Seaman's Fate --- Pompey's Baptism --- Caspar Wistar
The Official Publication of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, lnc. February 2000 Volume 26, No. 1
CHARBONNEAU RECONSIDERED
Bumbling incompetent or valued member of the expedition? 4
The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403 Ph: 406-454-1234 or 1-888-701-3434 Fax: 406-771-9237 www.lewisandclark.org
M ission Statement The mission of the Lewis and Clark Trail H eritage Foundation, Inc. is to stimulate public appreciation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's contributions to America's heritage and to support education, research, development, and preservation of the Lewis and Clark experience.
Officers Active Past Presidents Directo rs at large President David Borlaug Beverly Hinds C indy O rlando Washburn, North Dakota Sioux City, Iowa 1849 "C" St., N .W. Washington, DC 20240 Robert K. Doerk, Jr. James H olmberg Fort Benton, Montana Louisville, Kentucky President-Elect Barbara Kubik James R. Fazio Ron Laycock 10808 N.E. 27th Court Moscow, Idaho Benson, Minnesota Vancouver, WA 98686 Robert E. Gatten, Jr. Larry Epstein Vice-President Greensboro, North Carolina C ut Bank, Montana Jane Henley 1564 Heathrow Drive H. John Montague Dark Rain Thom Keswick, VA 22947 Portland, Oregon Bloomington, Indiana
Secretary Clyde G. "Sid" Huggins Joe Mussulman Ludd Trozpek Mandeville, Louisiana Lolo, Montana 41 41 Via Padova C laremont, CA 9171 1 Donald F. Nell Robert Shattuck Bozeman, Montana Grass Valley, California Treasurer Jerry Garrett James M. Peterson Jane SchmoyerWeber 10174 Sakura Drive Vermillion, South Dakota Great Falls, Montana St. Louis, MO 651 28 William P. Sherman Frank Muhly Immediate Past President Portland, Oregon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania David Borlaug Washburn, ND 58577 L. Edwin Wang Minneapolis, Minnesota Executive Director Sammye Meadows Wilbur P. Werner Mesa, Arizona
Stuart E. Knapp Bozeman, Montana
Incorporated in 1969 under Missouri General NotForProfit Corporation Act. IRS Exemption Certificate No. 501(c)3, Identification N o. 5101877 15. Contents
From the Publications Committee: Changes for WPO 2
From the Directors: Looking back - and ahead 3
From the Bicentennial Council: "Prepared for action" 3
A Lewis and Clark revival: Tourists descend on trail 4
Briefings: stolen medals, Camp Dubois, call for nominations 5
Passages: Blair Chicoine, Lillian Ruth Colter Frick 6
Seaman's Fate? 7 Lewis's dog probably survived him ByJ ames J. Holmberg Pompey, p. 10
Pompey's Baptism 10 The christening of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ByBo b Moore
Charbonneau Reconsidered 18 A revisionist look at the Corps's interpreter By Rita Cleary
Bone Man 22 Lewis's mentor Caspar Wistar By Nancy M. Davis
In Review 26 Charbonneau, p. 18 Passage of Discovery; The Meriwether Lewis Murder; HerbariumJournal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Chapter News & Miscellany 33 L&C at the Great Divide; library goals; Weir collection on display; classifieds
Soundings 36 The Mythic Lewis and Clark By Bob Moore
On the cover This aquatint by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer depicts a meeting between the Minncrarees and Prince Maximilian de Wied at Fork Clark in 1833. The gesturing interpreter is probably Toussaint Charbonneau, the subject of our story beginning on page 18. Courtesy the Joslyn A rt Museum, Omah a, Nebraska. Herbarium, p. 30 From the Publications Committee "Drive On": Changes for WPO he twentieth century has to pull himself away from his fly fish Volume 26, Number 1 f' I drawn to a close, and not ing and writing projects to attend fu We Proceeded On is the official publication of . ~ only a new century, but a new ture annual meetings. We all hope to the Lewis and Clark Heritage Founda q; Trail C millennium, h as daw ned . The see him there or along the trail. tion, Inc. Its name derives froll;l a phrase that appears repeatedly in the collective journals world did not screech to a halt on The person who w ill be guiding of the expedition. January 1, 2000. No doubt being pre WPO into the new century and toward E.G. Chuinard, M.D., Founder pared for the anticipated needs and the bicentennial is Jim Merritt. Jim bas ISSN 02275-6706 demands of the new century and mil one career in editing and publishing Editor lennium helped smooth our transition behind him. Having recently taken J. 1. Me~ritt ,. ·~ ··i p ast this milestone. early retirement from Princeton Uni 51 N. Main Srreec '·,,,,, In just a few years another milestone versity as editor of its alumni maga Pennington, NJ OS534 of sorts will be reached- the two-hun zine, this nineteen-year member of the 609·818-0168 [email protected] dredth anniversary of the greatest ex Foundation answered the call to be Art Direction · ploring venture in the history of the come ou r publications editor. Jim Margaret Davis Design United States. The 2003-to-2006 bicen brings y ears of experience, many Princeton, New Je:sey tennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedi ideas, and enthusiasm to a growing Printed by Advanced,,Li}ko Printing tion presents the Lewis and Clark Trail job. That ability and experience is Great Falls, Montana • ,, apparent in this issue of WPO. Changes ·.$. Heritage Foundation with both oppor ·l, ·~ ':.; -~· tunities and responsibilities. We un are being made in the design of the doubtedly w ill play a major role in magazine. Other changes will be no
:;;·. commemorating the bicentennial. The ticed in future issues. Not only is Jim Foundation will be a leader, with liter editing WPO, but he will be involved in ally millions of people looking to it for an increasingly active publications pro information and guidance. A major fo gram. Supplemental publications, re cal point of all that attention will be We prints of out-of-print Lewis and Clark Proceeded On. In many ways it is, and related books, and new publications will continue to be, our standard-bearer. will all be part of the Foundation's mis Thousands, perhaps millions, will judge sion as we head toward, into, and be us based on it. Therefore, it is impera yond the bicentennial. tive that we be prepared- just as the We all have the same goal for the Corps of Discovery was prepared two Foundation. We want to make it a vi hundred years ago-to accomplish our tal part in telling and commemorating m1ss1on. the Lewis and Clark saga. It is a re To that end changes are being made sponsibility we must shoulder, as well concerning WPO. The most important as an opportunity we must seize. change is in the position of editor. To Marty Erickson took We Proceeded meet current and anticipated demands, On through the home stretch of the the position has been expanded to that twentieth century, and for this we of publications editor and further thank him. Jim Merritt will take WPO professionalized. After nine years at and the Foundation's publications to the helm of wro, Marty Erickson is ward the bicentennial and into the stepping down. Marty will be missed. twenty-first century. One of William His folksy style and relaxed manner Clark's favorite expressions concern endeared him to many. His humor and ing the fortunes of his family and good nature made him a popular fig friends was "drive on." May we all ure at annual meetings. Marty deserves Marty, Jim, the Foundation, and the a share of the credit in helping to make commemoration of the Lewis and Lewis and Clark the national phenom Clark experience- "drive on" in good ena it is becoming. H e reflected in his fortune and success in this new year, November column that his time as edi new century, and new millennium. tor was an adventure, and indeed it -James J. Holmberg was. It is hoped that Marty will be able Chairman
2 - We Proceeded On February 2000 From the Directors Looking hack-and ahead ,,. ·write this as January, the first Article Project series and The Mystery tion on your accomplishments for the month of the new year, ap of Lost Trail Pass. past year, and look forward with us to proaches. The month was • The film project Who Was York?, the new year and its promise of new 1 named for Janus, the Roman god produced by filmmaker Ron Craig. discoveries and adventures. of gates, doors, and new beginnings. Ja- Traditionally, the new year was a time "Proceed On." nus was a god with two faces, one to remember friends and family, and -Cynthia Orlando looking backward, to the past, and one to say thank you to all. So, on behalf of President looking forward, to the future. It is the Foundation, here are my thanks to: an auspicious name that beckons us to • Each of our members. You have gen look back. in reflection over the past erously supported the Foundation's From the Bicentennial Council forty years. We can take great pride end eavors with your time, money, in our significant accomplishments as scholarship, and interest. an organization, evolving from the • Marty Erickson, our longtime edi "Prepared for action" dreams and vision of our Foundation tor of WPO. Marty leaves us for new ad elders, and before them, the courage ventures and trails. ~'Ji he National Lewis and of the Corps of Volunteers for • Megan Smith, our membership di f_ I Clark Bicentennial Council is Northwest Discovery. Today we look rector. Megan leaves us to follow her C honored to share our greetings forward to n ew beginnings, n ew husband, Captain Kevin Smith, to of the season and best wishes for all plans, an d n ew dreams in the new Winnipeg. Megan and the Captain are of our Foundation friends and associ century. expecting their first child. ates as we continue the countdown to Looking back, it has been an excit • The National Park Service for gen the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark ing year for the Lewis and Clark Trail erously supporting many of the Expedition. H eritage Foundation: Twenty-six vi Foundation's endeavors, including the There are many exciting happenings brant chapters and a membership of protection, preservation, and promo to share which are markers on our way 2,630 collectively represent our national tion of the Lewis and Clark National to a memorable commemoration of the voice. Designation of the Lewis and Historic Trail, Foundation research, bicentennial. Clark National Historic Trail as a Mil and chapter projects and programs. In October 1999, the Council joined lennium Trail appropriately ties the past • O ur scholars, historians, and ar our fifteen federal-agency partners for and the present together. chaeologists, whose research efforts the first of many Lewis and Clark con With heavy hearts, we acknowledge the contribute to this rich legacy, and par gressional caucus briefings, attended by passing of authors, scholars, and friends ticularly to Dr. Gar y Moulton as he several elected representatives and staff like Irving Anderson of Portland, Or completes production of the finest members representing dozens of cau egon, Ruth Colter Frick of Washington, work there is on the story of the cus members. There was special inter Missou ri, and Blanche Schroer of Corps of Volunteers for Northwest est in how state project priorities and Lander, Wyoming. Our world is much Discovery, and Dr. Stephen Ambrose funding criteria could be established. In richer for their contributions to the for his generous contributions and November, the Council sponsored the Lewis and Clark legacy. support of Expedition-related first meeting of the trail-states coordi Some of the things this new year projects along the Trail. nating committee, held in Portland and bring include: • O ur past presidents and mentors, hosted by the O regon Historical Soci • An exciting annual meeting in who continue to guide us in our efforts ety. More than sixty representatives Dillon, Montana, in the heart of to preserve this legacy with sage ad gathered to discuss national events, Shoshoni country, hosted by the Camp vice. A special acknowledgement to project priorities, tribal outreach and Fortunate Chapter. Don Nell. For years, Don stored and participation, trail stewardship, coop • Release of the one-dollar Sacagawea sold the Foundation's publications erative visitor surveys, and opportuni com. from his h ome in Bozeman. Last ties for cultural tourism. Based on the • The sale of our own P endleton month, all of the publications were expressions of the H ouse and Senate "Peace and Friendship" blanket. transferred to our office in Great Falls. Lewis and Clark caucuses, trail-state • The Trail Stewardship Program and May the new year find each of you representatives agreed to participate in our first trail coordinator. surrounded by friends, family, and the an inventory of project priorities for • A new look (with this issue) for We spirit of the story of the Corps of Vol presentation to the congressional cau Proceeded On. unteers for Northwest Discovery. cuses in February 2000. • The first publication in our Feature Look back, as Janus does, with reflec- Also in November, the Council en-
