Missouri River near Big Bend — Joseph Whitehouse: September 20, 1804
The expedition set off early under clear skies with a favorable wind, passing rising prairie to the north and timbered bottomland to the south. Drouillard and Shields cut across a narrow point with the horse—a two-mile shortcut around the 30-mile Grand Bend of the Missouri. After a midday halt, Captain Lewis and Reuben Fields hunted, returning with two goats and two deer. Whitehouse noted dark, easily eroded bluffs that give the Missouri its muddy color. The party camped on a sandbar, but at 1 a.m. the collapsing bank forced them to move on and recamp across the river.
Set off eairly a clear day & fair wind. passed handsom
riseing prarie on N. Side and a bottom covered with timber
on the S. Side. Cap‘ Clark walked on Shore. Drewyer and
Shields went across a point withe the horse about 2 miles
which was 30 miles round by water, which is called the Grand
bend of the missourie. at one oClock we halted to dine.
Cap! Lewis and R. Fields went a hunting. at 2 oC we pro-
ceeded on passed a long range of bluffs on N.S. of a dark
coulour. out of those and others of the same kind is where
the Missourie Gets its muddy colour for this Earth melts like
Sugar, and every rain that comes they wash down and the
rapidness of the current keeps continualy mixing through the
water all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi. at 7 oC
we camped ona large Sand beach on N.S. here boath the
Captains and R. Fields joined us. had killed 2 Goats and 2
deer at 1 oClock at night the bank began to fall in So fast
we had to raise all hands and go on one mile further before
we could camp. then crossed the river & camped again.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Set off early on a clear day with a fair wind. We passed a handsome rising prairie on the north side and a bottom covered with timber on the south side. Capt Clark (Capt. Clark) walked on shore. Drewyer (Drouillard) and Shields went across a point with the horse about 2 miles, which was 30 miles around by water; this is called the Grand Bend of the Missouri. At one o'clock we halted to dine.
Capt Lewis (Capt. Lewis) and R. Fields went hunting. At 2 o'clock we proceeded on and passed a long range of bluffs of a dark color on the north side. Out of these and others of the same kind is where the Missouri gets its muddy color, for this earth melts like sugar, and every rain that comes washes it down, and the rapidness of the current keeps continually mixing it through the water all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi.
At 7 o'clock we camped on a large sand beach on the north side. Here both the Captains and R. Fields joined us, having killed 2 goats and 2 deer. At 1 o'clock at night the bank began to fall in so fast that we had to rouse all hands and go on one mile further before we could camp. Then we crossed the river and camped again.
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.
