Meriwether Lewis stopped to see them. https://www.nps.gov/places/big-bone-lick-state-historic-site-kentucky.htm Meriwether Lewis sent a shipment of items he had collected to President Thomas Jefferson in 1804, but the boat carrying them sank in the Mississippi River. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/lost-fossils-of-big-bone-lick.htm William Clark recruited men for the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Kentucky, where he lived. One of the men who joined up had no choice: he was enslaved by Clark. https://www.nps.gov/places/nine-young-men.htm Who were the men who joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Kentucky? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bios-of-the-ten-men-from-kentucky.htm What changed in Louisville during the three years that Lewis and Clark were gone? https://www.nps.gov/places/locust-grove-kentucky.htm Do you know where Lewis and Clark began their journey together? Hint: it’s the only major waterfall on the Ohio River. https://www.nps.gov/places/falls-of-the-ohio-old-clarksville-site.htm William Clark had a famous older brother. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/george-rogers-clark-and-his-little-brother.htm What skills were most important for members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition? https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-massac-illinois.htm One of the most important members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was of French-Canadian and Shawnee heritage. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/profile-of-george-drouillard.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped at Fort Kaskaskia in 1803. They recruited members of the expedition and extra hands to help with the boats here. https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-kaskaskia.htm At Fort Kaskaskia, two new recruits joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/patrick-gass-and-john-ordway.htm How did the United States “purchase” Louisiana, and who actually owned that land? https://www.nps.gov/places/lewis-and-clark-enter-into-louisiana-purchase.htm Powerful cultural currents have long brought people together where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers converge. https://www.nps.gov/places/mississippi-missouri-confluence.htm Cahokia Courthouse stands near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. People came to this site for centuries to trade goods and information. https://www.nps.gov/places/cahokia-courthouse-illinois.htm Before Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived, the Missouri River was already charted territory, literally: traders had drawn maps of the area. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/maps-of-the-missouri-river.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent the first winter of their expedition preparing for the journey up the Missouri River. They gathered important information by talking to Indigenous and French traders who had been traveling that way for years. https://www.nps.gov/places/camp-dubois-illinois.htm William Clark and the recruits for the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1803–1804 in Illinois. What did they do all winter? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/life-at-camp-dubois.htm Lower Missouri River Sites Lewis and Clark’s best boatmen were French-Canadian and Métis. https://www.nps.gov/places/st-charles-historic-district-missouri.htm Pierre Cruzatte joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition at St. Charles. His mixed heritage, navigation skills, and fiddle music helped make many friends along the journey. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/pierre-cruzatte.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark couldn’t resist the intrigue of a cave. https://www.nps.gov/places/tavern-cave-missouri.htm When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed a Kanza village, they assumed it was abandoned. It was not. Its residents were just gone for the season. https://www.nps.gov/places/independence-creek.htm William Clark admired the grassy plains cared for by Kanza people. Within twenty years, he led the treaty negotiations that forced them to give up those lands to the United States. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/treaties-to-take-indigenous-lands.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark held formal diplomatic meetings with Indigenous people to establish relationships and make clear that the United States was now their colonial leader. The first of these was with Otoe and Missouri leaders in what is now Nebraska. https://www.nps.gov/places/first-council.htm As they traveled up the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark paid their respects at the grave of Wazhiⁿga’ sabe (Blackbird), an influential Omaha leader. https://www.nps.gov/places/blackbird-hill-nebraska.htm Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to die during the journey. https://www.nps.gov/places/sergeant-floyd-s-death.htm What did Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s nineteenth-century first aid kit look like? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/medicine-on-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition.htm George Shannon, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, got lost for almost two weeks before they found him “nearly starved to Death” walking along the riverbank. https://www.nps.gov/places/private-shannon-s-misadventure.htm After Charles Floyd died, members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition needed to elect a new sergeant. https://www.nps.gov/places/elk-point-election-site.