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 3 Lewis and Cla ~ k revival i11 t,ulJ sWing joyed cosponsoring the American Riv Buffs s~~rchfor hr;roes a,/idf:.n~ a r~gioil' ir.iva~ed .~'l~~~ds ·~r:(d /ou~ts ers Conference "Voyage of Recovery." ..,,·;'· . .. :t~ ~ ::-.._,-.:. ~... ~"" :i'~· :·~ An excellent meeting unveiled many more opportunities for collaboration with American Rivers and Dr. Stephen Ambrose on the rivers of Lewis and Clark. In January, the Council initiated the national calendar of events for the Bi centennial of the Lewis and Clark ex pedition at a special event in Washing I ton, DC. In collaboration with Landon ~ Y. Jones, a member of the Council's board of directors, and partners at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Founda tion, we will announce the inaugural bicentennial event, which WPO will re port on in its May issue. Following the , announcement, we will meet with the Missouri River Roundtable delegates in D enver to explore collaborative oppor tumties . Finally, the Council's fifth annual planning workshop, '"All prepared for Action'- C lark 7/01/ 1804-Realizing ,:,,-:, -~ ,,.. :'·· the Vision," will be held April 26-28, 2000, in Kansas City, Missouri, w here hile tracing th e steps of Dr. Ambrose will be a featured speaker Lewis and Clark,- Judy " . and the Council will unveil its national W. Anderson ha s stopped off at , board of advisors. Watch for our 1999 two dozen pl aces where the explorers , an nu al-giving campaign and y our walked nearly 200 years ago. Am'ong ,, chance to receive a commemorative the se,Wompey's Pillar, a 1a·nely landtna'rkT logo pin from the C ouncil. Join us for on ,t,h~."p l ains ofsoutheaste'rn'MoAtana; the journey! remains.fixed in her memory. There, ,. ' ' -David Borlaug immortalized behind Plexiglas, she s~w · Michelle D. Bussard William Clark's signature carved,into ,, soft sandstone. For Anderson, a retiree ,. from Minnesota, it was a fascinating link For theR ecord with the past. ,, "' "' "Yo t,t can climb to the Jop and se e egarding the November WPO, Bill the view.he s.9 w," _shet says,,, ·· , RStableford of Madison, Connecti ·;.Ul'ltjl r:e eef:i tly;· An:de rsoll! coulJLhave·;, cut, notes that the article by Dayton tra ve l ~ci fri e -ent\re Lewi&and Clark T~~J! Duncan, " Lewis and C lark's O ld w1thout meeting' anyone on a historic'al · I G lory, " refers to "C hr istmas morning journey like her·own . Even though the,, of 1805" at Fort Mandan, and asks. route was named a National Park ' "Wasn't it 1804 that the guys were Service'historical trail in 1978, it has there?" H e is correct, of course. rem,ained largely the domain of LeiAiis Also in the N ovember issu e, the and Clark history buffs. But as the·2003- correct title of Gail Karwoski's book 2006 bice_ntenhial nears, the anniversary on Meriwether Lewis's canine p artner ' is attracting a new gene r~tion pf . ;.. in discovery is Seaman: The Dog Who tra ~~fers, c'aptivated by Lewis and ClarF' Explored the West with Lew is and histdry. The u.S:' Fote st Service predicts .. "'.~· :!.• Clark . '.)·
4 - We Proceeded On February 2000 Briefings
STOLEN MEDALS The M aryhill Museu m of A rt, in Goldendale, Washington, needs help in BLM reports that number has more than notice that. But Lewis and Clark would," recovering two Lewis and Clark med doubled. Damone says. als stolen from it in 1986. "We have no permit system as of Farther west, in the Columbia River The two bronzelike medals, which yet, but I imagine we'll be doing that Basin, environmentalists trying to were distributed to Indian tribes by shortly," says Buck Damone of the restore the river's salmon runs are Lewis and Clark, are Bureau of Land Management in instilling a sense of what's been lost known as Washington Lewistown, Montana. "It's not drastic over the last two centuries by using the "season" medals because yet, but we're concerned what it's going journey's observations as an environ they were minted for to be in 2006." mental benchmark. President George Wash "In 200 years, a profound change ington's second term and Reliving the. experience has taken place," says John Osborn of; feature the four seasons. All along the route, chances to relive the Lands Council in Spokane, Wash- ·· ·· They depict a man sow the L&C experience are popping up. In ington. The commemoration, he adds, ing wheat and are a little North Dakota, the state historical "allows us to see these issues by larger than a modern sil society is inviting tourists to spend starkly contrasting what we see today ver dollar. The medals are winter nights at Fort Mandan, where the and what Lewis and Clark saw 200 suspended on leather thongs with glass Corps of Discovery endured blizzards years ago." and shell disc beads. and below-zero temperatures during the Persons with information about the winter of 1804-1805. . Native Ameticins' views ·"'* . stolen medals can contact the Museum The National Park Service has Allen Pinkham' of the Nez Perce Tribe ""' at 509-773-3733. proposed a novel way of telling the says the history of the expedition has story of Lewis and Clark: a park on left out details that ought to be told as CAMP DUBOIS LAND wheels. Dubbed "Corps of Discovery II: the nation relives the experience. Thirty-nine acres of federal land at 200 Years to the Future," this small For instance, the Lewis and Clark Lewis and Clark State Park near Alton, convoy of three semitrailers would trace route followed the Nez Perce Ni Mi Pu Illinois, were recently transferred to the historic route for three and a half Trail, which linked the salmon-rich state ownership. The land will be the years, making occasional detours in the mountain streams with the buffalo herds site of a $7 million interpretive center off-season to bring the traveling, $29- of the plains. The trail run s 100 miles and a replica Camp Dubois commemo million museum to cities. Plans call for a through Idaho, from around Kamiah to rating the Corps of Discovery's winter laser show and high-tech satellite Lalo Pass, and then ea st through of 1803-4. uplinks. With help from the congres Montana to the plains. A new museum According to the St. Louis Post sional Lewis and Clark Caucus, the planned for the reservation would help Dispatch, the transfer caps an eleven National Park Service could win funding complete the story of Native Americans' year effort by George Arnold "to se for the project this year. contribution to the expedition, says cure the land transfer from federal Historians such as Fazio hope that Pinkham, a member of the national / hands to the state of Illinois." Con scenic portions of the trail are recog Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council. struction on the 15,000-square-foot nized without lining them with roadside As forthe bicentennial, Pinkham center will begin next spring and be attractions. "My fear is that the says the tribes are planning a com completed by late 2001. The single agencies might try to overreact and get memoration of their own, but it will not story center will include a 120-seat au in on the development bandwagon," he be festive. "The Indians aren't going to ditorium, and will display a full-size says. celebrate this Lewis and Clark thing," he replica of the keelboat that helped As more people take to the trail, says. "To us, Lewi~ and Clark certainly transport the Corps of Discovery up land managers like Damone are aren't heroes." the Missouri 1804. reminding travelers thatthough places - Dustin Solberg such as eastern Montana are still wide CALL FOR NOMINATIONS open, people from the time of Lewis and It's time for nominations for the an Clark would be startled by the changes. This article appeared in slightly different nual Foundation awards. They are: form in the September 27, 1999, issue of High "The biggest change they would Country News (119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO • Award of Meritorious Achieve see is the weeds. The noxious weeds. 81428; www.hcn.org; free copy available Ofl ment, for outstanding contributions in People wh~ cdme here (today)woultlh't request) and is reprinted by permission. '&>'· bringing to this nation a greater aware ness and appreciation of the Lewis and
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 5 Passages
Clark Expedition; Blair Chicoine • Distinguished Service Award, for outstanding contributions toward fur istory buffs from the greater Sioux thering the purpose and objectives of HCity, Iowa, area paid tribute on No the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage vember 18 to Foundation member Blair Foundation, Inc.; Chicoine. The forty-eight-year-old • Appreciation Award, in recogni Chicoine had died three days earlier tion of gracious support (deed, word, from complications of cancer and or funds) given to the Foundation in Hodgkin's disease, which he had battled its endeavor to preserve and perpetu for thirty years. ate the lasting historical worth of the C hicoine was an authority on 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedi riverboats and a master craftsman of tion; arid historic boats and models. He helped • Youth Achievement Award, in rec spearhead efforts to create the Sergeant ognition of a person (or group of per Floyd Riverboat Museum, located in sons) under the age of twenty-one who Sioux City, and was its manager at the Lillian Ruth Coulter Frick has increased knowledge of the Lewis time of his death. and Clark Expedition through outstand The Corps of Discovery, a group of GreaterMetro St. Louis Chapter. ing composition, art, drama, photogra Lewis and Clark re-enactors to which Forty years of research made her an phy, site preservation and enhancement, Chicoine belonged, honored him at his authority on her ancestor John Colter, or other significant contributions. funeral with a ten-gun salute. He was a member of the Lewis and Clark Ex The Distinguished Service Award buried in his blue Corps outfit. pedition and a fur trapper who may may only be presented to a member of At a gathering after the funeral, the re have been the first white man to see the the Foundation. In addition to names enactors folded a fifteen-star American region of thermal springs which became and addresses, nominations should in flag, representative of the Lewis and Yellowstone National Park. Her book, clude sufficient background informa Clark period, and gave it to his wife, Rose. Courageous Colter and Companions, tion to assist the Awards Committee in Last summer, at a re-enactment com was published in 1997, and at the time its selection. They should be sent to memorating the amuversary of Floyd's of her death she was working on a book S. E. Knapp, chairman, Awards Com death, the group honored Chicoine by about Meriwether Lewis. An authority mittee, 1317 S. Black, Bozeman, MT making him its first lifetime member. on Lewis, she was subpoenaed to tes 59715. Nominations for the Youth Chicoine was instrumental in reviv tify at an inquest on his death held in Achievement Award will be forwarded ing the memory of Sergeant Charles 1996 in Lewis County, Tennessee. In to the chairman of the Young Adults Floyd, the only member of the Lewis 1997, she