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CHAPTER 10
As early as 1690 it was known that lead ore existed
in the upper Mississippi Valley. Nicholas Perrot was one of the
early explorers of that region where he for several years carried on
a profitable trade with the Indians in furs and skins of elk, deer
and buffalo.
On the 8th of April, 1689, he took formal possession
of the upper Mississippi Valley for the kingdom of France. His
trading post was on the banks of the river and he built a fort for
protection against hostile Indians, which he named "St. Nicholas."
The exact location of this post and fort is not known. In 1690 a
Miami chief with whom he was trading gave Perrot a specimen of lead
ore taken from a creek that flows into the Mississippi which was
undoubtedly "Catfish," the stream that empties into the river near
the site of the original Dubuque mines. Perrot visited the place
where the ore was found at that early day.
In 1700 the French explorer, Le Sueur, ascended the
Mississippi River in search of valuable minerals. He explored as
far north as the St. Peter River. In 1752 we find the lead region
of the upper Mississippi located on a map published by Phillip
Bouche. The mines are mentioned in an article by M. Guetard in a
volume of the French Academy of Rheims in 1752. No effort seems to
have been made to work or develop the mines in all of these years
that lead ore was known to exist in that region.
The first white man who settled within the limits of
the State of Iowa was Julien Dubuque. He was a French Canadian,
born in the province of Quebec, January 10, 1762. He was well
educated, an accomplished writer and conversationalist. He had
given particular attention to mineralogy and mining. He went to the
then far west in 1784, when but twenty-one years of age, settling in
the province of Louisiana, near Prairie du Chien. lead mines had
been discovered several years before near the Mississippi River and
young Dubuque determined to procure an interest in some portion of
the mineral region. The Fox Indians then occupied a portion of
northeastern Iowa. Dubuque, who was a shrewd, plausible man,
succeeded in gaining the confidence of the Kettel Chief and his
tribe and explored the country in that vicinity for lead ore, soon
finding that it existed in considerable quantities.
The wife of a prominent Fox warrior, named Peosta,
had in 1780 discovered lead within the limits of the present city of
Dubuque and the shrewd Canadian soon succeeded in persuading the
Indians to grant him the exclusive privilege of lead mining on a
tract of land extending along the river from the mouth of the Little
Maquoketa to the Tete des Morts, a distance of seven leagues, and
running westward about three leagues. In drawing up the papers
making this grant Dubuque had written, "We sell and abandon to
Dubuque all the coast and the contents of the mines discovered by
the wife of Peosta, so that no white man or Indian shall make any
pretensions to it without the consent of Sieur Julien Dubuque." The
grant was dated at Prairie de Chien, September 22, 1877.
As soon as he had secured the lease, he brought from
Prairie du Chien ten Canadians to assist him as overseers, smelter,
wood choppers and boatmen. There was a Fox village near where the
city of Dubuque now stands, called the village of the Kettle Chief.
it consisted of Indian lodges extending back from the river,
sufficient to shelter about four hundred people, one hundred of whom
were warriors. Dubuque had secured the friendship of the Indians
who permitted him and his companions to make their homes in this
village. He employed Indian women and old men of the tribe to work
in the mines. He learned the habits, superstitions and traditions
of the Fox nation and in the course of a few years had acquired
great influence with them. They gave him the name of "Little
Cloud."
He opened farms, built fences, erected houses and a
horse mill. He put up a smelting furnace on a point now known as
Dubuque Bluff. He opened stores, bought furs, sold goods and Indian
trinkets, carrying on a large business, including the preparation of
ore for market. Twice a year he took boatloads of ore, furs and
hides to St. Louis, exchanging them for good, supplies and money.
He became well known in that city as the largest
trader of the upper Mississippi Valley and his semi-annual trips
were events of importance to that frontier town. Dubuque is
described as a man of medium size, wiry and well built, with black
hair and eyes, very courteous an affable, with all grace of the
typical Frenchman. He was an accomplished diplomat but was not
successful in making money. After eight years in mining and trading
he made an effort to secure a title to his leased lands, the only
title he held being the permit granted by a council of Fox Indians.
