Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
Great Falls, MT
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Which Canoe Camp

12/27/2021

 
            Clark’s party spent four days traveling along the river, covering 103 miles from where they first reached the Yellowstone searching for cottonwood trees large enough to make into dugout canoes.  They finally found two that would work.  Clark decided to stop at this point and rest the horses, but he had two men continue on down the river to possibly find better trees.  The men went 12 miles and returned without finding better ones, so the party stayed camped where they were to make canoes.  This was marked on Clark’s maps as canoe camp.
            Canoe Camp should be named Yellowstone Canoe Camp.  It was the last of four locations where the Corps of Discovery made dugout canoes during their travels.
              The first place the Expedition made canoes was near their 1804 – 5 winter camp, Fort Mandan.  Here they carved six dugout canoes from large cottonwood logs.  They worked here most of the month of March at Mandan Canoe Camp.  These canoes were used to replace the large keelboat that was sent back downriver to St. Louis.
             Later, during the summer of 1805 the Corps of Discovery made two more dugout canoes from cottonwood logs near Great Falls.  These dugouts were built to replace the failed collapsible iron-framed boat.  This was the Great Falls Canoe Camp.  When the Expedition left the Great Falls, they were using 8 canoes and no other type water craft.
            In October of that year, after the Expedition had cached their canoes at Camp Fortunate and made their way across the Rockies on horses, they built five canoes on the Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho.  These canoes were made from “large pine” but instead of chopping them out to make their dugouts, they burned them out. 
           The plan was to use these canoes  to carry the Corps of Discovery out to the Pacific Ocean then back to where they obtained horses to re-cross the Rockies. This would be the Clearwater Canoe Camp.
            While they were at Camp Choppunish in 1806 Lewis set some men to work making a canoe for the purpose of fishing and to pass the river (Clearwater).  A few days after it was finished some men used the new canoe to cross the river to do some trading.  As they were landing the strong current caught the canoe filling it with water and sinking it.  This large canoe, it would carry 12 men, was too heavy and even the best efforts could not raise it.  Since they were near the Clearwater Canoe Camp, I include this canoe as being made in that camp.

Where is Canoe Camp (the Yellowstone one) ?

12/15/2021

 
​            Starting with the first attempt in 1893, there have been eight locations offered as the “right location” for Clark’s canoe camp.  They range the full length of the river Clark covered from where he first reached the Yellowstone up to where he stopped to build the two canoes a short distance above Billings.
          In early 2000 Ralph Saunders took on the daunting task of finding the canoe camp.  His plan was to use the most current technology available along with all the evidence from previous canoe camp investigations.  A general description of the land provided by Clark’s journal entries served as his starting point.  His resulting book “Clark’s Journey Through Stillwater County, Montana” describes what he did to locate Canoe Camp.
            His methodology was unique in that his analysis went far beyond reading the journal entries and matching them to the land.  He says that Clark’s log notes and descriptions are of sufficient detail and precision to enable mapping experts to follow his route the entire length of the Trail.  His distance estimates were consistent (but a little long) and he was very thorough in his note taking.  These were the two basic requirements for developing an understanding of what he wrote.
            Saunders had to consider many things that we normally never consider when studying the Expedition mapping.  Such as change in magnetic north location, and change of stream channel of the Yellowstone River.  But maybe the hardest of all was learning Clark’s habits to see how he made his abbreviated notes so he could understand what Clark actually meant.
               A careful examination of Clark’s mapping shows his map scale was not always the same.  He was more accurate when he was in a canoe compared to when he was on a horse.  He also had to learn differences in Clark’s map drawings and his survey readings.  He discovered the drawings were sketches so they did not have the accuracy of the written descriptions.  (After returning to St. Louis Clark used these sketches and his notes to create a final map that was extremely accurate.)
               After Saunders found the location of Canoe Camp, he tested his location to see if it fit other journal entry documented activities.  Example of this would be if it fit with a certain number of miles traveled by someone.
           A subsequent archaeological dig in the location of Canoe Camp has shown old activity in the area that could be consistent with Clark’s time, but it could also be others and some other time.  Example is they found a musket ball.  But nothing to tie it to Clark’s party.  Thirteen people spent four days working in a small area, but they left little, if anything, as lasting evidence of their time there.
            It is relatively easy to understand that Clark traveled overland from Traveler’s Rest to where he reached the Yellowstone River.  From there he went downriver until he found trees large enough to made dugout canoes.  From that location they made the rest of the trip on the waters of the Yellowstone and then the Missouri River.
            It is much more difficult, if even possible at all, to prove conclusively exactly where that camp is where they made the two canoes on the Yellowstone.
 

Plenty of Game Meant Plenty of Food

12/9/2021

 
          Food had been of primary concern for the Corps of Discovery from the very beginning of their travels.  The simple fact was they could not carry enough food with them for the entire trip, so they were forced to live on what the land produced.  This is quite common in frontier or “uncivilized” regions.  In fact, this was one of the thoughts Jefferson had when he called for men used to living on the frontier.
            The term subsistence diet is used for this method of getting food.  People eating this way   eat very well sometimes and eat nothing at other times.  Although it varies greatly, most of the time the amount of food is adequate.  The other concept of subsistence eating is the people eat whatever is available at the time they are in an area.  The Corps of Discovery had experienced most of the variations in availability and what foods were available by the time the two groups left Travelers Rest.
            When the two groups left, they were primarily eating meat since very little of the plant foods are ripe by the first of July.  However, they did have a small supply of roots to augment their diet.
            Clark notes that for the first three days they traveled through the Bitterroot Valley retracing their 1805 route they ate adequately “dining and suping” [noon meal and evening meal] on venison [deer].  For the next two days no food is reported, but since they were also not talking about hunger or starvation, they probably ate sparingly from what meat they could carry with them.  Because they were not stopping long enough to do any preservation, we can only guess.
            While they were at Camp Fortunate recovering what had been cached there and drying their canoes, they report eating venison and antelope.  They had time for hunters to go out far enough to find the game.
            They left Camp Fortunate traveling down the Jefferson River to Three Forks.  Clark makes references to game animals that are now close by; deer, antelope, bighorn and geese.  All provide sources of food.  The closer to the Three Forks the party gets the more plentiful and varied the food supply becomes.
            Although Clark’s party found sufficient food it was limited from Travelers Rest to Camp Fortunate.  From that camp to the Three Forks, it improved substantially.  The closer to the Yellowstone River they got Clark’s journal entries show larger gangues of animals.  As they turned and followed that river the numbers of animals changed from large to enormous.
            On July 21 while at Canoe Camp Clark writes they “appear to be in the beginning of the buffalo country.”  He continues his journal entry by listing the various animals and birds he sees.  Then he concludes with “the wolves which are the constant attendants of the buffalo are in great numbers on the skirts of these large gangues which are seen in every direction.”
            Then on the 24th he ends his journal entry for the day with, “for me to mention or give an estimate of the different species of wild animals on this river, particularly buffalo, elk, antelope and wolves would be increditable.  I shall therefore be silent on the subject further.  So, it is we have a great abundance of the best meat.
            As Clark wrote on July 28, 1806, “set out this morning gliding down the smooth stream.”  They “glided” for 73 miles that day.
            Clark’s party continued their travels down the Yellowstone almost leisurely until they reached the Missouri River where they were to meet Lewis and his party.  They were never in want of food because of the abundance the land of the Yellowstone produced.

    written by:
    ​Phil Scriver
    ​and others

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