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Down the Rochejhone

By: LC200 staff

Clark’s group left Canoe Camp on the Yellowstone in their two new dugouts while Pryor started his overland trip with the remaining horses. Clark had a relaxing cruise for the next eleven days as they traveled about fifty miles per day. One the 25th of July they passed through the present townsite of Billings then a few miles farther brought them to one of the most famous landmarks of the Expedition. Clark says that at 4 pm they “arrived at a most remarkable rock.” He climbed two hundred feet to its top and carefully surveyed the surrounding country. While climbing back down he stopped at a place where Indians had left their marks. Clark carved his name and the date in the sandstone face then returned to the canoes and resumed their journey. This large rock was named Pompy’s Tower. Six miles down river Clark found a fossilized rib in the riverbank. It measured three inches in circumpherence and three feet long, although it was broken off. This was undoubtedly a dinosaur bone; many have been found in that part of the state.

When they reached the mouth of the Bighorn River the next day Clark commented on the rich soil and the abundance of game. He also said that a number of Indian bands, mostly Crow, roamed the area, attracted by the easy access to the game. He also recorded that after they passed the mouth of the Bighorn he could no longer see those immense Rockies that had occupied him since early May.

On the 29th the group reached the mouth of the Tongue River at present day Miles City. The water from that river was so muddy and warm it could not be used. Clark crossed to the north side of the Yellowstone River and camped on an island for the night. The next day the group encountered two sets of rapids in the river that up to then had been a wide, smooth, rapidly flowing river. That night they camped under a “large spredding cotton tree.”

Although the buffalo had been abundant all along the Yellowstone, on August 1 and 2 they encountered several herds crossing the river that were so large Clark’s group was obliged to stop and wait up to an hour at a time while the buffalo crossed. Early the morning of August 3rd Clark arrived at the confluence of the Yellowstone and camped in the same place the Expedition had camped April 26, 1805. Here he prepared to wait for the rest of the Expedition to join him. He had left Montana and was in North Dakota. While waiting, he recapped the river and country he had passed through. He recorded the total miles from where he had first reached the Yellowstone to where he was camped at its mouth to be 837 miles, of which he had traveled 636 by canoe. He also said a trading fort on this river was preferable to one on the Missouri because more Indians from more tribes would use it. He recommended a fort at the mouth of Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone, which is a short distance upriver from present day Billings. Another very good location would be at the mouth of the Bighorn. Fort Raymond was built at the Bighorn in 1807 but was short lived.

Although Clark and his party had reached the predetermined meeting point with Captain Lewis, after two days there he decided to move farther downriver. The mosquitoes were so fierce the men couldn’t do their chores. Hunting and sleeping were impossible. Clark even speculated that the deer couldn’t endure the mosquitoes. He attributed the animals poor condition to their inability to eat or drink due to them.

Clark left Lewis a note on a pole and pushed off headed downriver. They spent four moving slowly looking of a place to wait that wasn’t so infested with mosquitoes. Hunting parties were out every day. Game was not so plentiful, so it took a concentrated effort to get the daily meat supply. On the morning of August 8, Sgt Pryor and his group that was to take the horses overland to Fort Mandan came floating up in bullboats; they had no horses. Pryor related his story to Captain Clark.

Pryor had left Clark on July 24, 1806 to take the remaining horses overland to the Mandan villages. On the second night out Crow Indians “removed from them the work of tending the herd of horses.” The men awoke the next morning to discover they had no horses. They found tracks that showed Indians had paid them a visit during the night; some of the tracks were within 100 paces of where the men slept. Pryor and is group followed the tracks on foot for five miles to where the Indians had split into two groups. They followed the larger of the two Indian groups for another five miles “until finding there was not the smallest chance of overtaking them.” Pryor returned to camp and packed up their belongings and started off on foot for the Yellowstone.

He set a course to the northeast and reached the Rochejhone at Pompey’s Pillar. At that point they shot two buffalo and made two bullboats. These are circular shaped boats with a willow frame and a buffalo hide stretched over it. Pryor’s boats were seven feet in diameter, sixteen inches deep and each could carry six to eight men with their gear. Pryor knew absolutely nothing about the river they were to travel, so he made two boats so if one sank all their equipment would not be lost. They spent an uneventful two weeks floating the river. They were concentrating on catching up with the main party and saw very little else. He told Captain Clark that the bullboats “passed the worst rapids without taking a drop of water” and the “waves from the hardest winds doesn’t affect them.”

When Pryor and his group reached the mouth of the Yellowstone they saw Clark’s note to Lewis and, figuring Lewis had already gone by, took the note. When Pryor and his group left camp very early on the morning of August 8, 1806 they were so anxious to catch the main group that Pryor left his saddlebags with his papers at camp. After catching up with Clark, Pryor and Bratton went back upriver and retrieved the saddlebags.

Clark realized that since they had nothing to trade with the Mandans for their corn and beans only thing they could do now was to get as many skins as possible. He sent out hunters who were moderately successful. Clark stayed camped for the day then traveled a few miles the next day. The party stayed in camp on August 10, and again traveled a short distance on the following day. Just after departing camp the morning of August 12, Shannon realized he had forgotten his tomahawk in camp. Clark stopped to wait for Shannon to reclaim his missing equipment. During this delay, Captain Lewis and his party arrived; the Corps of Discovery was again together in one group. This location is now under the water of Lake Sakakawea near present day New Town, North Dakota.