The instrument executed was a concession or permit from the Indians
to Dubuque to mine for lead ore on the lands described. He now
claimed that he had paid for the lands in goods and in October,
1796, he presented to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana a petition
asking a title to the lands.
Dubuque fully realized the value which time and
development must bring to his munificent possessions and took every
precaution to perfect his title to the grant. The petition was
referred by Governor Carondelet to Don Andrew Todd, a prominent
merchant who had secured a monopoly of the Indian trade with the
tribes of the Mississippi Valley. Todd was requested to examine
into the nature of Dubuque's claim and report to the Governor.
In his report Todd stated that he saw no reason why
the land claimed by Dubuque should not be granted to him, provided
Dubuque should be prohibited form trading with the Indians, unless
with the written consent of Mr. Todd upon such terms as he should
require. Governor Carondelet, on the 10th of November, 1796, made
the grant to Dubuque as requested in his petition and indorsed upon
it these words: "Granted as asked for under the restrictions
mentioned by the merchant, Don Andrew Todd, in his report."
Monuments were erected by the Fox chiefs and Dubuque to mark the
boundaries on the three sides from the river front, soon after the
grant was made.
The right of the Indians to sell their lands had
always been recognized by Spain and Dubuque now considered his title
secure. The right of the Indians to sell their lands had always
been recognized by Spain and Dubuque now considered his title
secure. As the years passed he carried on a large trade with
Auguste Chouteau of St. Louis and became heavily indebted to him.
In October, 1804, he conveyed to Chouteau in settlement of his
indebtedness, an undivided seven-sixteenths interest of his land,
estimated to consist of seventy-three thousand three hundred and
twenty-four acres. It was also provided that at the death of
Dubuque all of the remainder of his interest in the lands should
belong to Chouteau or his heirs. In 1807 Chouteau sold one-half of
his interest in the lands to John Mullanphy, of St. Louis, for
$15,000.
Dubuque and his little white colony lived among the
Indians, worked the mines, carried on trade for twenty-two years, in
the limits of the future State of Iowa. many of the French
Canadians married Indian wives and in a measure adopted the Indian
mode of living. Families of half-breed children were growing up and
the place became widely known and the "Mines of Spain."
On the 24th of March, 1810, Dubuque was attacked
with pneumonia and died after a short illness. The highest honors
were bestowed by the Indians upon their dead friend. The entire
population followed him to the grave and his virtues were eloquently
set forth by the Indian chiefs. His death brought a great change to
the village, the mines and the white colony.
John T. Smith, a famous Indian fighter and western
pioneer, bought an interest in Dubuque's grant, after his death, and
took possession of some of the lead works/ He attempted to carry on
mining and smelting but the Indians refused to recognize his title.
They claimed that the grant to Dubuque was a permit or lease to him
personally and conveyed no absolute title to the lands and could not
be used by other parties. The Fox chief, pia-no-sky, gathered his
warriors and destroyed the buildings, driving all of the whites out
of the village and across to the east side of the river.
In 1805 Dubuque and Chouteau had filed a claim with
the United states for title to all of the land which Dubuque had
originally leased of the Indians, embracing a tract nine miles wide
west from the Mississippi and extending twenty-one miles up and down
the river. It included all of the then known lead mines and all of
the present city of Dubuque. For nearly half a century this claim
was pending before various tribunals. Finally, by agreement, in
order to settle the titles to a vast amount of valuable property, a
suit of ejectment was instituted by the heirs of the claimants of
the grant, against a farmer in Dubuque County, Patrick Molony, who
held a United States patent for his farm. The suit was tried in the
United States District Court, John J. Dyer, judge, and judgment was
rendered in favor of Molony. An appeal was taken to the United
States Supreme Court and in March, 1853, the judgment of the lower
court was confirmed.