spoke on Lewis's death at the Committee. All nominations must be and Clark Expedition to die on the trail annual meeting of the American Acad submitted by April 20. and the first American soldier to die emy of Forensic Sciences. west of the Mississippi River. Floyd As a volunteer for the National Park succumbed from what was probably a Service, Frick organized the Grace Virtual Fort Clatsop burst appendix on August 20, 1804, and Lewis Miller Collection in the library was buried on a bluff on the site of archives of the Jefferson National Ex A virtual tour of Fort Clatsop and vi present-day Sioux City. pansion Memorial, in St. Louis. Miller cinity is now available on the Discov was a St. Louis historian who spent four ering Lewis and C lark Website decades researching the life and times (www.lewis-clark.org), according to Lillian Ruth Coulter Frick of Meriwether Lewis. Joseph Musselman, who oversees the The sixth of nine children, Frick was site. O ther additions are an updated illian Ruth Coulter Frick, age sev born in Washington, Missouri, on Feb treatment of York and improved ren Lenty-three, of Washington, Missouri, ruary 11 , 1926, and attended local derings of the Model 1803 Harper's died in her sleep on November 9, while schools, Southwest Teachers College, Ferry rifle. The Website offers text (in attending an American Rivers confer the Missouri School of Mines, Wash cluding excerpts from Lewis and ence in St. Charles, Missouri. Frick ington University, the University of Clark's journals, historical background, had been a member of the Foundation Missouri-St. Louis, and East Central and an overview of the expedition by for fifteen years and regularly attended Junior College. historian Harry W. Fritz), images (both national meetings, including last year's She is survived by her husband of still and animated), and sounds of the in Bismarck, North Dakota. She was fifty-two years, William; two daughters; expedition. vice-president of the Foundation's a son; and three granddaughters .
6 - We Proceeded On February 2000 SEAMAN'S FATE?
Lewis's Newfoundland dog likely survived the expedition and accompanied his master on his last, fateful journey
By James J. Holmberg
" T he musquetoes Various theories have continue to m- been postulated over the fest us in such years. Seaman is an en manner that we can during subject of fasci scarcely exist, . .. my nation for expedition dog even howls with the enthusiasts and dog lov torture he experiences ers alike. He first appears from them."1 With that in the expedition's jour journal entry by Meri nals on September 11, wether Lewis on July 1803, when Lewis notes 15, 1806, his dog Sea the breed and qualities of man, the Corps of "my dog," including his Discovery's faithful talent for catching and companion and fellow retrieving swimming explorer, disappears squirrels, and vanishes from history. H e is not mentioned again in the jour from the record almost three years later, with no hint nals, nor does he appear in any known post-expedition of what happened to him.2 Although Seaman is men correspondence or report. tioned infrequently in the journals, I think it likely that What happened to this famous Newfoundland dog? some note would have been made of him perishing Did he complete the expedition? Did he live happily in during the expedition. The lack of any such entry sug St. Louis upon the Corps' return; taking dips in the gests that he survived it. Mississippi and curling up in front of a cozy fireplace? Assuming he returned, did he accompany Lewis and Or did he perish somewhere along the Missouri River? Clark back to Louisville? Did he faithfully trot beside Was he perhaps left behind in Lewis's flight following Lewis when his master visited Charlottesville and Wash his party's skirmish with a band of Blackfoot braves on ington? Given Seaman's presence with Lewis on the ex July 27, 1806? pedition, it is plausible that he accompanied his master
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 7 on his travels east in tigious historical orga late 1806 and his re nizations. From 1808 turn to St. Louis in to 1810 he worked on 1808. If so, Seaman a catalog of the New would have followed York Historical So Lewis from coast to ciety's library. He pub coast over the course lished various histories of some five years; an and magazines and in explorer in his own 1817 founded Allegh right, he was one of the eny College. 4 His most widely traveled background suggests dogs in history. that he would have If Seaman did sur- been scrupulous about vive the expedition and accurately recording accompany Lewis on the information he his subsequent travels, found. "This must be was he with Lewis on distinctly under his fateful trip east in stood," as Charles 1809? This question D ickens tells us, "or has intrigued peop le A 1976 table bronze of Meriwether Lewis and Seaman by Montana sculptor nothing . . . can come for years. If he was Robert M. Scriver. Seaman was a Newfoundland, a strong-swimming dog of the story I am go bred by Basque fishermen to work nets while fishing from dories on the 5 with Lewis, what hap Grand Banks, off Newfoundland. ing to relate." pened to him after his Entry 916 in his master's death at Grinder's Stand on October 11 ? I re- American Epitaphs and Inscriptions lists an interesting call reading a fictional account that had Seaman refus inscription on a dog collar in an Alexandria, Virginia, ing to leave his dead master and pining away on his museum. It reads, "The greatest traveller of my spe grave. This, of course, was an imagined end, created for cies. My name is SEAMAN, the dog of captain its dramatic effect, with no sources cited to give it a Meriwether Lewis, whom I accompanied to the basis in fact. Even so, could this really have been Pacifick ocean through the interior of the continent Seaman's fate? Could the devoted canine have refused of North America. "6 to leave Lewis, remaining with him even in death? Seaman's collar in an Alexandria museum in 1814- There's evidence to suggest so. In 1814, the same year proof that he survived the expedition! But the entry that the long-delayed official history of the Lewis and gets better. Alden includes a note about the collar and Clark Expedition was published, a Congregational cler its owner. It reads: gyman and educator named Timothy Alden published A Collection ofAmerican Epitaphs and Inscriptions with The foregoing was copied from the collar, in the Alexandria Occasional Notes.3 Alden had been collecting epitaphs Museum, which the late gov. Lewis's dog wore after his re and inscriptions for years. For each listing he provided turn from the western coast of America. The fidelity and at tachment of this animal were remarkable. After the melan the source of the epitaph or inscription, stating the city choly exit of gov. Lewis, his dog would not depart for a mo and whether it was from a monument, a headstone, or ment from his lifeless remains; and when they were depos something else. He collected so many that their publi ited in the earth no gentle means could draw him from the cation spanned five volumes. spot of interment. He refused to take every kind of food, Alden was a respected man of letters. He was a mem which was offered him, and actually pined away and died ber of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New with grief upon his master's grave!7 York Historical Society, and the American Antiquar ian Society, three of the country's oldest and most pres- Here is the whole story of Seaman's fate. He was
8 - We Proceeded On February 2000 indeed Lewis's faithful companion to the end; refusing Alexandria-Washington Lodge #22 and curator of the to leave his dead master even though it meant dying replica lodge room of the old Alexandria Lodge #22, himself: the archetypal example of man's best friend. checked the lodge's records, including its minute books There is no reason to doubt Alden's entry concern and museum catalog, but found no mention of either a ing Seaman. This information would have been collected dog collar or any gifts by William Clark. But Riddell no more than five years after Lewis's death. There were acknowledges that the museum's records, like those of people contemporary with Alden, including William many institutions, are incomplete. A fire in 1871 de Clark and Nicholas Biddle, the first editor of the Lewis stroyed many of the museum's artifacts-including, and Clark Journals, whom he could have contacted presumably, Seaman's collar- although its catalog and about the accuracy of both the collar and Seaman's the lodge's minute books were saved. 10 fate. It's unlikely that the collar was a hoax, for it was Was it Seaman's fate to die keeping vigil at his master probably given to the museum two years before the Lewis's grave? Perhaps we will never definitely know; publication, in 1814, of the Biddle edition of the Jour but the inscription and note about him recorded in nals, when the expedition was fading from public con Alden's book, together with Sanford's letter and the sciousness. Apparently there was enough faith in the information provided by Jack Riddell as supporting account that newspapers were repeating it some facts, provide a creditable explanation of the fate of the twenty years after the publication of American Epi Corps of Discovery's faithful canine. taphs and Inscriptions. 8 Foundation memberJim Holmberg is the curator ofspe Clark the possible donor cial collections of the Filson Club Historical Society, in The story's truthfulness is further bolstered by evidence Louisville, Kentucky. For their assistance with this ar that the collar's donor may have been none other than ticle he thanks Pen Bogert of the Filson Club's library William Clark. staffand Jack Riddell ofAlexandria-Washington Lodge The museum that displayed Seaman's collar almost #22. For more on Seaman, see "The Lewis and Clark certainly was part of a Masonic lodge- specifically, Expedition's Newfoundland Dog" (WPO Publication Alexandria-Washington Lodge #22 (known simply as No. 10, September 1990, available from the Founda Alexandria Lodge until 1805, when the name was tion at 888-701-3434). changed to honor its late member George Washington). We know that by 1812 the lodge had established a mu NOTES seum, for on August 21 of that year lodge official Tho 'Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Ex pedition, 13 volumes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, mas Sanford wrote Clark to thank him for the "truly 1983-2000), Vol. 8, p. 110. valuable Present made by you to our infant Museum .. .. 2Moulton, Vol. 2, p. 79. We esteem them Sir as Curiosities deserving to be 3Francis S. Drake, Dictionary ofAmerican Biography, including ranked amongst the first in our Infant Establishment."9 Men ofthe Time (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1872), 13; Timothy Alden, A Collection of American Epitaphs and In The items Clark donated are not described, but one scriptions with Occasional Notes, five volumes (New York: Pri of those "Curiosities" could well have been Seaman's vately printed, 1814). collar. Given his close association with Lewis and his 4Drake, p. 13. role in examining some of Lewis's effects after his death, 5Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (New York: Weathervane it's certainly possible that Clark would have had the Books, 1977), p. 4. collar in his possession. Lewis and Clark were both 6Alden, Vol. 5, p. 98. masons, so it's also reasonable to assume that Clark 7 Alden, Vol. 5, p. 98. would have given this keepsake to a masonic museum. 8Louisville (Ky.) Public Advertiser, May 5, 1835. It would be wonderful to report that the collar, or at 9Thomas Sanford to William Clark, August 21, 1812, William Clark Papers-E.G. Voorhis Memorial Collection, Missouri least a listing of it in the museum's inventory, still ex Historical Society, St. Louis, Mo. ists. Unfortunately, neither the artifact nor any official IDPhone conversati ons between Jack Riddell and James J. record of it can be found. Jack Riddell, a member of Holmberg, 1999.
