Early 1805
The Corps of Discovery, in 1805, prepared a shipment to be sent back to Jefferson. The shipment included: maps, written reports, items made by Native Americans, skins and skeletons of previously unknown animals, soil samples, seeds, minerals, and cages containing live animals.
They reached The Great Falls of the Missouri River, one of the greatest natural obstacle they faced. The members of the Expedition unloaded the supplies from the boats.
“the Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived re[se]mblance of it's figure to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of it's source; which from it's present size cannot be very distant. ... ” -William Clark |