The Chouteau heirs employed several able St. Louis
attorneys, assisted by Reverdy Johnson, the great Maryland lawyer,
while the Dubuque settlers were represented by Caleb Cushing, of
Massachusetts, Judge T. S. Wilson and Platt Smith of Dubuque. It
was one of the most important and closely contested law cases in
Iowa litigation. The titles to hundreds of farms and thousands of
city lots and homes, and all of the lead mines in Dubuque County and
vicinity, were involved. The decision turned largely upon the legal
construction given to the original grant made by the Indian council
in Dubuque, in 1788, and also upon the nature of the Spanish grant
made by Governor Carondelet to Dubuque in 1796. The courts held
that both grants were in the nature of permits or leases to mine
lead on the lands described and were not intended to convey actual
title to the land. From a statement made by Dubuque to Lieutenant
Pike, in September, 1805, it is learned that at that time the
Dubuque mines yielded but from twenty to forty thousand pounds of
lead and that traces of copper were also found.
During the twenty-two years that Dubuque and his
Canadian assistants lived in Iowa, from 1788 to 1810, the territory
was owned by three different nations, viz.: Spain, France and the
United States. The mines and the village which were first named by
Dubuque the "Mines of Spain" were, after his death, called "Dubuque
Lead Mines." The burial place of the pioneer was on a high bluff
two hundred feet above the river and close to it, near the site of
the old Indian village of Kettle Chief. Inscribed on a cedar cross
in large letters was, "JULIEN DUBUQUE, Miner of the MINES OF SPAIN,
died March 24th, 1810, aged 45 years and 6 months." His friend, the
Fox chief, was buried near his grave. For ten years after the death
of Dubuque little was known of the lead mines, as the Indians had
undisputed possession.
In 1820 Henry R. Schoolcraft, in company with Hon.
Lewis Cass, who was then Governor of Michigan Territory, went on a
journey to the sources of the Mississippi River. Schoolcraft was a
distinguished scientist and had spent many years studying the
habits, customs and history of the North American Indians. It was
on this voyage that Mr. Schoolcraft visited the Dubuque Lead Mines.
he writes as follows of that locality:
"I left Prairie du Chien in a canoe manned by
eight voyageurs, including a guide, at half-past eleven, a. m.,
August 6, 1820. Opposite the entrance of the Wisconsin River is
Pike's Hill, the high elevation (near where the city of McGregor
stands) which Pike recommended to be occupied as a military post.
His advice was not adopted. * * * I camped at seven p. m. on the
site of a Fox village on the east bank, a mile below the Turkey
River form the west. The village, consisting of twelve lodges, was
deserted, not even a dog left behind. My guide informed me that
the cause of the desertion was the fear of an attack from the Sioux
in retaliation for a massacre lately perpetrated by a party of Fox
Indians of their people on the head waters of the St. Peter. I
embarked on the 7th at half-past three a. m. and landed at the Fox
village of the Kettle Chief, at the site of Dubuque's house, which
had been burned down. The village is situated fifteen miles below
the entrance of the Little Makokety River, consisting of nineteen
lodges built in two rows, pretty compact, having a population of two
hundred and fifty souls.
"There is a large island in the Mississippi
directly opposite this village which is occupied by traders. I
first landed there to get an interpreter of the Fox language, and
obtained some information about the location of the mines. I
succeeded in getting Mr. Gates as interpreter, and was accompanied
by Dr. Muir, a trader, who politely offered to go with me.*
*This Dr. Muir was an army surgeon, and
was the first white settler at Keokuk.
"On entering the lodge of Aquoqua, the chief,
and stating the object of my visit, some objections were made by the
chiefs who surrounded him, and they required time to consider. In
the meantime I learned from another source that since the death of
Dubuque, to whom the Indians had formerly granted the privilege of
working the mines, that they had manifested great jealousy of the
whites, were afraid they would encroach on their rights, denied all
former grants, and did not make it a practice even to allow
strangers to view their diggings. I had provided some presents, and
directed one of my voyageurs to bring in some tobacco and whisky;
and in a few moments I received their assent and two guides were
furnished. They led me up the cliff where Peosta, the Indian woman,
first found lead ore. After reaching the level of the bluffs we
pursued a path of undulating hills, exhibiting a half prairie and a
picturesque aspect. On reaching the diggings the most striking part
of them exhibited excavations such as Indians only do not seem
persevering enough in labor to have made.
