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Most Admireable Pilots

By: Phil Scriver, LC200 Historian

In spite of the council given by the Nez Perce, Lewis became impatient with waiting for the snow in the Rockies to melt and decided to set out over those tremendous mountains. The Nez Perce had promised guides, but they would not come until late in the month. The meat supply provided by the hunters was rapidly dwindling so the Captains determined to depart Camp Chopunnish and move to the Weippe Prairies where the deer would be closer. The Expedition would spend several days there to build up a supply of meat then head for the United States. Departure from Camp Chopunnish on June 10th put their plan into action. Each person had a horse to ride and another one for packing baggage. Additionally they had several extra horses in reserve so Captain Lewis felt “perfectly equipped for the mountains.”

They camped on the Weippe Prairie that evening near the spot the Expedition had stumbled half-starved out of the mountains the fall before. The hunters were successful that evening and the next day, but they soon realized that deer were not very plentiful in this area either. Building the meat supply would be more difficult than they had expected. But a reasonable supply was obtained during the next three days as the hunters ranged far away from camp. But the game was almost completely gone by then so the Expedition had little choice but to move on by the time they set out the morning of June 15th.

While the hunters went about their work the Captains busied themselves with their journals. They compiled a list of all the Indian tribes they knew about, showing where they lived and the population of each tribe. The total for every group living west of the continental divide was 69,000. Lewis also caught up on descriptions of the plants and animals of the territory. He mentioned that when he first viewed these prairies from a distance the camas grew so thick and were such a rich blue in color he thought he was seeing a lake.

The evening of the 14th Lewis bemoaned the fact that they had spent 5 weeks waiting for the snow to melt; this was a serious loss of time during the prime traveling season. Although everyone was anxious to get going, he still worried about the four days that would be needed to cross the very highest part of the mountains that were still snow covered. As the Expedition set out early on the 15th Clark confides “even now I shudder with the expectation of great difficulty in passing those mountains.

For three days the Expedition traveled upward over steep rough country that tried the strength and stamina of man and horse until 52 miles later they reached the snowfields of the mountain crest. They found themselves traveling on top of the snow that was 12 to 15 feet deep. It covered everything, totally obscuring any signs of the trail they knew they must follow or perish in a maze of high mountain peaks. Lewis finally realized it would take five days to cross these snow fields if they could stay on the trail, which Drewyer, the Expedition’s best woodsman, seriously doubted. On what is now known as Willow Ridge, the Expedition cached most of their baggage, and begrudgingly retraced their route back to Weippe Prairies. They gave in to the fact that they must have Indian guides who knew the route well or continue waiting until the snow finished melting before they could cross the Rockies. Two men were sent to the Nez Perce to get a guide, offering a rifle to whoever would guide them to the Great Falls of the Missouri. The Expedition had covered almost one third the distance from the Weippe Prairie to Travelers Rest.

These days saw other disappointment and near tragedy. Lewis noted that they were out of salt that they had boiled out of the sea water at Fort Clatsop excepting for two quarts he had reserved for his exploring trip up the Marias River. Although this was of little consequence to Clark who was very indifferent to using salt, Lewis was just the opposite. Of much greater concern was Potts brush with death. He cut a deep gash in his leg with his long knife, opening the large vein on the inside of his thigh. Lewis could only stop the bleeding by applying a tourniquet. Thankfully, by the time the Expedition reached Travelers Rest the cut had healed completely.

The Captains were still concerned about the lack of Indian guides, so they developed a contingency plan. Clark would take the four best woodsmen in an advance party and, by observing the trees for signs of Indians rubbing on them as they traveled by, blaze a trail. They would travel for two days then send two men back to get the main party while Clark and the two men with him would continue on blazing the best possible trail over the mountains. The main party would follow the blazed trail to Travelers Rest. If the advance party could not find the trail instead of just two men returning they would all return to the main party. At that point the route over the mountains would be forsaken in favor of a southern route through Shoshone country. That trail would go to southern Idaho and then east through present day Yellowstone Park, then on to the Yellowstone River. Although this route would take a full month of travel, it was frequently used by Indians and it would be clear of snow. Old Toby had told the Captains about this route in the fall of 1805.

It was June 17th when the Captains decided to turn back and get guides. On June 23rd three Indians arrived at the Expedition’s camp on Weippe Prairies to guide them across the mountains. This was just as the Main Chiefs had promised; it was Captain Lewis’ impatience that had thrown the Expedition’s travel into a tizzy. One was a brother of one of the four main Nez Perce chiefs while the other two were sons of two other of the main chiefs. They told the Captains that the Nez Perce had made peace with all the other tribes they had been at war with, just as the President had asked of them. The Captains also learned that Indians from the prairies east of the mountains had ambushed the Shoshones and Flatheads, killing many that the Expedition had met the fall before.

Camp for June 24th was in the foothills, very close to the mountains. That night the Indians set fire to several of the large fir trees growing close by. Lewis compared the “sudden and immense blaze” that shot up the tree to a 4th of July fireworks display. The Indians explained it was to bring good weather for their mountain crossing. Sacajawea gathered a bundle of roots her people commonly ate, which she showed to Lewis. He wrote a brief description of this plant that was new to science. We know it today as the Western Spring Beauty. This was one of the few times Lewis credited Sacajawea with showing him new plants.

On the 26th the Expedition reached Willow Ridge and recovered their baggage they had cached there, then they pushed on. In three days the guides took the Expedition 71 miles over the dreaded mountains to Lolo Hot Springs. The route was on the tops of ridges where travel was actually made easier by the deep snow that covered the tangle of downed trees and rocks. The next day they reached an “elevated point” with a conical mound of rocks piled 6 to 8 feet high. There the Captains had “an extensive view of these stupendous mountains.” They realized if a person did not know their route well, there was no way out. Even though they had traveled the area the fall before and recognized their campsites along the way, the Captains knew the Expedition could not have crossed without the Indians to guide them.

Early afternoon of the 29th the Expedition reached the Lolo Hot Springs where they camped for the night. The ordeal of crossing those tremendous Rockies was behind them. The trip the fall before had been much, much more of an ordeal than the one they just completed, but now they only had open prairies between them and St. Louis.

All the Expedition men and the Indian guides bathed in the hot springs. Lewis described how the Indians would go into the springs and stay as long as they could then immediately run and jump into the ice cold water of the near by creek. This process was repeated several times before the bath was completed. He said he could only stay in the hot waters of the springs for 19 minutes.

On June 30th the Expedition covered the remaining 32 miles to Travelers Rest arriving there a little before sunset. The Captains planned to stay there two or three days resting men and horses then split the Expedition. Lewis and his party would go east to the Great Falls of the Missouri and Clark would take his party south down the Bitterroot Valley and on to the Yellowstone. They would rejoin where the Yellowstone flows into the Missouri, near the present Montana/North Dakota border.

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