William Clark
William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, and territorial official who co-led the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) across the western United States to the Pacific Ocean. After the expedition, Clark was appointed Brigadier General of militia for Louisiana Territory and served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis from 1807 until his death. As Superintendent, Clark was the principal U.S. negotiator for dozens of treaties with Native American nations in the trans-Mississippi region. He negotiated or witnessed more treaties than any other individual in this collection, playing a central role in the diplomatic framework that shaped relations between the United States and Indigenous peoples of the Missouri and Mississippi river valleys during the early 19th century.
Portrait: Charles Willson Peale, c. 1807
Related Locations
Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 7 months (Aug 30, 1803 → Apr 1, 1804). William Clark may have been present in the corps during that span but is not named in the journals.
Treaties (33)
Art (38)
Tent of Many Voices (24)
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48:20
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51:37
30:15
93:28
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51:15
42:03
9:39
43:36
54:42
Journal Entries (1168)
Wildlife (144)
Translations (1)
Documents (11)
Weapons (11)
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss William Clark — showing 24 of the most recent matches.
A Belt of Blue Beads for a Sea Otter Robe
The journals of Patrick Gass and William Clark for November 20, 1805, describe the same camp on the south shore of the…
A Belt of Blue Beads for a Sea-Otter Robe
The entries for November 21, 1805, find the Corps wind-bound on the south shore of the Columbia estuary, unable to begin the…
A Bighorn Skin and a Broken Cord: Four Views of the Cascades Portage
The entries of April 10, 1806, find the Corps of Discovery laboring up the rapids below the Upper Cascades of the Columbia,…
A Birth at Fort Mandan, A Hunt on the Prairie: Divergent Lenses on February 11, 1805
February 11, 1805, at Fort Mandan. Two published journals in this corpus record the day: Meriwether Lewis and John Ordway. Patrick Gass…
A Boat That Rocked Like Medicine: Four Accounts of a Tense Teton Farewell
The entries for September 30, 1804 capture a single sequence of events — a lone Indian overtaking the boat, a riverside encounter…
A Boy’s Toes and a Hunter’s Pleurisy: Three Voices at Fort Mandan
The journal entries for January 31, 1805 offer an unusually clear demonstration of how rank, role, and writerly purpose shaped what each…
A British Musket on the Columbia: Three Views of a Wind-Bound Day
The expedition's progress on October 28, 1805, was halted within a few miles of starting. After loading canoes at sunrise and proceeding…
A Broken Mast and a Country Skipping with Deer
One River, Five MeasurementsThe day's central geographic event — passing the mouth of the Petite Platte (Little Shoal River) about ten miles…
A Broken Rudder, a Fortified Lodge, and Buffalo That Will Not Move
The Rudder and the Late StartEvery narrator opens with the same delay. The red pirogue's rudder irons, broken landing the previous evening,…
A Broken Voyage, a White Bear Skin, and a Missing Sergeant: Four Voices at Camp Chopunnish
The journal entries dated June 1, 1806 offer an unusual structural puzzle for readers of the expedition record. Three of the four…
A Bull Snake, a Lost Knife, and a River Eating Itself
One Day, Five Pens, Five PrioritiesAugust 5, 1804 produces an unusually clear demonstration of how differently the expedition's narrators allocated attention. The…
A Cache, a Departure, and Two Patients on the Marias
The June 11 entries divide cleanly along a geographic seam. Lewis is gone — he set out at 8 A.M. with Drouillard,…
A Call to Arms at Fort Mandan: Three Accounts of the Sioux Raid Response
On 30 November 1804, the newly established garrison at Fort Mandan faced its first diplomatic-military test. A Mandan messenger crossed the half-frozen…
A Camp Divides: Lewis’s Cache and Clark’s Reconnaissance
August 20, 1805 is the first full day in which the captains' journals describe geographically separated activities, and the enlisted-men narrators line…
A Canoe Lost, a Chief Recovering: Four Voices from Camp Chopunnish
The journal entries for May 30, 1806, written from Camp Chopunnish on the Clearwater River, offer an unusually clean opportunity to compare…
A Canoe on the Rocks: Three Accounts of an October Wreck on the Snake
The wreck of a stern canoe in a Snake River rapid below the Palouse confluence produced one of the more vivid clusters…
A Canoe Sunk on the Rapid: Three Voices on the Wreck of October 8th
The wreck of Sergeant Patrick Gass's canoe in a rapid below the Clearwater encampment of October 8, 1805, is one of the…
A Captain Alone, A Crew Lamed: Convergence on the Jefferson
The entries for July 31, 1805 capture a moment of mild crisis on the Jefferson River: Captain Lewis, having pressed ahead the…
A Captive Crane at the Three Forks
The expedition's pause at the Three Forks of the Missouri produced a revealing cross-section of journal styles. With Captain Clark recovering from…
A Captured Vulture and a Borrowed Page: Parallel Journals at Fort Clatsop
The journals of February 16, 1806 offer an unusually clean specimen of the collaborative writing practices that governed Fort Clatsop's winter quarters.…
A Carrot of Tobacco and a Drawn Sword: Four Accounts of the Teton Standoff
September 28, 1804, below the Teton villages near present Pierre. The keelboat's anchor was lost in the sand the night before. When…
A Cheyenne Pipe at Fort Mandan: Three Registers of a Diplomatic Visit
The visit of four Cheyenne ("Shar-ha" / "Chien" / "Shian") emissaries to Fort Mandan, accompanying chiefs of the lower Mandan village, is…
A Coal Bank, a Creek of Many Names, and a Missing Flanking Party
The journals for June 25, 1804 cover a short stretch of the Missouri above Arrow Rock, with the party detained by fog…
A Cold Hunt Down River: Three Accounts of Clark’s Buffalo Search
The hunting expedition Captain William Clark led from Fort Mandan on December 14, 1804 produced three surviving accounts—one from Clark himself and…
From the Heacock Memorial Archive
18 lewis-clark.org articles that mention William Clark, preserved here for Robert Heacock’s photography. The articles were written by that site’s contributing authors.
The Falls of the Ohio
The partnership begins
Phoca (Seal) Rock
Rattlesnakes
Crotalus sp.
The Columbia River Gorge
Its geologic origin
William Clark (1784–1838)
A Solitary Hero
Excerpt from River of Promise
January 8, 1806
A night at Ecola
November 7, 1805
Ocean in view?
December 7, 1803
Cahokia arrivals
April 7, 1806
Regulating the firearms
December 30, 1805
Fair morning
November 3, 1805
The "Quick Sand" River
April 3, 1806
Mapping the Willamette River
October 29, 1805
Friendly villages
April 28, 1806
Yelleppit brings a horse
November 27, 1805
Sheltering at Tongue Point
March 27, 1806
Generous Skilloots
March 26, 1806
At Fanny's Bottom
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