two hundred years ago today

On this day, July 27, 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition consisted of five separate parties scattered across what is now Montana. I've always been taken by this moment, because the confidence to scatter their forces in the wilderness and be sure they could get back together again, and the trust that the captains had in their three resourceful sergeants and the rest of their men, speak volumes for the skills they'd honed in the nearly three years they'd been together.

Lewis and Clark had separated on July 3rd near present-day Missoula. The river route they'd gone up the previous year in western Montana had turned out to be too arduous and circuitous. Captain Meriwether Lewis was to take one body of men and go over a short-cut pass directly to Great Falls, where they'd portaged the previous year. Then he and three picked hunters would reconnitor up the Marias River, an intriguing tributary they hadn't had time to explore on the way out. Sgt. Patrick Gass and his men would keep Lewis's base camp at Great Falls and wait for ...( Read more... )