Georgetown

The river fell an inch overnight. About an hour after starting, the men in the pirogue, which had carried part of the load since Pittsburgh to lighten the boat, called for help: she had sprung a leak and nearly filled, soaking hardware meant as presents for Indian nations. Three miles on the boat stuck fast on a bar below Georgetown, and people from the neighborhood helped get it over.

At Georgetown Lewis bought a canoe with two paddles and two poles for eleven dollars, then found it leaked too much to use without repairs. About two miles before camp the party passed the line dividing Pennsylvania from Virginia on the east bank and from Ohio on the west. Lewis could see it as a strip of timber felled about sixty feet wide, meeting the river at the mouth of Mill Creek.

They camped on the east shore, in what is now Hancock County, West Virginia, having made about thirteen miles. Lewis had the wet goods dried, oiled and repacked in oilcloth, set men to repairing the canoes, and hired another hand as far as Wheeling. The water was low and clear enough to see sturgeon, bass, catfish and pike. The National Park Service lists Georgetown, which is private, as a high potential historic site.