In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition got underway, setting out from St. Louis to travel up the Missouri River. The leaders of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, kept journals recording important events, so it's possible to track their movements as they headed into the unmapped western lands.
May 14, 1804
The voyage officially begins when Clark led the men in three boats up the Missouri River to a French village, where they waited for Meriwether Lewis, who met them there after attending some final business in St. Louis.July 4, 1804
The Corps of Discovery celebrated Independence Day in the vicinity of present day Atchison, Kansas. The small cannon on the keelboat was fired to mark the occasion, and a ration of whiskey was dispensed to the men.August 2, 1804
Lewis and Clark held a meeting with Indian chiefs in present day Nebraska. They give the Indians "peace medals" which had been struck at the direction of President Thomas Jefferson.August 20, 1804
A member of the expedition, Sergeant Charles Floyd, became ill, mostly like with appendicitis. He died and was buried on a high bluff over the river in what is now Sioux City, Iowa. Remarkably, Sergeant Floyd would be the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the two-year expeditionAugust 30, 1804
In South Dakota a council was held with the Yankton Sioux. Peace medals were distributed to the Indians, who celebrated the appearance of the expedition.September 24, 1804
Near present day Pierre, South Dakota, Lewis and Clark meet with the Lakota Sioux. The situation gets tense but a dangerous confrontation is averted.October 26, 1804
The Corps of Discovery reaches a village of the Mandan Indians. The Mandans lived in lodges made of earth, and Lewis and Clark decide to stay near the friendly Indians throughout the oncoming winter.November 1804
Work begins on the winter camp. And two vitally important people join the expedition, a French trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife Sacagawea, an Indian of the Shoshone tribe.December 25, 1804
In the bitter cold of a South Dakota winter, the Corps of Discovery celebrated Christmas day. Alcoholic drinks were allowed, and rations of rum were served.In 1805 the Corps of Discovery continued westward, toward the Pacific.