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark visited a Lakota sacred site in 1804. https://www.nps.gov/places/spirit-mound-south-dakota.htm The sandy mouth of the Niobrara River made it difficult to navigate a canoe upstream. https://www.nps.gov/places/niobrara-missouri-confluence.htm Did you know that a live prairie dog accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition for a brief period? https://www.nps.gov/places/old-baldy.htm Prairie dogs are important to the Great Plains ecosystem. Their numbers have declined dramatically since the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through here. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/prairie-dogs.htm Tensions were high when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark entered Lakota homelands. https://www.nps.gov/places/bad-river-encounter.htm The Missouri River looks very different than it did in 1804, thanks to dams that the U.S. government built in the twentieth century. https://www.nps.gov/places/the-missouri-river.htm In November 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hired Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife Sacagawea, critical links in a chain of translation for the expedition. https://www.nps.gov/places/hiring-of-charbonneau-and-sacagawea.htm On February 11, 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to a baby boy. https://www.nps.gov/places/birth-of-pomp.htm Sacagawea is one of the most famous women in American history. But who was she? https://www.nps.gov/places/sacagawea-s-story.htm What was the Lewis and Clark Expedition like for Sacagawea? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/what-was-the-journey-like-for-sacagawea.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wanted to spend the winter of 1804–1805 in a well-connected place, so they asked Mandan and Hidatsa people if they could stay near them. https://www.nps.gov/places/knife-river-villages.htm Upper Missouri River Sites Meriwether Lewis and William Clark knew about the Yellowstone from Mandan and Hidatsa people. Reaching this river was an exciting milestone on their journey. https://www.nps.gov/places/missouri-yellowstone-confluence.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark needed to decide which river would take them to the Shoshone people and over the Rocky Mountains. How did they make that decision? https://www.nps.gov/places/decision-point-montana.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s party left some items in an underground storage tank on their way out west. Was it still there when they got back? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cache.htm Sacagawea got so sick on the Lewis and Clark Expedition that they worried she might die. https://www.nps.gov/places/sulfur-spring.htm Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent an entire month towing their boats, equipment, and supplies around the Great Falls of the Missouri River. https://nps.gov/places/portage-route.htm When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Missouri River Headwaters in 1805, they needed to decide which way to go to find the Shoshone people. https://nps.gov/places/three-rivers-missouri-headwaters.htm Everyone on the Lewis and Clark Expedition breathed a sigh of relief when Sacagawea recognized her Shoshone homelands at Beaverhead Rock. https://nps.gov/places/beaverhead-rock-montana.htm When Shoshone people encountered visitors near their camp, they never expected that one of them would be their long-lost relative https://nps.gov/places/meeting-with-cameahwait.htm In an act of violence, Meriwether Lewis and other members of the expedition killed two Blackfeet teenagers during the summer of 1806. https://nps.gov/places/fight-site-called-the-murder-site-or-kill-site-by-the-blackfeet-nation.htm In 1806, William Clark carved his name into a sandstone outcropping next to the Yellowstone River, next to petroglyphs that the Crow and other Indigenous people had carved on these rocks for thousands of years. https://nps.gov/places/pompeys-pillar-montana.htm After years of wearing elk skin, Meriwether Lewis was mistaken for—well, an elk. A member of his own party accidentally shot him on August 11, 1806. https://nps.gov/places/lewis-s-return-trip-shot-by-pierre-cruzatte.htm Overland Travel in Montana and Idaho Shoshone people showed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark how to cross the Rocky Mountains. https://www.nps.gov/places/lemhi-pass-montana.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled primarily by boat, with one major exception: the Lolo Trail. https://www.nps.gov/places/lolo-trail-idaho.htm After Meriwether Lewis and some of his crew passed through the most difficult segments of Lolo Pass, he wrote in his journal, “I had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind has been unalterably fixed for many years, judge then of the pleasure I felt in allying my thirst with this pure and ice cold water.”294 Reading that passage, it can be easy to think that Lewis accomplished this on his own. But he only made it to the pass, and then over it, with the help of local Indigenous people. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/whose-accomplishments.htm The knowledge that Nez Perce people shared with the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition helped keep these travelers alive. https://www.nps.gov/places/packer-meadow-idaho.