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 9 Above: detail from Pompey's baptismal record. Opposite: St. Louis's Catholic church, where the baptism took place in December 1809.
10 - We Proceeded On February 2000 A recently discovered document sheds light on the christening ofJean Baptiste Charbonneau
BY Bos MooRE
n December 28, 1809, a of the baptism.1 After Charbonneau, small group of people Father Guillet, and the two 0 gathered in the old verti Chouteaus signed the record book, cal log church at St. Louis, near the Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the little site of today's Old Cathedral beneath boy whom William Clark called the Gateway Arch. Prayers were said Pomp or Pompey, the toddler who and the sign of the cross was made shared the perils and adventures of with holy water on the forehead of a the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was four-and-a-half-year-old boy. Words were spoken in a member of the Roman Catholic faith. French. "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the In researching the early records of St. Louis's Old Son, and the Holy Ghost," intoned Father Urbain Cathedral parish last winter, I stumbled upon the bap Guillet, a Trappist monk who stood before the group tismal record that is my basis for the preceding para dressed in his plain white robe. Close by the young boy graph. The record, in French, is interesting for what it stood his father, Toussaint Charbonneau, and his says and for what it does not say. It appears below left mother, Sacagawea. Fifty-nine-year-old Auguste in the original French; on the right is a translation by Chouteau, a co-founder of St. Louis, also was present Frank Mares of the National Park Service. as godfather to the child, along with his twelve-year What information can be gleaned from this record ?2 old daughter, Eulalie. Conspicuously missing were The birth of Sacagawea's baby at the expedition's Fort Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Governor Lewis Mandan was chronicled by Meriwether Lewis in his had died tragically along the Natchez Trace on Octo journal on February 11, 1805. Subsequently, as ber 11, 1809, just over two months earlier. General Clark Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and the child had left St. Louis in September to travel to Washing shared in the trials and adventures of the expedition, ton, D.C., and was still there on December 28, the date traveling to the Pacific Coast and back in 1805-06, Clark
L'an mille huit cent neuf le vingt huit Decembre, moi, Fr. Urbain The year eighteen hundred nine the twenty-eighth of December, I, Guillet R + du mon de N. Dame de Bon Secours de la Trappe pris brother Urbain Guillet Reu of the Trappist monastery of Our Lady Cahokia, au Territoire illinois, ai baptise un enfant ne le onze of Good Help near Cahokia, in the Illinois Territory, baptized a child fevrier de l'annee mille huit cent quatre de Toussaint Charboneau born the eleventh of February in the year eighteen hundred four of domicilie de cette patoisse et de Sauvagesse de la Toussaint Charboneau, Living in this parish and of ___ _ _ nation des Serpents. Le parain a ere Auguste Chouteau et la savage of the Snake Nation. The godfather was Auguste Chouteau maraine U lalie Chouteau tous les deux de cette paroisse. and the godmother Ulalie Chouteau both of this parish.
Urbain Guillet R + 7r.te Urbain Guillet R + Tr.te Auguste Chouteau [signature] Auguste Chouteau [signature] Eulalie Chouteau [signature] Eulalie Chouteau [signature] sa his Toussaint X Charboneau pere de l'enfant Toussaint X Charboneau father of the child marque mark
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 11 took a particular interest in the boy. Upon the party's day Collinsville, Illinois, a winter journey of nearly 20 return to the Mandan villages, located near modern miles involving a crossing of the frozen Mississippi Stanton, North Dakota, the Charbonneaus chose not River. The Old Cathedral parish records show that Fa to continue to St. Louis. As Clark recorded in his jour ther Guillet was in St. Louis only between December nal on August 17, 1806: "we offered to convey him 24 and 31, 1809, probably to celebrate Christmas Mass [Toussaint Charbonneau] down to the Illinois if he and perform any baptisms or weddings needed by pa chose to go, he declined, proceeding on at present, ob rishioners. Therefore, the Charbonneaus had to make serving that he had no acquaintance or prospects of an extra effort to arrange Pomp's baptism on Decem making a liveing below, and must continue to live in ber 28, which was probably the soonest date after their the way that he had done. I offered to take his little son arrival in St. Louis that the sacrament could have been a butiful promising child who is 19 administered. This means that the months old to which they both Charbonneaus must have arrived in himself & wife wer willing pro St. Louis sometime between the vided the child had been weened. visit of the priest from the Ste. They observed that in one year the Genevieve parish in the late sum boy would be sufficiently old to mer of 1809 and the last week in leave his mother & he would then December, when Father Guillet take him to me if I would be so was in town. friendly as to raise the child for him in such a manner as I thought Complications in river travel proper, to which I agreed &c."3 There also may be a tie between the In reading this account, one appearance of the Charbonneaus in might wonder why the Charbon St. Louis and Pierre Chouteau's ex neau s did not bring Pomp pedition of 1809 up the Missouri downriver in 1807, as Clark indi River to return Sheheke, a Mandan cated they might do. It is well chief who had journeyed to St. known that the Charbonneau fam Louis with the Corps of Discovery ily did not arrive in St. Louis until on its homeward journey in 1806. 1809 or 1810 to bring the boy to Pierre, a half-brother of Auguste Auguste Chouteau, Pompey's godfather Clark to receive his promised edu and a cofounder of St. Louis. Chouteau, returned to St. Louis on cation. The Charbonneaus were November 16, 1809, just one month probably prevented from traveling to St. Louis by the before the baptism.4 For the previous two years, passage hostilities of the Arikara nation, whose principal vil on the Missouri River had been blocked by the Arikaras, lages were located below the Mandan and Hidatsa vil who were angry about the death of their chief, lages, near modern Wakpala, South Dakota. This hy Ankedoucharo, during his 1805-6 visit to Washington, pothesis makes even more sense in the light of the dis D.C. As a result, parties from St. Louis had been unable covery of Pomp's baptismal record, which seems to pin to travel upriver and parties at the Mandan villages point the arrival of the Charbonneau family in St. Louis including the Charbonneaus-had been prevented from in the autumn of 1809. descending in safety. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Charbonneau The problems had started in September 1807, when wanted his son to be baptized. St. Louis at that time Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor, a former member of was predominantly irreligious, and because we know the Lewis and Clark Expedition, had been promoted the town had no resident priest in 1809, it took some to ensign and given responsibility for delivering effort to have the baptism performed. The man who Sheheke to his people. Pryor's party was attacked by did so, Father Urbain Guillet, was a Trappist monk who the Arikaras and forced to turn back.5 In his capacity had to travel to St. Louis from an area near present- as governor of Louisiana, Meriwether Lewis in the
12 - We Proceeded On February 2000 spring of 1809 sent Pierre Chouteau on a second mis church or to pay the living expenses of the priest, for sion to deliver Sheheke. This involved chartering a pri these costs were provided by the government. With no vate fur company, which was paid in part with govern money for upkeep and the fate of the province uncer ment funds totaling $7,000. Lewis's action prompted tain, particularly in matters of religion, the resident Secretary of War Eustis to warn him that the govern priest departed with the Spanish authorities and the St. ment would no longer honor his letters of credit. This Louis church grew silent. Priests from surrounding par led in part to Lewis's trip to Washington, D .C., to clear ishes came to St. Louis sporadically to say an occasional his name-the trip on which he died at Grinder's Stand. mass, hear confessions, or perform baptisms, funer In a letter to Pierre Chouteau dated June 8, 1809, als, and marriages, but there was no resident priest in Lewis stated that Chouteau's primary mission was to the village until the arrival of Bishop Louis William return Sheheke, whether he had to Valentin DuBourg in 1818.8 fight his way through the Arikaras In July 1808 Father Urbain or use diplomacy to restore peace Guillet arrived in the St. Louis ful relations with them.6 Choos area with his Trappist brothers.9 ing diplomacy, Chouteau was suc They had left the Abbey of Val cessful in his mission, arriving at Sainte near Fribourg, Switzerland, the Mandan village on September in 1802 intending to set up a mon 24. The people of the Mandan and astery for their order in America. Hidatsa villages, as well as the They tried two locations before traders from St. Louis, must have moving to the Mississippi River been overjoyed that the river was Valley, first at Pigeon Hills, Penn open once again. As the expedi sylvania, and later at Pottinger's tion prepared to return downriver, Creek, Kentucky. Upon arrival in it seems likely that the Char the St. Louis area, they first set up bonneaus would have sensed that their quarters at Florissant, west the time was right to go to St. of St. Louis. After a few months Louis. If they took passage on the they moved east across the Mis return trip with Chouteau's large, sissippi River to an area near mod well-armed corps of soldiers and Pierre Chouteau, friend of Clark, who led the failed ern Collinsville, Illinois, where trappers (he had at least 125 men), expedition to return Chief Sheheke to the Mandans. they built a temporary log mon their safety would be better as- astery complex on top of an an sured than if they attempted to make the trip alone or cient Indian mound, today called Monk's Mound be with a smaller party.7 cause of their presence. 10 The land was claimed by Nicholas Jarrot of the village of Cahokia and given to Trappists on the Mississippi the Trappists by him for their monastery. 11 Many ac
J In addition to added information and conj ecture on the counts state that the monks moved to Illinois in 1810, I Charbonneau family, Pomp's baptismal record also not 1809, yet Guillet's eleven baptismal records of De ~ sheds light on a little-known facet of St. Louis history: cember 1809 at the 0 Id Cathedral of St. Louis all clearly ~ How and why did a Trappist monk come to be in St. state that his monastery was "near Cahokia, in the Illi ~ Louis in 1809, and why was there no resident priest in nois Territory." ~ the village? When the Spanish officially relinquished The monastery, which they named Notre Dame de i political control of St. Louis to the United States on Bon Secours, was described by traveler Henry M. ~ March 10, 1804, the former governor, his staff, a small Brackenridge in 1811: "The buildings which the I company of soldiers, and the village priest were out of Trappists at present occupy, are merely temporary: they i work. Under the Spanish regime, parishioners had not consist of four or five cabins, on a mound about fifty ~ been asked for contributions for the upkeep of the yards high, and which is perhaps one hundred and fifty
