The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Pavilion at White Cloud, Kansas, describes the expedition’s passage through the area in 1804 and then again in 1806, the northern reaches of Kaw or Kansa tribal territory. There is a stone marker nearby for the bicentennial as well. The Iowa tribe was assigned this land as a reservation in 1836 after it had been ceded by the Kansa. This hollow became the favored hunting ground for its head chief, White Cloud II.
Discover the original home of the Kanza Indians in the state that bears their name and the location of the first celebration of Independence Day in the West. Independence Creek: Lewis & Clark Historic Site is the campsite where the Lewis & Clark expedition spent the night on July 4, 1804. The area covers 13.5 acres of native grasses & wildflowers. Today, a re-created Kanza Earthlodge is connected to the Atchison Riverfront by a hiking/biking trail.
Located in the city of Atchison, Kansas, the Atchison County Historical Museum is housed in the historic 1880 Santa Fe Freight Depot. It was here in Atchison that, in 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the Corps of Discovery celebrated their first independence day of the expedition in present day Atchison.
The Frontier Army Museum is located within the historic Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kansas, near the Kansas-Missouri border. The museum’s mission is to educate soldiers as well as the general public about Fort Leavenworth’s rich military history, and to that end, it preserves military artifacts from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
When struggling with a broken mast on the keelboat, the Corps of Discovery stopped for four hours to work on a temporary repair. It was in the area of an abandoned Kansa Indian village that had been occupied in the 1740s and 1750s.
The men camped on the Missouri side of the river, and William Clark noted that on the Kansas side the French had established a small fort known as Fort de Cavagnial (or Cavagnolle). He was informed of this fort by one of the French voyageurs.
