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May 14, 1804
Camp River Dubois, Illinois - The expedition began. -
July 20, 1804
The expedition camped a little above Spring Creek, in Cass County, Nebraska and Clark killed a yellow wolf. -
August 11, 1804
Badger Lake, near Whiting, Iowa - Lewis and Clark honored Black Bird, a chief of the Omaha Indians who died four years earlier, by climbing to the top of his mound grave with ten men and planting a flag. -
August 18, 1804
Near modern Homer, Nebraska - this was Capt. Lewis' 30th birthday. -
August 20, 1804
The only member of the Corps of Discovery to die on the expedition, Sgt. Charles Floyd succumbed to what is now believed to have been appendicitis . -
August 23, 1804
One mile southeast of Vermillion, South Dakota, a wide variety of wildlife was sighted on this day; Joseph Field killed the expedition's first buffalo. -
September 10, 1804
The camp was on Pocahontas, or Towhead Island, now inundated by Lake Francis Case. On Cedar Island Clark found the fossil remains of the backbone, teeth and ribs of an ancient sea-dwelling creature called a plesiosaur, 45 feet long. -
November 4, 1804
Fort Mandan, North Dakota - Toussaint Charbonneau was signed as an interpreter for the coming journey, along with his Shoshoni wife, Sacagawea. -
December 17, 1804
Fort Mandan, North Dakota - The temperature was 43° below zero. -
September 23, 1806
The men reach St. Louis nearly two and a half years after their journey began and are acclaimed as national heroes.