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark crossed the Lolo Trail during a bad time of year. With little food left, they killed and ate the horses that Shoshone people had lent them. https://www.nps.gov/places/colt-killed-creek.htm Nez Perce people shared their knowledge and their food with members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Without them, the visitors probably wouldn’t have survived the journey. https://www.nps.gov/places/weippe-watkuweis.htm Camas is a sacred food of Nez Perce people, as well as other Indigenous communities. When the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived during harvest time in 1805, Nez Perce people generously shared camas with the visitors. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/camas.htm Many roads and trails that we still use today follow Indigenous routes. In 1806, Nez Perce people told Meriwether Lewis about a well-traveled trail that led to where he wanted to go. They called it Qoq’aalx ‘Iskit, or the Road to the Buffalo. https://www.nps.gov/places/road-to-the-buffalo-alice-creek.htm Columbia River Sites When Nez Perce guides brought the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Columbia River, Yakama and Wanapam people sang songs to greet the visitors they had heard so much about. https://www.nps.gov/places/confluence-of-the-columbia-and-snake-rivers.htm When Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps arrived on the Columbia River in October 1805, it was salmon season. The fall run had started and the Walla Walla, Umatilla, Cayuse, and other Indigenous people of the Columbia River Plateau were down at the river catching and processing fish. https://www.nps.gov/places/confluence-of-the-columbia-and-walla-walla-rivers.htm People traveled hundreds of miles to trade, fish, and celebrate at Celilo Falls and the Narrows. In 1805 and 1806, some of the visitors who passed through here included Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea. https://www.nps.gov/places/celilo-falls-oregon.htm Celilo Falls has been under water for more than sixty years, but the pain of its flooding is still vivid in the many people whose ancestors fished and traded at this important meeting place. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/dams-on-the-columbia-river.htm Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition played music, danced, and sang with Wasco-Wishram people when they camped at Rock Fort in 1805 and 1806. https://www.nps.gov/places/rock-fort-campsite-oregon.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed the Willamette River without even noticing it. Only when they listened to Chinook and Kalapuya people did they realize what a large river it was. https://www.nps.gov/places/sandy-river-delta-oregon.htm Wapato is an important food source for Chinookan-speaking people of the Lower Columbia River. What is it, how do you gather it, and how do you cook it? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wapato.htm Chinookan people knew how to navigate the high waves of the Columbia River’s mouth. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s party did not. https://www.nps.gov/places/dismal-nitch-washington.htm What do you wear when it’s always raining and damp? Chinookan people have lived in this environment for millennia. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark admired their cedar hats and otter skin robes that kept out the cold and wet winter weather. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/chinook-clothing.htm When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Pacific Ocean, they were in an area where Chinookan people controlled the extensive trade along the rivers, including trade from ocean-going European ships. https://www.nps.gov/places/cape-disappointment-washington.htm Chinookan people were expert canoeists and controlled traffic on the Lower Columbia River. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/chinook-highway.htm Most Black men and Indigenous women living in the United States of America could not vote in 1805. And yet, the opinions of Sacagawea and York were recorded in William Clark’s journal on November 24, 1805, when he polled the expedition on where to spend the winter. https://www.nps.gov/places/the-vote-at-station-camp.htm Chinookan-speaking people had been trading with Europeans on the Columbia River before the Americans Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived. One Chinook town, Middle Village, was a seasonal site of trading. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/middle-village.htm After months of accepting the generosity and hospitality of Clatsop leader Coboway, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stole a canoe from his people. https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-clatsop-stealing-the-canoe.htm Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were awed by the canoes that Chinookan people made and paddled. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/chinook-canoes.htm In the winter of 1806, everyone was talking about the whale that had just washed ashore near a Nehalem village. https://www.nps.gov/places/necus-village-ecola-creek-village.htm What would you do for salt? Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their party based their whole winter survival strategy on the need for it. https://www.nps.gov/places/salt-works-oregon.htm How did the Lewis and Clark Expedition make salt from seawater in 1806? https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/how-to-make-salt.htm Did you know that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived at the Pacific Ocean just before a whale washed up on the Oregon coast? https://www.nps.gov/places/cannon-beach-oregon.htm What would it be like to see the ocean for the first time, if you’d never even seen a picture of it before? That’s what Sacagawea experienced in Oregon in January 1806. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sacagawea-sees-the-ocean.htm
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Last updated: January 3, 2024