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 13 Carl Bodmer's 1833 drawing of Monks Mound, site of a Trappist monastery in the early nineteenth century. feet square. Their other buildings, cribs, stables, etc., Flagg went on to relate that the monks were allowed ten or fifteen in number, are scattered about on the plain to speak during a period of two hours each day, which below. . .. On entering the yard, I found a number of accounts for their ability to perform holy services and persons at work, some hauling and storing away the sacraments in the neighboring communities. Apparently crop of corn; others, shaping timber for some intended they found the mound site not to be a healthful one, as edifice. The greater number were boys from ten to four Flagg related: "During the summer months fevers pre teen years of age." 12 The boys were on the site because vailed among them to an alarming extent; few escaped, it was intended as a school as well as a monastery. and many died." 14 The monks stayed in the Cahokia Edmund Flagg also described the Monk's Mound site area only until 1813, when they were recalled by their in his travel account entitled The Far West, published superiors to Europe.15 Today, the area of the monastery in 1838. Flagg took most of his information from is administered by the State of Illinois as the Cahokia Brackenridge and from the reminiscences of locals, for Mounds State Historic Site. the monastery was long gone by the time of his visit: Father Guillet was described by Bishop Martin Spalding as "a man of great piety, indefatigable zeal The buildings which they occupied were never of a and activity, and of a singular meekness and suavity of very durable character, but consisted of about half a 16 dozen large structures of logs, on the summit of the manners. " Others were critical of Guillet, who main mound about fifty yards to the right of the largest .. tained the rigid rules of his order despite the new and . . Their outbuildings, stables, granaries, &c., which severe surroundings of the American wildernes s. 17 were numerous, lay scattered about on the plain be low. Subsequently they erected an extensive struc Critics included Father N erinckx, who traveled with ture upon the terrace of the principal mound, and Guillet in the wilderness and concluded that Guillet cultivated its soil for a kitchen-garden, while the area was "not a man in the right place."'8 Whatever his of the summit was sown with wheat . ... The society of the Trappists consisted of about eighty monks, qualifications or drawbacks, Father Guillet was on the chiefly Germans and French, with a few of our own scene to baptize Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on D e countrymen, under governance of one of their num cember 28, 1809. ber called Father Urbain.... Their discipline was equally severe with that of the order of ancient times. A wonderful account has been left by the Prior of Their diet was confined to vegetables, and of those Guillet's order, Fr. Joseph Marie Dumand, of a trip he they partook sparingly but once in twenty-four hours: the stem vow of perpetual silence was upon made to St. Louis at Christmas 1808. Although Dumand them; no female was permitted to violate their re traveled all the way from Kentucky, the final leg of his treat, and they dug their own graves.13 trip would have been similar to Guillet's a year later. Since Guillet unfortunately left no account of his trip,
14- We Proceeded On Fe_bruary 2000 perhaps Father Dumand's can give us some idea of the rounded by a porch, or cc gallerie." It was this second, hardships he faced. Father Dumand recorded that he vertical-log church in which Pomp was baptized.21 carried his own provisions, but Errors in the record even at that, I was exposed to starvation in this vast wilderness. The cold was extreme; the rivers were To return to the baptismal record, sharp-eyed readers all frozen and the ground was covered with snow. have probably noticed some discrepancies, all of which Wishing to reach St. Louis by Christmas Day, I took I think can be explained by the fact that Father Guillet, a guide whom I made walk before me to sound the ice. It is the custom for a traveler to supply himself as a foreigner and a nonresident member of an ascetic with a pole which he carries crosswise before him in sect of monks, did not know any of the people in order to keep him up, should the ice give way be volved and probably misinterpreted or did not under neath his feet. I neglected this precaution, wishing no other staff for crossing than trust in God. 19 stand some of what he was told. Auguste Chouteau was probably not looked upon as a particularly im Father Dumand had this to say about the river town's portant man by Guillet, nor did the Charbonneaus and godlessness: their links with the Lewis and Clark Expedition mean anything to him. Thus, the date Having arrived at St. Louis I of Pomp's birth was recorded in found the district in a pitiful state. Deprived of priests and all correctly as February 11, 1804, spiritual aid, the morals of the instead of the correct February people were entirely corrupt, 11, 1805. Chouteau's daughter's and ignorance of religion was so general, that the inhabitants name, Eulalie, was misspelled by scarcely recognized the name Guillet. And Sacagawea's name, Catholic. The small number of which may have been past the the better instructed rejoiced in their Faith. For the rest, some point of translation for the openly mocked at it and others monk, was left as a blank line. behaved with perfect indiffer She was instead described as a ence .... I am not referring to the [French] natives of the coun ccsauvagesse de la nation des Ser try who, generally speaking, A later view of Monks Mound. The Trappists pents," a reference to the Snakes, ~ere g?od · It was !-hroug h . t he abandoned the site in 1813 and returned to Europe. mcurs10n of foreigners [i.e., or Shoshonis. The Charbon- Americans] that irreligion and licentiousness had neaus are described, correctly, as ''living in" or resid made their way into this distant land. Divided in lan ing in the parish, while the Chouteaus are labeled as guage, sentiments and interests from the rest, the aliens worked against the community's good.20 being "of this parish." Auguste Chouteau was easily the most important and The church building in which young Pomp was bap revered private citizen in St. Louis in 1809. It is a testa tized by Father Guillet bore little resemblance to ment to the importance of Charbonneau and Sacagawea today's majestic Old Cathedral. The first church to be that Chouteau and his daughter were asked to stand as built in St. Louis was a log structure, little more than godparents to the child, and that they accepted. Eulalie, a shack, erected in 1770 by Don Pedro Piernas, the whose signature in the record book looks like that of ~ Spanish lieutenant governor, on the northeast corner the twelve-year-old girl she was, was the fifth of ~~ of the cathedral lot. In 1772, St. Louis ordered a bell Auguste and Therese Chouteau's nine children. Her full Ii for its church, which is today displayed in the Old name was Marie Therese Eulalie Chouteau, and she was ~~ Cathedral Museum. In 1776, the growing town re born on May 3, 1797. She married Rene Paul, a thirty Hceived its first pastor, Bernard de Limpach, a Capu year-old veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, in April 1812 ~~ chin monk, and a second church was built. This was a (shortly before her fifteenth birthday), and they had ~" ~~ larger, vertical-log structure which measured 60x30 ten children before her death in 1835.22 ~~ feet. It faced Second Street, midway between Walnut After the baptismal ceremony of December 28, 1809, §~ and Market. It had a small bell steeple and was sur- little Jean Baptiste Charbonneau would have begun his
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 15 schooling in St. Louis. Clark returned from Washing six, sometime around 1843, for it was in that year that ton and offered Toussaint and Sacagawea a plot of farm his estate was settled by his son, Jean Baptiste.26 land on which to settle in Missouri. But Charbonneau found farming was not to his taste, and sold the land Pomp's later years back to C lark after a few months.23 Toussaint Little Pomp was left behind in St. Louis by his parents Charbonneau and Sacagawea remained in the St. Louis in 1811 and educated under William Clark's guidance area until April 2, 1811, when they headed upriver with into the 1820s. He studied French and English, classi a party of fur traders led by Manuel Lisa. Henry M. cal literature, history, mathematics, and science. In June Brackenridge was traveling with Lisa on that voyage, 1823, eighteen-year-old Jean Baptiste met Paul Will and recorded that "We had on board a Frenchman iam, Prince ofWiirttemberg, on the Kaw River in Kan named Charbonneau, with his wife, an Indian of the sas. The prince, traveling in America in much the same Snake nation, both of whom had fashion as Maximilian of Wied accompanied Lewis and Clark to N euwied would ten years later, the Pacific, and were of great ser convinced Toussaint Charbonneau vice. The woman, a good creature, to allow Pomp to return to Europe of a mild and gentle disposition, with him. As a result, Jean Baptiste [was] gr eatly attach ed to the lived for six years as a member of whites, whose manners and dress the prince's royal household, receiv she tried to imitate, but she had be ing a classical education in Ger come sickly, and longed to revisit many. H e returned to Missouri in her native country; her husband, 1829, worked as a free trapper in also, who had spent many years ~ Idaho and Utah, traveled w ith among the Indians, was become "g mountain men Jim Bridger, Jim weary of a civilized life. "24 Still standing, the Holy Family Church in Cahokia Beckwourth, and Joe Meek, and is similar to the church of Pompey's baptism. d f Charbonneau served sporadi was a gui e or the Mormon Bat- cally as an interpreter for the Indian Bureau at the talion from Santa Fe to San Diego in 1846 during the Upper Missouri Agency from 1811 to1838, making Mexican War. He was briefly the alcalde (mayor) of Mis an average of $300 to $400 per year- very good money sion San Luis Rey in California and spent many years at that time. H e carried out diplomatic errands for the in the gold fields on the American River near Sacra United States among the Missouri River tribes during mento. It is doubtful that Jean Baptiste could have held the War of 1812. He was not at Fort Manuel when his official position of alcalde without his baptism into Sacagawea died there in 1812. In 1815 he joined an the Catholic faith in 1809. Jean Baptiste probably did expedition to Santa Fe, where he was briefly impris poorly in the California gold fields, fo r by 1861 he was oned by the Spanish for "invading" their territory. listed as a clerk in the Orleans Hotel in Auburn, Califor As far as is known, after his 1809-11 visit Toussaint nia. He headed for the newly opened Montana gold fields Charbonneau did not return to St. Louis until 1839, in 1866 but died en route, succumbing to pneumonia on when he was described by Superintendent of Indian May 16 in lnskip Station, Oregon. He was sixty-one. Affairs Joshua Pilcher as "tottering under the infirmi His grave site is located in Danner, Oregon, three miles ties of 80 winters. "25 He appeared in St. Louis to ask north of Interstate 95.27 the Indian Bureau for back salaries. It is likely that Charbonneau lost his job as a government interpreter Bob Moore is the historian at the Jefferson National and his standing with the government upon the death Expansion Memorial, in St. Louis. of his patron, William Clark, in 1838. Pilcher's was the last entry about Toussaint Charbonneau (discov NOTES ered thus far) to appear in the official records. It is 1See Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage (New thought that Charbonneau died at about age eighty- York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), pp. 468-469.
