Introduction

The Lewis and Clark Expedition: 200 Years Ago This Week is a flexible website. Users of all ages will be able to learn what was happening during every week of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. The information provided for this site is based on the extensive materials in the Lewis & Clark College Special Collections.

Features

Starting at the homepage, you can go immediately to this week two hundred years past, or you may choose to locate any other week during the years 1803-1806. Menus with descriptive titles for each week can be used to locate information about specific topics.

Once you have arrived at a weekly page, you will find descriptive narratives for the week (or day), printed in black type. These summaries are based on the journals of Lewis, Clark, Ordway, Gass, Whitehouse, and Floyd, as well letters and other documents related to the expedition. Each week includes extracts from the before mentioned documents.

Texts

All extracts from original texts will be shown in a smaller blue type and will contain the original spellings of the author. Square brackets in the extracts indicate information provided by the editor, as in the example below.

On the Mississippi 3 miles W. of Kasskasskais made the following observations—By Circumpherenter—Azamuth of pole Star 7° 47’ 00” at 8 h 11 m 45 s P. M. p[e]r Chronometer [Observations follow of the distances between the Moon and Aldebaran for six different times, between the Moon and Regulus for six more times, and again for a later set of six times, between the moon and Aldebaran.]

Sources: Quaife, 69; Moulton 2:119-122.

Abbreviated references for each source are provided at the end of the extract, as shown above. For full bibliographical citations, go to the sources link at the bottom of each page.

Navigation

Using the arrows at the bottom of each page, you can go to the previous week, or to the next week if you wish.