"The principal mines are situated on a tract
of one square league, beginning at the Fox village of Kettle Chief,
and extending west. This is the seat of the mining operations
carried on by Dubuque, as well as of what are called the Indian
diggings. The ore is now exclusively dug by Indian women. Old and
superannuated men also partake of the labor, but the warriors hold
themselves above it.
"In this labor the persons engaged in it
employ the hoe, shovel, pickax and crowbar. These implements are
supplied by the traders at the island, who are the purchasers of the
crude ore. They dig trenches until they are arrested by the solid
rock. There are no shafts and the windless, buckets and the use of
gunpowder mining operations are unknown to them. Their mode of
going down into the deepest pits is by digging an inclined way,
which permits the women to keep erect in walking. I descended into
one of these inclined excavations, which had been probably carried
down forty feet at the perpendicular angle. When a quantity of ore
has been taken out it is carried in baskets to the bank of the
Mississippi and ferried over to the island. The Indians received at
the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, payable in
goods. At the rate these are sold the ore may cost the traders at
the rate of seventy-five cents or a dollar, cash value, per hundred
weight. The traders smelt the ore in furnaces on the island.
Formerly the Indians were in the habit of smelting the ore
themselves on log heaps, by which an unusual proportion was
converted in lead ashes and lost. They are now induced to collect
these lead ashes, for which they receive a dollar a bushel. There
are three mines in addition upon the upper Mississippi which are
worked by the Indians: Sinsinaway mines, fifteen miles below the
Fox village, on the east shore; Mine Au Fevre, on the River Au Fevre,
which enters the Mississippi on its east bank below the Dubuque
mines - the lead ore is found ten miles from its mouth; Mine of the
Makokety, fifteen miles above Dubuque's mine. The mineral character
and value of the country has been but little explored.
"After the death of Dubuque in March, 1810,
the Indians burnt down his house and fences, he leaving no family.
He had lived with a Musquakee squaw. There is I believe no
instance in America where the Indians have annulled grants or
privileges to persons settling among them and leaving families
founded on the Indian element. They have erased every vestige of
civilized life, and revoked or at least denied the grant, and appear
to set a very high value on the mines.
"Having examined the mines with as much
minuteness as the time allowed me would permit, and obtained
specimens of its ores and minerals, I returned to Prairie du Chien."
The next white settlement attempted in the limits of
Iowa was by Basil Giard, a French American who obtained from the
Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, in 1795, a grant to a tract of
land in the limits of Clayton County, known as the "Giard Tract."
It contained five thousand eight hundred and sixty acres and was
occupied several years. When Louisiana was acquired by the United
States, a patent was issued to Goiard by the Government, which was
the first legal title obtained by a white man to land in the limits
of Iowa.
The third settlement was made by Louis Honore Tesson,
a French Canadian, in 1799. He procured authority from the
Lieutenant-Governor of upper Louisiana to establish a trading post
at the head of the Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi River. His
selection was made in Lee County, where Montrose now stands. Tesson
at once proceeded to erect a trading post and other buildings. He
enclosed a farm with a rail fence, raising corn, potatoes and other
crops. He brought from St. Charles, Missouri, upon a mule, a
hundred small seedling apple trees, which were planted on his farm.
This was the first orchard planted upon the soil of Iowa. The
trees grew and proved to be well adapted to the country and some of
them were living in 1876. In 1803 the property was sold on
execution to Thomas F. Reddick. The sale was confirmed to Reddick
by an act of Congress. Attorney-General Felix Grundy gave an
opinion confirming the title to the Reddick heirs and a patent was
accordingly issued to them for six hundred and forty acres, February
7, 1839.
