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On May 14, 1804 Lewis and Clark set out up the Misouri River with four dozen men "under a jentle brease." Thesse men came from diffrent backgrounds and regions of the country. They traveled in a big keelboat 55 feet long and eight feet wide. They also had two smaller boats called pirogures.
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In Sioux City, Iowa Sergeant Charles Floyd became the expidition's first casuality. The cause of his death was probably from a burst appendix. The hiltop where Lewis and Clark buried Floyd. was called Floyd's Bluff.
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The Teton Sioux demanded a boat for payment to allow the expedition to move father up river. Clark stated that the tribe should be treated "in the most friendly & conciliatory manner."Black Buffalo the Sioux chief, stopped a war from happening between the two groups. The expedition stayed for three more days.
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North of what is now considerd Bismarck, North Dakota, the captains decided to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village of the Mandans and the Hidatsas. They hired a French Canadian interpreter Charbonneau and his wife Sacajawea to help them through the mountains. On Christmas Eve, the expedition moved in for the winter.
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Sacajawea gave birth to a baby boy. She named him Jean Baptiste. He was born in Fort Mandan.
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By the Yellowstone River Lewis and anothor hunter kill a grizzly bear. This was the first time the group had seen a bear that big and fierce. They encounterd grizzlies many more times on there trip west. Lewis wrote the “curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect to this animal.”
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When the rest of the expedition arrived at the Great Falls of the Missouri. They made crude carts from cottonwoods, burried some cargo, and begin haauling the canoes and remaining supplies over the broken terrain. Broiling heat, hail storms, and other obstacles mark the difficult portage.
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By discovering a village of Shoshones Lewis trys to negotiate for the horses. He knows that they are an important necessity to cross the daunting mountains. That day William Clark and the rest of the expediition arrived and Sacajawea was brought to help translate. She was astonished to find out that the Shoshone cheif Cameahwait turned out to be her brother.
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Lewis successfully negotiated for horses from the native Shoshone Tribe. He was able to get twenty nine horses and one mule. A Shoshone guide called Old Toby joined the expedition.
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The group of discovery ascends into the Bitterroot Mountains Sergeant Patrick Gass calls “the most terrible mountains I ever beheld.” John Ordaway wrote " the mountains continue as far as our eyes could extend. They extended father than we expected.'' Clarck named a stream Hungry Creek to describe there condition. Eleven days later on the brink of starvation the expedition staggers out of the Bitterroots near Weippe, Idaho,
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The Nez Perce decided to befriend the expedition. They gave them dried camas roots and fish. Chief Twisted Hair taught them how to make canoes from hollowed out pine trees.
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Clark wrote "Ocian In View! O! The Joy." But then he realized that they were still 20 miles away from the Pacific Ocean. Fierce storms, rolling waters and high winds prevented them from moving on for three weeks.
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The expedition decided to cross to the south side of the Columbia, near modern-day Oregon, to build winter quarters. The expedtion celebrated Christmas in their new home Fort Clatsop. It was named for a neighboring Indian tribe. The two captains handed out handkerchiefs and the rest of their tobacco supply as presents.
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The Morning of the 27th the explorers catch the Blackfeet trying to steal their horses and guns. In the fight that followed two Blackfeet Indians were killed. This was the first time someone was killed on the expedition.
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Sadly Floyds part in the amazing journey of the Corps Of Discovery was short-lived. By late July Lewis and Clark had reported that sergeant Floyd "had been very sick for several days". He seemed to have grown better for a time but on August 15,he was sick all night. The illness grew severe overnight and on the evening of August 19, Clark Sat up with him all night and and the next day Floyde died in the early afternnon of that day.