16 ~ We Proceeded On February 2000 2The record is included in the Register of Baptisms of the Old Cathe deal of Flagg's information came from Henry M. Brackenridge's dral Parish. My research was conducted with the kind permission of Vie ws of Louisiana, published in Pittsburgh in 1814, appendix V. Monsignor Bernard Sandheinrich, pastor of the Old Cathedral. This appendix is unfortunately not republished with the rest of 3August 17, 1806, Gary E . Moulton, ed., The journals of the Brackenridge's account in the Early Western Travels series. Lewis and Clark Expedition (Lincoln: University of Nebraska 14Edmund Flagg, The Far West, in Thwaites, Vol. XXVI, p.194. Press), Vol. 8, June 9-September 26, 1806. 15Paul C. Schulte, The Catholic Heritage ofSaint Louis (St. Louis, 4See the letter of Pierre Chouteau to Secretary of War William 1934), pp. 77-81. Eustis, December 14, 1809, in The Territorial Papers ofthe United 16M.J. Spalding, Sketches ofEarly Catholic Missioners ofKentucky States, edited by Clarence Edwin Carter (Washington, D.C.: U.S. (Louisville, 1944 ). Govermnent Printing Office, 1949), Vol. XIV, p. 343. Chouteau mentions writing a letter to Eustis (since lost) on November 22, 17See Rev. John Rothensteiner, History of the Archdiocese of St. 1809, after his arrival in St. Louis. The Missouri Gazette of No Louis (St. Louis, 1928), Vol. 1, pp. 219-220. vember 16, 1809, reported Chouteau's safe return. Pierre 1sQuoted in Rev. John Rothensteiner, History ofthe Archdiocese Chouteau, officially christened Jean Pierre, was born in New of St. Louis, Vol. 1, p. 219. Orleans in 1758 and along with his half-brother Auguste was a 19The so-called Diary of Father Joseph Dumand was published power in the frontier fur trade for most of his life. He died in St. in the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, Vol. Louis in 1849. For more on Pierre Chouteau, see William E. Foley XXVI; see especially pp. 332 and 333; excerpts were also printed and C. David Rice, The First Chouteaus (Urbana: University of in Schulte, pp. 77-79. Illinois Press, 1983 ). 20Schulte, p. 79. 5Three men were killed and eight wounded, including George Sham1on, who had to have his leg amputated as a result of his 21 See Gregory M. Franzwa, The Old Cathedral (Gerald, Mo., The wounds. See Nathaniel Pryor to William Clark, October 16, 1807, Patrice Press, 1980), for more on the history of the four buildings in Donald Jackson, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which have stood on the site of the Old Cathedral. The present with Related Documents, 1783-1854. Urbana: University of Illi Old Cathedral was built between 1831and1834. The vertical log nois Press, 1962, pp. 432-438. church built in 1776 and standing in 1809 probably bore a strong resemblance and was similar in its dimensions to the still-stand 6 See Gov. Meriwether Lewis to Pierre Chouteau, June 8, 1809, ing Holy Family Church of Cahokia, Illinois, built in 1799. and Pierre Chouteau to the Secretary of War, December 14, 1809, in The Territorial Papers of the United States, edited by Clarence 22See Mary B. Cunningham andJeanne C. Blythe, The Found Edwin Carter (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing ing Family of St. Louis (St. Louis: Piraeus Publishers, 1977), Office, 1949), Vol. XIV, pp. 343-352. pp. 5-7. 7 Foley and Rice, pp. 143-148. 23St. Louis Court Records show that Charbonneau bought a tract of land from William Clark on October 30, 1810, and sold it back 8The one exception to this fact was the presence of an itinerant onMarch26, 1811 for $100. The land was in St. Ferdinand Town priest named Thomas Flynn from mid-1807 to January 1808. ship. See Stella M. Drumm's edition of journal ofa Fur-Trading Flynn signed a contract with the St. Louis parishioners for a sum Expedition on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813, by John C. Luttig, of money and provisions of food and drink to act as the parish originally published in 1920, republished in New York by Ar priest for a period of one year. H e was without orders to do so gosy-Antiquarian, Ltd., in 1964 on p. 138, and Russell Reid, from his bishop, and resigned before his contract expired, after Sakakawea: The Bird Woman (Bismarck: State Historical Soci which he was lost to recorded history. ety of North Dakota, 1986), pp. 14-15. Drumm also notes that 9The monastery of La Trappe was founded in 1122, and made a Charbonneau purchased fifty pounds of bequit (biscuit or hard branch of the Cistercian order in 1148. Trappist monks take vows tack) from Auguste Chouteau on March 23, 1811, probably in of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They wear white robes in anticipation of his trip up the river. stead of the traditional black or brown of most orders. 24See the journal ofa Voyage Up the River Missouri, performed 10Monk's Mound is today part of Cahokia Mounds State Historic in 1811, by H. M. Brackenridge, in Thwaites, Early Western Trav Site, near Collinsville. It stands 100 feet tall and covers four acres els (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1904), Vol. VI, pp. 32-33. of ground, the largest man-made structure built north of Mexico 25This quote is from a letter of Superintendent of Indian Affairs before the advent of the Europeans. Joshua Pilcher to T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian 11J arrot was the nominal owner of the land where Lewis and Clark Affairs, quoted at length in Stella M. Drumm,]ournal ofJohn C. setup Camp Wood in 1803-04, and it is thoughtthat he suggested Luttig (New York: Argosy-Antiquarian, Ltd., 1964 ), pp. 132-140. that site to the co-commanders, There is some question about For reprinted excerpts from documents dealing with Jarrot's actual ownership of the Monk's Mound site in 1809. Charbonneau's career as a government interpreter, see Chardon's journal at Fort Clark, 1954-1859, edited by Annie Heloise Abel 12 Henry M. Brackenridge, "Visit to Cahokia, " quoted by]. Tho (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), pp. 278-282. mas Scharf in History ofSt. Louis City and County (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883), Vol. I, p. 99. 26See Moulton, Vol. 3, footnote 1 on pp. 228-229 for a good sum mation of Toussaint Charbonneau's life. See also Irving W Ander 13 Edmund Flagg, The Far West: Or, A Tour Beyond the Moun son, "A Charbonneau Family Portrait," American West Maga tains, originally published in 1838, republished in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Glendale, Calif.: zine, March/Apri l 1980, especially pp. 13 and 16. Arthur H. Clark Co., 1966), Volume XXVI, pp. 192-194. A good 27See Anderson, especially pp. 14-19.