An act of Congress of October 3, 1803, authorized
the President to take possession of the Territory of Louisiana,
lately ceded by France, and establish a temporary government. On
the 26th of March, 1804, an act was passed organizing the Territory
of Orleans, which embraced what subsequently became the State of
Louisiana, while the remainder of the purchase was made the District
of Louisiana and placed under the jurisdiction of the Governor of
Indiana Territory. This District of Louisiana was an immense
country, the boundaries of which were not clearly defined. It
embraced all of the region lying north of the present State of
Louisiana, including that State, to the British possessions and west
of the Mississippi River into some uncertain portion of the Rocky
Mountain region and the Pacific Ocean. On the 3d of March, 1805,
Louisiana was organized into a separate territory, with General
James Wilkinson as Governor. The white population at this time did
not exceed one thousand and the capital was St. Louis.
Soon after the purchase of Louisiana, the Government
fitted out expeditions to explore the upper Mississippi and Missouri
rivers, their tributaries and the regions through which they flowed.
The one set up the Missouri was under the joint command of Captain
Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark. Captain Lewis was the
private secretary of President Jefferson when selected for this
important command and was well qualified for the work. His
associate, Captain Clark, who was selected at his request, was a
brother of the famous General George Rogers Clark. The forty-three
men chosen to accompany them were mostly young, vigorous and
experienced frontiersmen, well equipped for the important work. The
boats which were to convey them were fitted expressly for the
expedition. One of them was fifty-five feet long and half-decked.
The others were strongly built, open boats.
The expedition embarked at St. Louis on the 14th of
May, 1804, to explore a vast unknown region inhabited by tribes of
Indians of which almost nothing was known. All felt that it was a
hazardous undertaking for so small a body of men; but they were
courageous spirits, accustomed to the perils and hardships of
pioneer life and entered upon the long, uncertain journey with
enthusiasm and undaunted courage.
They pulled out into the great river, depending upon
oars to propel their boats against the powerful current for
thousands of miles. When they reached the Missouri the waters were
gray and muddy with the soil washed from its shores by a resistless,
grinding flood that bore great numbers of uprooted trees upon its
swift current. Sandbars were continually being formed, holding huge
trees in their grasp, then undermined by the wash, quickly crumbled
away from the volume of swift waters that ground them to atoms. The
channel and shores were daily changing.
The progress of the party was slow as the men toiled
at the oars through the day and went into camp at night in the dense
forests along the shores. It was the 8th of July when they reached
the mouth of the Nodaway River which they found navigable for
several miles. As they passed up along the west shore of Iowa they
describe the country as a vast prairie, the great valley of the
Missouri broadening out on the Iowa side into immense meadows, many
miles in width, and level as a floor, covered with a dense growth of
tall waving grass. Beyond could be seen a high range of steep
bluffs, often treeless, broken into sharp points and deep ravines.
Roaming over the prairies were large herds of buffalo, elk and
deer. Their record says:
"The greatest river merging its waters with
the Missouri from the west is the Platte, which rises among the
mountains of the great Rocky or Snowy Range in about longitude 112'.
It winds through the Great American Desert to its union with the
Missouri. Its sources are on the Spanish frontier not far distant
from those of the Rio del Norte, which traverses the kingdom of New
Mexico and empties into the Gulf of Florida. It is six hundred
yards wide at its mouth, and is not more than six feet in depth, and
from its rapidity and the great volume of sand it carries down, it
is not navigable for boats larger than Indian canoes."
On the 22d of July the explorers camped on the east
shore of the river ten miles above the mouth of the Platte to hold
an interview with the Indians. The commanders had determined to
cultivate the friendship of all Indian tribes they should meet on
their journey through an unknown country and far beyond the reach of
aid in any danger they might encounter. The regions they were to
explore were known to be peopled with some of the most powerful and
warlike Indian nations of America. It was realized that the success
and safety of the little company of but forty-five must depend upon
the establishment of friendly relations with the natives.
