Laurel outlook., 1945-06-27

LEWIS AND
CLARK
The Great American Odyssey
A Condensed Story of
the Historic EXpedi-
ton of 1S04-6.
Copyright 1916, Walter Meacham)

Copyright 1915, Walter Meacham)
CHAPTER 5
Floyd the Only Casualty

Sergeant Charles Floyd died Aug
ust 20 of natural causes, at a point
on the river below present Sioux
City, Iowa He vas buried on a
high bluff with military honors, and
his grave was marked with a cedar
post bearing his name and date of
death. Today a tall, stately obelisk
marks the spot of his interment.
His name vas given to Floyd's
river, which flows into the Missouri
Ia short distance above the bluff
where he is buried. Floyd was the
only man lost on the entire trip.
There was one desertion, Joe Bar
ter, a Frenchman, called LA Lib
erte."
Pow-wows were held with the In
dams at various points and peace
pacts were made with the Sioux,
Arikaras and Mandans. Big Sioux
river was reached on August 81.
Two hundred miles up this stream
were located the quarries where the
Indians got the stone with which
to make their famous red-stone
pipes. James river, near the pres
ent Yankton, S. D., was reached o.
August 81. Pryor, Dorion and an
other man were sent up the river
to contact a village of Sioux In
dams and invite them to a parley.
Lewis and Clark met the Indians
twenty miles farther up the Mis-
souri,, where the council was held
with the usual formalities.
Big Bend of the Missouri was
reached on September 20, in pres
ent South Dakota. The Bend was
over 18 miles around the loop and
less than a mile across the neck.
Four days later they arrived at
present Pierre on Bad river, where
Wilson Price Hunt set out with his
Astorians in 1911 on his epochal
land journey to the Columbia
On October 18, Lewis and Clark
came to the mouth of a stream
where there were large quantities of
round stones resembling cannon
balls, so they named the stream
Cannonball river.
Hunting was good, the explorers
living on the tenderest portions of
buffalo, elk, deer and antelope. For
a change they had duck and fish.
There would be lean days ahead
when their mouths would water and
their stomachs yearn for those deli
~cacies.
Winter was now coming or and
Lewis and Clark liked for a Suita-
BILE place to make a permanent
camp. The principal Mandan village
was located south of present STAN
ton, North Dakota, below the mouth
of Knife river. A location was
selected across the Missouri from
the Mandan village at a wooded
spot on the north bank of the river,
which here flows east. On Novem-
Der 2 they commenced the erection
of their buildings and stockade of
cottonwood logs. They called it
Fort Mandan. Here they spent the
winter of 1804-5, about sixteen hun
dred miles from the mouth of the
Missouri. 1t had taken one hundred
and sixty-five days to make the
journey, at an average of about ten
miles a day.
Trading was resorted to during
the winter, the Indians bartering
corn and pumpkins for iron articles
made by the blacksmiths, and for
other articles of trade. The two
camps exchanged visits and pro-
vided entertainment for one another.
Christmas day, however, the Indians
were excluded, being informed that
this was a "Big Medicine Day" for
the white men, when they wished
to be alone. A grand feast was
prepared and toasts were drunk to
President Jefferson and other high
government officials. The flag was
hoisted amid the cheers of the men
and a salute from their guns. Cru
zatte, the one-eyed boatman, got out
his fiddle, Rivet danced on his head,
and the men sang and danced until
a late hour. This was the first
celebration that far west.
Ito be continued)