Passing through Sioux City

Continuing on the Lewis & Clark trail: 

We stopped at a nice interpretive center in Onawa, Iowa on our way to Sioux City. The center had life-size models of Lewis & Clark's keel boat and pirogues. They were only rarely able to sail the crafts and often had to pole or row the boats. The decks have boards that you can see in the photo that would provide a brace for the men as they walked along the deck when poling the boats. I would simply trip on them and end up in the water!

The center had a few displays, one of the most unique was a painting of a keel boat with a rope and a meter that would show how many pounds of force you could create if you were "cordelling" a boat (towing a boat upstream). Often the water was too shallow for poling, rowing or sailing so the men had to cordelle the boats, sometimes wading through chest-deep water. 

Here I'm trying it by myself. In this picture I was able to get to 102 pounds of force! Probably wouldn't even nudge the boat forward an inch!

Four of us were able to create a force of over 1000 pounds for just a short bit. 

We decided we'd rather travel up the Missouri on roads in our RVs near the Missouri, than try to travel in it!

Later in their journey the party had to portage their belongings and canoes over rugged land covered in prickly pear cacti. 

The Corps took many items with them to trade with the Indians or to provide as gifts. 

While the expedition was near Pierre, SD a meeting with chiefs from the Sioux Nation (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota) went wrong. One of the chiefs was not pleased with the amount of tobacco he had been given and had it not been for the intervention of another chief, a fight could have ensued. Had that escalated, the expedition could have come to an end with loss of lives on both sides. 

Lewis & Clark carried the latest in tools to assist them with their work. This brass case held tinder, a piece of flint, and a striker to help in making a fire. The top also had a magnifying lens that could be used on sunny days to light the tinder.

The men journaled along the route, carefully recording details of their trip, mapping the river and lands, describing, sketching and identifying and/or naming plants and animals. This tin holding small candles and a fold-out stand was a portable light they could use in the evening, and fold up to store while they traveled. Their spelling was quite inventive! They apparently used the "whole language" approach! (Educators will understand that quip) Clark was supposed to have said he "wouldn't trust a man who didn't spell a word four different ways," and in his journals spelled had 19 different spellings for mosquitoes!

This was a portable writing case. It held two short quill pens and a tiny bottle of ink. Additional ink could be make from dried ink they carried. 

The picture in the background shows Seaman, a Newfoundland dog they purchased for $20 to go along with them on the trip. Seaman may have assisted in hunting, protection and in rescue.

Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only casualty of the expedition. He died near Sioux City, most likely from appendicitis. The men buried him on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. A few years later his grave was moved by the local Indians as the water had undercut the bluff and his remains were in danger of sliding into the river. His remains were moved two additional times. He was finally laid to rest in 1900 on the bluff with a large monument installed to mark his grave.