President Jefferson fully realized the perils likely
to be encountered by a small band of men cut off entirely for
months, or possibly years, from all communication with their
countrymen, in an unknown and unexplored region, remote from
civilization. But it was of great importance to examine and learn
something of the capabilities and natural resources of this recently
acquired region. The prudence, skill and courage displayed by Lewis
and Clark in leading their party through this journey in safety,
confirmed the excellent judgment of the President in his selection
of the commanders of the successful expedition.
The first encountered were the Ottoe and Pawnee
Indians on the Papillion and Mosquito, streams emptying into the
Missouri. The party at once established friendly relations with
them in a conference not far from where Omaha stands. On the 29th
they came to a region occupied by the Ayauway (Iowa) Indians before
they moved to the Des Moines Valley.
On the first of August they camped on a high wooded
bluff some distance back from the river, at an elevation of more
than seventy feet above the plains. From here they obtained a fine
view of the surrounding country, the great prairies stretching in
every direction as far as the eye could reach; the winding valley of
the river fringed with woods in various places. On the 3d of August
a friendly council was held with six Indian chiefs, accompanied by
many members of their tribes. Captain Lewis explained to them that
the Americans had now become the rulers of this great valley and
that they wanted to live at peace with all of the Indians who
occupied it. The tribes at this council were the Ottoes and
Missouris and they asked that the Great Father would protect them
from the Omahas, with whom they were at war. After a friendly
conference presents were distributed among them and the council
closed. Lewis and Clark gave this camp the name of "Council
Bluffs."
A week later the explorers camped near the mouth of
a river named by the French "Petite Riviere de Sioux" (the Little
Sioux River). Most of the tributaries of the Missouri had been
visited by French adventurers and trappers from 1705 up to the close
of French dominion in the Mississippi Valley. They had given them
names and to some extent explored them in their search for furs and
game. Lewis and Clark were told by the Indians that the Little
Sioux took its rise not far from the west branch of the Des Moines
River; that within ninety miles of that river it passes through a
lake sixty miles in circumference, divided into two parts, the banks
of which approach very close to each other. "It varies in width,
contains, several islands, and is the 'Lake of the Great Spirit.'"
On the 10th the party passed a high bluff near the
river where they were told by the Indians that the Omaha chief,
Black Bird, was buried. He had died of smallpox four years before.
Over the grave a mound twelve feet in diameter and six feet high
had been piled up on an elevation three hundred feet above the
river. Near this bluff was formerly a village of the Omahas, where
were now buried nearly one thousand members of the tribe who had
perished from smallpox the year their chief died. They had buried
the dead and then burned their village consisting of three hundred
wigwams.
Lewis and Clark now estimated that they had traveled
by the river more than a thousand miles. On the 18th of August they
landed on the west bank of the river opposite a point at the
southwest corner of what is now Woodbury County, Iowa, and held a
council with a band of Ottoe and Missouri Indians. The next day a
young soldier of their party, Sergeant Charles Floyd, was prostrated
with a sudden and very severe attack of bilious colic. The next
morning presents were distributed among the Indians, who then
mounted their ponies and departed westward over the prairie. The
explorers embarked in their boats soon after and ascended the river
thirteen miles, going into camp on the east shore. Here Sergeant
Floyd died. His body was conveyed some distances to a high bluff
overlooking the river, where he was buried with military honors. A
cedar post, planted at the head of the grave, bore this inscription:
CHARLES FLOYD
Died August 20th, 1804.
He is the first white man known to have been buried
on Iowa soil.
A river which the explorers passed emptying into the
Missouri from the east, about a mile north of their camp, was named
Floyd in memory of the young soldier whose grave was made in that
lonely region. More than half a century later Sioux City was laid
out near the spot where Floyd was buried.
