Missouri River near Boonville area — John Ordway: June 22, 1804
The day began with rain, high winds from the northeast, and thunder and lightning, but cleared up enough for the party to proceed two miles. One man shot a goose. They passed a prairie on the south side, Little Fire Creek, and Big Fire Creek on the north side, where their hunters were waiting. The expedition camped opposite on the south side. The entry also includes editors' notes identifying creeks along the Missouri in present-day Lafayette and Ray counties and discussing variant spellings used by other expedition journalists.
of rain & high wind from N.E. Thunder and lightning &.C.
the day fair proceeded on 2 miles one of the men killed a
goose, we passed a handsome prarie on the South Side & a Creek
called little fire Creek.5 Passed a Creek on the N. Side called
1 Tabo Creek on the M. R. C. map; variously spelled on other modern maps.
It joins the Missouri near Berlin, Lafayette County.
2 The “bear,” or “bier” was a covering used like its modern exemplar, the
mosquito bar, as a protection against mosquitoes. Later we find Lewis using
the term to designate the cord net which Sacajawea used as a cradle for her
infant. Thwaites, II, 197.
3 Identified by Coues as modern Crooked Creek, in Ray County. Biddle
consolidated the journal entries for June 19 and June 20 into one, and in the
process made the mistake of having the party pass Tyger Creek on June 19,
before reaching Tabo Creek.
4 This name proved to be a puzzler for the journalists of the expedition.
Floyd gives it as Deu bau; Gass gives Du Beau or Du Bois; Clark wrote Eue-
bert, which Biddle rendered Eau Beau or Clearwater. For a discussion of the
significance of the name and the curious transformations it has undergone see
Coues, I, 29.
6 Probably modern Fire Prairie Creek, which joins the Missouri near the
Jackson-Lafayette county boundary.
88 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS [June 23
Big fire Creek1 where our hunters waiting for us. we Camped
opos. on South Side
23d June Saturday Some wind this morning from the N.W. we
set out at 7 O.C. the wind Raised. Cap* Clark went out hunt-
ing by 11 O.C. we were obledged to Camp it being too windy for
to see the Sand bars &.C. The Hunters killed 2 Deer & got them to
camp they went out again. Cap* Clark Remained on Shore all
day & all Night, we lay Camped on the upper point of an Island,
our arms Inspected &. C. we lay all night on this Island. Jurked
our meat &.C.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Of rain and high wind from N.E. Thunder and lightning, etc. The day was fair. We proceeded on 2 miles. One of the men killed a goose. We passed a handsome prairie on the south side and a creek called Little Fire Creek. We passed a creek on the north side called Big Fire Creek, where our hunters were waiting for us. We camped opposite, on the south side.
23rd June, Saturday. Some wind this morning from the N.W. We set out at 7 o'clock. The wind rose. Capt Clark (Capt. Clark) went out hunting. By 11 o'clock we were obliged to camp, it being too windy to see the sandbars, etc. The hunters killed 2 deer and got them to camp. They went out again. Capt Clark remained on shore all day and all night. We lay camped on the upper point of an island. Our arms were inspected, etc. We lay all night on this island. Jerked our meat, etc.
This modernization is AI-generated for accessibility. The original above is the authoritative version.
Entities mentioned in this entry
Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.