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 17
BY RITA CLEARY
Students of Lewis and Clark have often dismissed Sacagawea 's husband as a cowardly, bumbling incompetent, but there's evidence - including a letter from William Clark - to suggest otherwise
'. .~· istory has not been kind .to Tqussaint 14, 1805, wheri the Corps of Discovery was maJcing , Charbonneau. Of all the members of the . its way up the Missouri t~ward the Great Falls. He Lewis.and Clark expedition, he has been has been labeled an abusive husband because he struck perhaps the most reviled. He is often pictured as a his wife on August 14, 1805. He has . be~n character "ne'er do well squaw man"1 whose contributions ized as selfish and irresponsible because he saved him were eclipsed by those of his wife Sacagawea. He self before thinking of his wife and child on June 29, has been called inept, among other reasons, be.cause 1805, when, with Clark, they were caught in a flash he allowed one of the expedition's pirogues t~ broach. flood ne4.( ~e -.G~eat Falls and barely esqped with and nearly capsize while he was at the helm on May their lives. I:Iis loyalty and resolutionha~ealso ·been ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ l!;
~ ~ p :5 )i d il"' "'~ ~ ii1 :i · ~ !:j ~ ~ g 0 ffi ~ i Charbonneau helps Sacagawea and Clark escape a flash flood in a ravine at the Great Falls. questioned because he wavered in his decision to join the Clark's view expedition in the first place.2 Charles G. Clarke sums up It's clear that William Clark, whatever prejudices he the conventional view of Charbonneau by stating, "Other might have had toward someone of Charbonneau's than as an interpreter ... , he was not of much value. "3 background, recognized his contributions to the expe H ow much of this view is grounded in the ethnic dition, entrusted him with important matters, and even and cultural attitudes of the captains and the editors came to regard him as a friend. The day before Clark and writers who have interpreted the Lewis and Clark left the Mandan villages on the last leg of the expedition's saga? Charbonneau, after all, was a Frenchman, born return journey to St. Louis, he asked Charbonneau to in Montreal, probably in 1758. Racially, culturally, and keep the Corps of Discovery's valuable blacksmithing religiously, he was very different from Meriwether tools and bellows and told him to instruct the Mandans Lewis and William Clark. We have no Frenchman's and Hidatsas on how to use them. Clark paid Char journal of the expedition which might provide a kinder bonneau $500.33 for his services as an interpreter, nearly view of Charbonneau. He would have been brought twice as much as he paid any of the expedition's private up a Catholic, or as Lewis and Clark would have called soldiers, who served twice as long. Clark also offered him, a "Papist," not a complimentary term in an age to take Charbonneau's son, Jean Baptiste ("Pompey"), when religious prejudice was rampant. Unlike the tall, back to St. Louis to educate him and invited Charbon ruddy, lean Captains, Charbonneau was short, dark, neau and his wife to join him there. But the father re heavily muscled, and probably of Mediterranean stock. fused, claiming he could not make a living in St. Louis. He trapped furs and lived at the Minitaree (Hidatsa) So when the expedition departed from the Mandan vil Village, on the Knife River. He was a "squaw man," lages on August 17, 1806, Charbonneau-along with another term of disdain. He had two wives and accord Sacagawea and Pompey-stayed behind.6 ing to the moral strictures of the day was a bigamist. Three days later, Clark wrote a letter to Charbon And Charbonneau worked for the British North West neau reiterating his proposal to educate Pompey and Company,4 whose hegemony had extended into the elaborating on several scenarios he presumably dis Ohio Valley until the Revolutionary War, when George cussed with the Frenchman during their layover with Rogers Clark, William's eldest brother, defeated the the Mandans.7 The letter [for its complete text, see box, British and secured the region for the United States. 5 page 21] is written with all the foibles of Clark's errant
20 - We Proceeded On February 2000 "WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GREAT SUCKESS" Clark's letter to Charbonn,nedij
';., ~·. '·'1'
On Board the Perogue near the Ricara Village are despose~ to::Xccept'either of mi)! offers to you and will August 20th 1806, bring down'JiOtfr Son your famm]aney hadbest come Charbono along with'yowt'6-tak:./:·.' •'. ~ . ~.:·''.'. come on with r:i_e ;~ the-Illinois where i~ moJtptob:f:ly '. big horn at;d ca1Jb,ra sieiris as you ean collect in the '« ,.,~.-:"" _,.:·-~;.:~~:'.': I.~~ .rt, -~ A· ·:;.:.~:::?~ ....~. . --~~-.. -~.. i ~t ~- >... ~:.· ...,. would be iJi my powet to put you in so~e way io Jo , ,. course of iE~~
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 21 grammar and spelling, and Clark's gratitude toward C harbonneau shines through. In his words, "You have been a long time with me and have conducted yourself The May 1980 issue of We Proceeded On included an article by the in such a manner as to gain my friendship." late Robert E. Lange in which the author, like Rita Cl eary, takes a C lark goes on t o express his concern for more charitable view toward Toussaint Charbonneau. Lange notes that some of the bad press directed toward Sacagawea's husband Charbonneau's future. H e offers the squaw man a farm may originate from the vitriol heaped on him by the opinion ated and livestock in U pper Louisiana (Missouri) and says Elliott Coues, who in 1893 edited the Biddle/Allen narrative of the he will help finance a visit to Charbonneau's "friends" journals. To cite just one example of such editorializing, in a (and presumably family) in Montreal and care for footnote regarding an incident on July 26, 1805, when Clark rescued Sacagawea and Pompey until his safe return. If Charbonneau from drowning, Coues comments, "On most occa sions Captain Clark showed himself possessed of rare judgement Charbonneau prefers to stay on the upper Missouri, and fortitude. Today, however, he was not up to the mark, and the Clark says he will secure for him a position as inter cowardly wife-beating tenderfoot still lived." preter for the Minitarees or will supply him with mer Lange points out that iii addition to his role as an interpreter, chandise to stock a trading post. Whichever option Charbonneau served the expedition as a cook, messenger, camp Charbonneau chooses- settling in Missouri or remain tender, guard, and horse trader. Lewis passed judgment on him only a few times. Commenting on the May 14, 1805, swamping of a ing with the Indians-he will still come to St. Louis, pirogue, the capta in characterized Cha rbonneau as "perhaps the and he will bring furs. Clark wants to advise him where mosttimid waterman in the world." On June 19, 1805, he rebuked and when to sell his furs so as to obtain the highest Charbonneau for allowing Sacagawea, who was recuperating price, and he points out the quantity and variety of skins from an illness, to eat raw breadroot and dried fish. Two months that are marketable, advising him to "get as maney later, on August 14, he noted without comment that Clark severly reprimanded Charbonneau for striking Sacagawea-the one robes, and big horn and cabbra [pronghorn] skins" as recorded incident of the Frenchman's "wife-beating." In his letter he can. of January 15, 1807, to Secretary of War Henry H. Dearborn One can argue that C lark's generosity to C har remarking on the "respective merits" of the expedition's mem bonneau was primarily inspired by concern for the bers, Lewis rated Charbonneau a "man of no peculiar [particular] welfare of Pompey and Sacagawea (whom he refers to merit," who was "useful as an interpreter only, in which he discharged his duties with good faith." That statement by her pet name, "Janey"), and what may have been nothwithsanding, Lewis seems to have regarded him as a good his desire to see them settled permanently in Missouri. cook-in his journal entry for May 9, 1805, the captain noted This may be partially true. H owever, Clark could not approvingly of Charbon11eaiJ's recipe for boudin blanc, a "pudding be certain that the Indian woman would stay with we all esteem one of the great delicacies of the forrest.'' C harbonneau rather than return to her people. C lark Another of Charbonneau's defenders is Gordon Speck, whose book Breeds and Half-Breeds is a principal source for Lange's could not known whether the marriage, founded on article. Speck notes that Chabonneau couldn't swim and mortally the purchase of a captive slave, would survive. He feared water- nearly every incident of his alleged cowardice could not know w hether Sacagawea would adapt to occured on the river; when faced with the threat of drowning, he life on a far m or trad ing post or even w h ether invariably lost his head. Any judgment of Charbonneau should C harbonneau would choose to bring his wife with recall that he was gired as an interpreter, not as a boatman (a job at which he was indeed inept); nothing in the journal,s suggests he him. Charbonneau did send Pompey to St. Louis to was anything other than an able translator. be educated. Beyond this, there is no evidence that Whem Ch arbonn e~ u showed up in St. Louis in 1S39 to collect Charbonneau accepted any of the rewards offered him back pay, Joshua Pilcher, Clark's successor as Comniissi9ner of by Clark. Indian Affairs, judged the old squaw man "a faithful servant of the government- though in a humble capacity," who "figured consp icuously in the expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Pacific." Ch arbonneau's post-expedition career For more on the abused Frenchman, see Robert E. Lange's We know little of the life of Toussaint Charbonneau "Poor Charbonneau!" .(wPo, May 1980, pp. 14-16). and Gordon after the expedition. Sacagawea almost certainly died Speck's Breeds and Half-Breeds (Clarkson N. Potter, Inc~, N.Y., in 1812. Her husband lived at least until 1839, long af 1969). pp. 96-148. ter most of the other expedition members had died. We - J. I. Merritt know he chose to live among the Mandans and H idatsa
22 - We Proceeded On February 2000 and not among the whites at Fort Clark, a trading post bonneau was suspect, but he was long past caring what farther upriver where often conducted business.8 He white men thought of him. He had suffered the deaths worked from 1819 until 1838 as an interpreter for the of loved ones and friends. The language he had trans U.S. government at the Mandan villages. F. A. Char lated for so many years was dying along with the don, Fort Clark's factor, mentions him frequently in Mandans, his adopted people, and their culture. Even the journal he kept. Charbonneau was old when Char in advanced old age, however, he never lost his ability don knew him, but vigorous and alert. On July 1, 1837, to absorb tragedy and get on with life. His old would while in his late seventies, he rode through rain, light be patron, William Clark, had also died, but Clark's ning, and hail to retrieve stolen horses. 9 He relayed news letter survives- and with it our knowledge of Toussaint and goods regularly between the village of the Gros Charbonneau's service to the Corps of Discovery. Ventres and the white traders at Fort Clark. On July 25, 1837, smallpox struck the Mandans. 10 Foundation member Rita Cleary, a novelist living in The epidemic was a cataclysmic event for the tribe, Oyster Bay, New York, is on the board of the Western which a previous epidemic, in 1780, had reduced from Writers of America. Her novel River Walk, about the nine villages to two. In his introduction to Chardon's Lewis and Clark expedition, focuses on Private john journal, William R. Swagerty calls the 1837 devasta Collins, one of her ancestors; it will be released by tion "the highest historic decline in a single epidemic Thorndike Press injune. Her Spies And Tories was re episode in North American history."11 The epidemic cently nominated for thejames Fenimore Cooper Prize proved equally cataclysmic for Charbonneau. in historical fiction, sponsored by Columbia University On his deathbed the Mandan chief, Four Bears, and Barnard College. blamed the "white dogs" for the plague, and the Mandans threatened to kill white men for bringing it NOTES to them.12 That included Charbonneau, who, fearing 1 John Bakeless, The journals of Lewis and Clark (New York, for his family, on August 1 9 led them to safety with the 1964 ), p. xii. Gros Ventres. On September 6, his wife succumbed to 2 Gary Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Ex the pox in spite of his precautions. He remained with pedition, Vol. 3 (Lincoln, N eb., 1988), p. 312. the Gros Ventres through the rest of the year. On De 3Charles G. Clarke, The Men of the Lewis and Clark Expedi cember 31, 1837, he reported to Chardon that 117 in tion (Glendale, Calif., 1970), p. 148. 4 the Gros Ventre village had died and only ten lodges Ibid. According to Clarke, Charbonneau was born in French Canada about 1758 and worked as a trader for the North West 13 remained, while the smallpox still raged. Company. On February 25, 1779, the twenty-four-year-old Charbonneau disappears from Chardon's journal George Rogers Clark led a small force of frontiersmen in a dar from June 9 to October 26, 1838. It's possible he went ing capture of Vincennes and British Fort Sackville, thus insur ing the area north of the Ohio River (the future states of Ohio, to St. Louis. If so, he might have attended the funeral Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin) for the United States. of William Clark, who died on September 1, 1838, at 5 George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats age sixty-eight, and was buried with full military hon (New York, 1957), pp. 345-350. ors in a ceremony attended by a many mourners. 6Jbid., p. 307. 7Letter of William Clark to Toussaint Charbonneau, August 20, 1806. William Clark Papers, Missouri Historical Society, Charhonneau's last marriage St. Louis. In 1839 Charbonneau reappears in Chardon's journal. 8F. A. Chardon, Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark, 1834-1839 The factor reports that the old interpreter had married (Lincoln, Neb.,1997), p. 69. yet again. Charbonneau was probably eighty, and his 9Ibid., pp. 119-120. new wife was a fourteen-year-old Assiniboine captive.14 10Ibid., P· 123. The white traders at Fort Clark viewed the old man's 11Ibid., P· x. marriage as scandalous. But the Indians saw it as a 12Ibid., p. 125. flaunting of death and held a rousing celebration in the 13lbid., p. 145. couple's honor. In the eyes of Anglo culture Char- 14Ibid., p. 173.
