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Retracing Lewis' Route

By: lc200 staff

In the summer of 1999, seven local Lewis and Clark buffs accepted the challenge of duplicating Captain Lewis’ overland trek from the mouth of the Marias to the great falls of the Missouri. He and four companions had departed the Marias at 8 am on June 11, 1805 arriving at the great falls at noon on the 13th. Our group planned to meet those same times on the same days. We did, however, give in to modern day conveniences in some ways. We wore current day clothes to include shoes that would take much better care of our feet than the elk skin moccasins the 1805 expedition wore. We also were met at pre-determined points for our meals. Lewis” group spent a certain amount of their time killing and cooking their meals as they went. Those two changes allowed us to freely concentrate on our primary goal of traversing the same distance each day that Lewis and his party did. We were also following his same route. They traveled nine miles the first day, twenty seven the second and fifteen the final day.

Bob Bergantino, a professor at Montana Tech and an expert on celestial navigation and topographical mapping, was called on to interpret Lewis’ journal entries and Clark’s maps to mark the route on a current day map. Some of us made a reconnaissance trip on parts of the route to establish land marks and set in our minds how the new maps related to the actual countryside. We were ready to go. In our own way we were “explorers” too making our own discoveries. To the best of our knowledge no other person had retraced this particular part of the route. Others chose to follow Clark’s water route up the Missouri.

Proving that plans are only made to be changed, the day before we were due to depart, we agreed to not stay with the 8 am departure time. We pushed the departure back to 10:30 am. Our logic was the only reason that Lewis only went nine miles that first day was due to his sickness. If we held to the original departure time, walking at the rate of three miles an hour we would be in camp at the crocondunez by 11 am. The only thing we had to do was to prepare some chokecherry simple as Lewis had done and to try to find the “Grog Spring.” Since we all lived in Great Falls, we also had to drive the fifty miles from Great Falls to the mouth of the Marias before starting our own trek. As an added bonus, we were able to arrange with a local television station to meet us there to film the start of our trip.

After we established our camp at the crocondunez, it was time to explore a bit and try to complete our objective of locating the “Grog Spring.” There are four springs in the area and each had to be located and checked against journal entries. Two little springs were located about a half mile downriver from our camp, but they didn’t match well with the explorers’ descriptions. The other two springs were upstream from our camp. The one farthest upstream also didn’t match up. When we turned our attention to the remaining spring, we realized it fit the descriptions except rather than being a freely flowing spring, it was more like a bog.

We adjourned to camp to analyze the information we had. Grog Spring is created by water seeping through the ridge separating the Teton and Missouri Rivers. The Teton is higher so water seeps from it to the Missouri. Lewis reported the distance between the two rivers at this point as two hundred yards. Clark, who had been at the Grog Springs on June 4th, reported the separation as one hundred yards. Today things have changed considerably. The Teton has altered its channel to flow much farther away; somewhere between a quarter to a half mile now separates the rivers. U.S. highway 87 runs between them. Additionally, dams farther upstream on the Teton have reduced the amount of water that river carries most of the year. All of these factors are consistent with Grog Springs becoming a bog rather than a freely flowing spring. We concluded that this last spring we examined was properly Grog Spring.
(On a later field trip that fall and using a global positioning system, Bergantino verified we had selected the proper spring.)

With the mystery of Grog Spring solved, we turned our efforts to making some chokecherry simple. Lewis recorded how he had made his “decoction” in his journal entry for June 11, 1805. We followed his description to make ours.

Being a trained herbalist, Lewis was well familiar with herbal teas and how they were made. He even uses some terms that show his training. A “simple” is another name for an herbal tea made from the inner bark of a tree or shrub. A “decoction” is the method of preparing the simple. Twigs from the tree or shrub are stripped of their leaves and broken into small pieces then placed in hot water and simmered for about an hour. This is exactly what Lewis reports he did to get his chokecherry simple. He referred to it in his journal as his experiment, yet I do not believe this was at all new to him. He was probably very familiar with chokecherry bushes since they grow most anywhere in the U.S. Their scientific name is prunus virginiana showing a definite Virginia connection. The inner bark of the chokecherry was considered of pharmaceutical value by the Food and Drug Administration until as recent as 1975.

By the time we had finished with our chokecherry experiment the sun was getting low in the sky. Dinner cooked over the campfire was topped off with deep-dish apple pie—baked over the campfire. Even though it was the middle of June, the temperature dropped to near 40 degrees during the night. We arose and were on the march by 5 am, right on Lewis’ schedule. Ten miles and about four hours later as we trudged across the prairie with the sun getting warmer by the hour we learned one big advantage we had over our 1805 adventurers. We were able to carry water with us. We made good use of that fact once we learned that rationing water was better than trying to carry enough to drink as we desired. A gallon jug of water gets mighty heavy in a hurry. It seems to gain weight the longer it is carried.

It was near 11 am when we finally reached the Missouri River at the same location Lewis had stopped for lunch, but we were about an hour behind his schedule. Lunch was a welcome sight since we had not eaten since about 4:30 that morning and that meal was minimal. If we had gained by using the modern day convenience of not having to kill and cook our food as we went, at least some of us did not gain from modern day shoes. When we stopped for lunch I was afraid to even take a shoe off for fear I would not get it back on. I knew that the blisters on both my feet were not going to be a pretty sight. After sitting for a while to eat, I could not get my feet to working again. The blisters had won. I could not walk on to finish the trek to the great falls. Two others of our party were victims of terrible blisters, but medical attention repaired the ailing feet of one who was able to finish. The other one, like me could not continue. We had made fifteen miles that day and nine the first day.

The remaining party continued on following Lewis’ arching route from the river out onto the prairie then back to the river again for the second night’s camp. The third morning the four left in the group were once again on the move shortly after daylight. Expressions of grim determination showed as they somberly trudged on. They were going to make the last leg of the trip and reach the great falls. Tired to the point of not being able to enjoy the results of their effort, the little group dropped their feet into the Missouri River just below the great falls at 3 pm. They had not equaled Captain Lewis’ time, but at this point they didn’t care. They had completed the fifty one mile trek they set out on two days earlier. That was all that mattered.

If a person drives the highway from Loma to Great Falls, numerous vistas described by Captain Lewis can be readily seen. For about the first dozen miles the highway follows Lewis’ course through the valley between the Marias and Teton Rivers. The Just as Lewis described coming out of the valley onto an open plain, so will the traveler who is following this route. The highway and Lewis’ course then separate for a few miles, but they are still relatively close. Lewis heads down to the Missouri River, which is on the south, or left, of the traveler, then comes back up onto the plain. The high point of land Lewis talks about standing on to view the mountains to the south can be seen by the traveler looking to his right just before reaching the town of Carter. Even from the road the mountains are plainly seen. At this spot a person can get a very good feeling for the land that Lewis and his party passed through on their trip to the great falls of the Missouri. He spent most of his time on the open, gently rolling plains that allowed a person to see for miles. A person today can stand on the same hilltops and with only a little imagination take themselves back to the time Lewis stood on those hills.

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