For more than fifty years the annual floods of the
great river encroached upon the bluff, wearing away its shore, until
in 1857 the current had undermined the point upon which the grave
was made, leaving the bones of the soldier exposed to view. Some of
the residents of Sioux City assembled upon "Floyd's Bluff" and, with
appropriate ceremonies, reburied the remains of Sergeant Floyd
farther back from the shore. They found the red cedar-head board
which had been planted by Captain Lewis fifty-three years before,
thus identifying the grave.*
*On the 30th of May, 1901, a monument
which had recently been erected to the memory of Charles Floyd, was
dedicated. The monument was 100 feet in height and cost about
$20,000. Congress and the Iowa Legislature made appropriations for
the work, and Sioux City and private individuals also contributed.
By invitation Hon. John A. Kason came from Washington to deliver
the address. It was a valuable contribution to the history of the
acquisition of Louisiana. There was exhibited a manuscript journal
kept by Sergeant Floyd up to the time of his death, which was found
in 1893, among the historical collections of Dr. Lyman Draper of
Wisconsin.
Remarkable windings of the river were frequently
observed by the explorers. At a place at which they took meridian
observations, they found themselves so near a point they had passed
the day before, that a man was sent to step across the narrow neck
which separated the two stations. He stepped nine hundred and
thirty-four yards, while the distance by river was more than
eighteen miles. No large bodies of timber were mentioned as
occurring along the river valley, until the explorers reached the
mouth of the Great Sioux River. Few Indians were found, and large
flocks of prairie chickens, geese, ducks and sandhill cranes were
frequently seen.
At the mouth of the Great Sioux River they were
assured by the interpreter, M. Durion, that the river was navigable
for a distance of more than two hundred miles, where the great falls
would be found. He also described a creek which emptied into it
just below the falls, which he said passed through a bluff of red
rock, out of which the Indians made their pipes. These pipe stone
lands were by agreement among the Indians, far and near, declared to
be neutral grounds, where hostile tribes often met peaceably upon
the banks of Pipestone Creek to secure their caluments of peace.
The further progress of the expedition cannot be
given here in detail, as the history of its great explorations fills
volumes. It need only be stated that it was conducted with courage
and judgment and was eminently successful in procuring a vast fund
of information as to the character of our newly acquired
possessions. The explorers ascended the Missouri River to its
source in the Rocky Mountains and crossed the divide to the head
waters of the Columbia, which empties into the Pacific Ocean in
Oregon. They proceeded down this river, making friends of all
Indian tribes they met, often procuring supplies of them.
On the 16th day of November, 1805, they pitched
their tents on the shores of the Pacific Ocean at Haley's Bay.
Selecting a grove of lofty pines below the mouth of the Columbia
River, the party erected comfortable cabins and went into winter
quarters for the second winter since leaving St. Louis. Game was
plenty and large numbers of Indians visited them, exchanging
provisions for goods, and thus they passed a comfortable winter in
the remote wilderness thousands of miles from the nearest white
settlement.
On the 23d of March, 1806, they began their long
journey homeward. Before leaving the winter camp, Captains Lewis
and Clark took the precaution to post up in a secure place a brief
statement, giving notice to whoever might visit that remote shore,
that this party (giving their names) had explored the interior of
the North American Continent by way of the Missouri and Columbia
Rivers, giving the date of the arrival on the Pacific coast and the
time of the departure homeward. If any disaster should overtake
them on the perilous return journey, here would be evidence of the
success of the expedition and the results of their explorations
would not be entirely lost to the world.
It is remarkable fact that this brief notice was
discovered by some Indians, taken by them and delivered to a Captain
Hill, who was coasting near the Columbia River, carried by him to
Canton, China, and sent from there to the United States, reaching
Washington in January, 1807, nearly a year after the safe return of
the explorers. This was one of the most important expeditions ever
sent out by our Government. It gave our country the first authentic
information of its vast western possessions from the mouth of the
Missouri along the eastern shores of Kansas and Nebraska, the
western shore of Iowa, the interior of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming,
Idaho and Oregon. It gave the first knowledge to civilization of
numerous Indian tribes and nations, the lofty mountains of the Snowy
Range, several of the greatest rivers and valleys of the west, the
fir and pine forests, natural scenery not surpassed in grandeur by
any other portion of the globe.
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