Historical Figure

Robert Frazer

Private Robert Frazer served in the Corps of Discovery and kept a journal during the expedition, though it has never been found. He published a prospectus for his account in 1806, advertising a forthcoming book that never materialized. Frazer was among the members of the expedition who voted on the location of Fort Clatsop and participated in the full journey to the Pacific and back. His lost journal remains one of the tantalizing missing documents of American exploration history.

0 treaties 48 total items 47 mapped locations

Biography

Robert Frazer (d. 1837) was a private who replaced Moses Reed after Reed’s desertion and discharge. Frazer kept his own journal during the expedition and, upon returning to St. Louis, announced plans to publish it — even issuing a prospectus before Lewis and Clark could publish theirs.

Lewis, concerned about being scooped, intervened to delay Frazer’s publication. The journal was never published during Frazer’s lifetime, and the original manuscript was eventually lost — one of the great literary losses of American exploration history. Only Frazer’s hand-drawn map, discovered in the Library of Congress in 1916, survives.

After the expedition, Frazer settled in the St. Louis area and lived until 1837. His lost journal remains one of the tantalizing what-ifs of Lewis and Clark scholarship.

Related Locations

Pin color = Planning (1801–1804) Westward (1804–1805) Fort Clatsop (1805–1806) Return (1806) Post (1806–1812)
Master expedition route

Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 9 months (Oct 8, 1804 → Jun 25, 1805). Robert Frazer may have been present in the corps during that span but is not named in the journals.

Journal Entries (48)

White Pirogue Hauled Out and Repaired
Jul 27, 1806
White Clay Ruins; Fields Brothers Kill Two Bighorns
Jul 29, 1806
Gift Horse, Sunken Canoe, and Fiddle Dancing
Jun 8, 1806
Razor Traded for Spanish Silver Dollars
May 29, 1806
Lewis Departs Overland to Search for Indians
Jun 27, 1805
Revisiting Pleasant Camp Near Corvus Creek
Aug 28, 1806
Lewis's Detachment Rejoins Clark's Party at Last
Aug 12, 1806
Drouillard Confirms Horses Stolen by Indians
Jul 15, 1806
Drouillard Shoots Large Brown Bear on Riverbank
Jul 10, 1806
Twelve Deer Killed; Expedition Split Planned
Jul 1, 1806
Final Plans Drawn for Dividing the Corps
Jul 1, 1806
Wiser and Frazier Sent to Detain Nez Perce Guides
Jun 23, 1806
Racing to Prevent Nez Perce Guides from Departing
Jun 23, 1806
Three Nez Perce Guides Lead Party Back Eastward
Jun 24, 1806
Colter Rejoins; Native Guides Secured at Collins Creek
Jun 24, 1806
Bone Fish Gigs Broken; Iron Repairs Save the Day
Jun 19, 1806
Trading Scrap Iron and Files for Root Bags
Jun 7, 1806
Sparse Trade for Pack Ropes at Commeap Creek
Jun 7, 1806
Twisted Hair Returns as Broken Arm Reports Delays
Jun 6, 1806
Sweat Treatment Revives Ailing Nez Perce Chief
Jun 5, 1806
Broken Arm Delays Guide Selection Until Late Summer
Jun 6, 1806
Coat Buttons Bartered for Three Bushels of Roots
Jun 2, 1806
Buttons and Medicines Traded for Roots and Bread
Jun 2, 1806
Captains Soaked in Poor Shelter; Hunters Lose Wounded Bear
May 20, 1806
Multicolored Bears Declared One Species Distinct from Black Bear
May 15, 1806
Yellept's White Horse Gift; Crossing Prepared with Dogs
Apr 28, 1806
Yellept Presents Clark with Elegant White Horse
Apr 28, 1806
Chopunnish Man Returns Lost Powder; Horses Scarce
Apr 18, 1806
Clark Crosses River to Bargain for Horses
Apr 16, 1806
Gibson's Hunters Bag Five Elk Upriver
Apr 6, 1806
Four Elk and Deer Returned; Lost Canoe Still Missing
Mar 13, 1806
Drouillard Sent to Clatsop Village to Buy Canoe
Mar 13, 1806
Pryor Returns with Fish; Dogs Chewed Canoe Loose
Mar 11, 1806
Cathlahmah Dogs Set Pryor's Canoe Adrift
Mar 11, 1806
Hunting Parties Dispatched Toward Point Adams
Mar 8, 1806
Bark and Saltpeter Treatments for Bratton and Gibson
Feb 16, 1806
Lewis Calibrates Octant; Treats Bratton and Gibson
Feb 16, 1806
Fresh Meat Sought for the Sick; Gibson Improving
Feb 17, 1806
Gibson Out of Danger; Joseph Fields Returns
Feb 17, 1806
Cameahwait's Secret Order Nearly Strands the Expedition
Aug 25, 1805
Lewis Searches for Shoshone Across Treeless Mountains
Aug 1, 1805
Wild Onions Gathered; Thermometer Peaks on Onion Island
Jul 22, 1805
Tar Pit Prepared for Sealing the Iron-Frame Boat
Jul 1, 1805
Iron-Frame Boat Work Begins at White Bear Islands
Jun 26, 1805
Buffalo Hides Singed for Iron-Frame Boat Section
Jun 28, 1805
Hailstorm Interrupts Iron-Frame Boat Construction
Jun 27, 1805
Fields Narrowly Escapes Charging White Bear
Jun 25, 1805
Arriving at the First Arikara Island Village
Oct 8, 1804

Other Key Figures

William Clark 1304 Meriwether Lewis 1032 Robert Heacock 788 George Drouillard 405 Patrick Gass 326 Mandan 277 John Ordway 214 Shoshone 188 George Shannon 179 John Collins 167 Clatsop 142 Nathaniel Pryor 141
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Cross-Narrator Analyses

AI-assisted scholarly analyses that cite or discuss Robert Frazer — showing 4 of the most recent matches.

June 8, 1806

Foot Races, Fiddles, and a Warning About the Mountains

At Camp Chopunnish on June 8, 1806, four narrators record the same Sunday of horse trades, prisoner's base, and a sobering Nez…
Figure: Shawnee Tribe

The Shawnee Nation in the Lewis & Clark Record

Though the Corps of Discovery did not encounter the Shawnee homeland during their westward journey, the Shawnee people occupied a notable place…
Figure: Charles Marion Russell

Charles Marion Russell: The Cowboy Artist and the Lewis & Clark Imagination

Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926) does not appear in the Lewis and Clark journals — he was born nearly six decades after the…
July 7, 1804

Painted Prairies and a Sunstruck Man: Four Pens on the Missouri

On a sweltering July day near present-day St. Joseph, four expedition journalists record the same swift water, the same handsome prairie, and…

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