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 23 BONE MAN
The gentle-souled Caspar Wistar taught Meriwether Lewis about fossils and straightened out Jefferson on Megalonyx
By Nancy M. Davis
aspar Wistar, a physician, anatomist, and pa was the fifth of eight children of Quakers Richard leontologist, was one of several Philadelphia Wistar and Sarah Wyatt.4 His grandfather, another C mentors who, in 1803, gave Meriwether Caspar Wistar, had emigrated from Germany in 1717 Lewis his crash course in natural history before the and built the first glass factory in the colonies.5 Wistar explorer set off for the West. received a classical education at the Public School of There's a story about Wistar that tells much about Philadelphia, now Penn Charter School. A brilliant stu his generous spirit. In his medical practice, he had dent, he became a fluent writer and speaker of Latin.6 treated a man through a severe illness. Some time later, The young Quaker came of age during the Revolu when the former patient called at his office to pay him, tionary War. He was sixteen when he tended to Wistar asked how much money he had brought and wounded soldiers at the Battle of Germantown, fought was told he had ten dollars but would return when he northwest of Philadelphia on October 4, 1777. The ex had more. At that, Wistar pulled a ten-dollar note from perience led to his decision to study medicine.7 Wistar his own pocket and gave it to him, saying, "There, my apprenticed to Dr. John Redman, a distinguished phy man, now you have twenty dollars: go home, and make sician, and later to Dr.John Jones, a surgeon practicing a good use of them; and let me hear from you again, in Philadelphia during the British occupation of New should you, in any way, need my assistance." 1 York.8 In1779 he entered the University of Pennsylva Wistar was beloved by his patients. Kindly and atten nia.9 Regarded even today as one of the most gifted stu tive, with a polite and soothing manner, he was more dents in the school's history, Wistar obtained his concerned with their welfare than with his own. A col bachelor's degree in 1782.10 league observed on Wistar's death that "the attachment After graduation, when he applied for Quaker per of his patients to him [was] perhaps unparalleled. "2 His mission to go abroad, he had to overcome some resis fees were modest, and once, during a severe illness, he tance because he had fought in a duel. 10 Wistar had a tem instructed that his ledgers be burned should he die: "The per, and he was by no means oblivious to faults in others account between me and my patients, is already balanced. or offenses to himself. He worked to conquer his tem By their kindness towards me, and the praises they have per: friends maintained that they never heard him say bestowed on me, beyond what I merited, they have made a harsh word against anyone who offended him and ample returns for any services I rendered them. "3 invariably offered an excuse on the person's behalf. 11 Born in Philadelphia on September 13, 1761, Wistar To complete his medical education, Wistar in 1783
24- We Proceeded On February 2000 went to Great Britain.12 He studied anatomy for a year In 1793 Wistar became curator of the APS and a phy in London before moving on to the University of sician at Pennsylvania Hospital.22 That same year, Phila Edinburgh, which awarded him an M.D. in 1786. delphia, serving as both the state and federal capitals, Wistar's years in Edinburgh coincided with the Scottish suffered one of the worst yellow-fever epidemics in its Enlightenment, and it's a measure of his intellect and history, with one out of every ten residents perishing. the esteem in which the faculty and his fellow students More than half the population, including President held him that they elected the young American to the Washington and Governor Mifflin, fled the city.23Wistar presidency of both the Royal Medical Society and the stayed in town, assisting his friend Dr. Rush, but when Edinburgh Natural History Society. 13 Wistar himself fell ill, he asked Dr. Adam Kuhn to treat In 1787, after twice touring the Scottish him. After surviving the fever, Wistar rejected the Highlands, Wistar returned to Philadelphia .. extreme methods of bleeding and purging ad- and was quickly tapped for membership ;- vocated by Rush. Though his friendship with 1 in the newly formed College of Physi Rush changed forever,24 this did nothing to cians.14 Other honors followed: election stop his rise among Philadelphia's profes to the American Philosophical Society sional elite. In 1795 he was elected (APS), the premier scientific organization vice-president of the American Philosophi- of its day, and appointment as an attend cal Society, a position he would hold for ing physician at the Philadelphia the next twenty-one years.25 Dispensary.15 In 1789 he was In 1798, the thirty-seven named professor of chemis year-old Wistar bought a house try at the College of Phila at the corner of Fourth and delphia, 16 succeeding Dr. Prune Streets and married Benjamin Rush (another of Elizabeth Mifflin, a niece of the Lewis's mentors, whose governor.26 (It was his second trip laxative pills would become a to the altar, his first wife having staple in his medicine chest). 17 died in 1790, after two years of In 1792 the college merged with marriage.)27 They had three chil the University of Pennsylvania, and dren, a girl and two boys. 28 The Wistar became a professor of Wistars became famous for their anatomy, midwifery, and surgery.18 hospitality, opening their house on Sun Of medium height, Wistar had a stocky, day evenings, serving cakes, wine, and muscular build, a ruddy complexion, hazel plenty of good conversation to members of eyes, an aquiline nose, and a winning smile the APS, as well as to notable strangers vis that enhanced his natural dignity and im iting the city. 29 The tone of the evenings was peccable manners. 19 He was well dressed one of "unstudied ease and unostentatious and notably neat in appearance. Wistar style" reflecting Wistar's "social instincts worked hard at his teaching and combined Caspar Wistar. Philadelphia and kind affections." 30 Though he could a charismatic delivery with a thorough anatomist and paleontologist. easily have done so, the learned but unfail Bust by William Rush. knowledge of his subject.20 His anatomy ingly gracious host avoided dominating lectures were celebrated, and as his classes grew larger, conversations; Wistar preferred listening to speaking, Wistar innovated. He began to use large-scale models and directed the topics of conversation to subjects in of small body parts and divided his students into smaller which his interlocutor excelled.31 groups, giving each a collection of bones to study and classify. Wistar's "bone classes" were famous among his Meriwether Lewis comes to town students, who felt the same affection toward the good In the spring of 1803, Wistar received a letter from his doctor as did his patients.21 friend Thomas Jefferson. In preparation for his expe-
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 25 dition across the continent, Meriwether Lewis was jour beneficial transaction which has occurred since the dec neying to Philadelphia to tap the brains of its leading laration of Independence, & next to it, most like to in citizens in science, and the President asked Wistar to fluence or regulate the destinies of our Country. "36 allow Lewis to call on him.32 Wistar said that he would Wistar capped his academic career in 1808 with ap put together a list of questions for Lewis that might pointment to the chair of anatomy at the University of contribute to the expe Pennsylvania.37 Along with dition's success as a scientific his new professional duties endeavor. Wistar evidently he continued his good sent this list to Jefferson in works-helpin g, for ex July, but regrettably it is lost ample, to found a society to to history.33 promote vaccination, which Wis tar and Jefferson had included inoculations for collaborated on a number of Native Americans.37 scientific projects, including In 1810, after sixteen the collection and identifica - years as a staff physician, tion of the bones of the ex Wistar resigned from Penn tinct ground sloth, Mega sylvania Hospital.3 8 The next lonyx, which Jefferson had year, he completed A System initially (and erroneously) of Anatomy for the Use of regarded as the fossil re Students of Medicine.39 The mains of a giant cat.34 No first American textbook on record remains of the con anatomy,40 it was hailed at versation between Wistar the time as "without rival, in and Lewis. However, it's any language. "41 Its material reasonable to assume that was well organized, the they spoke of fossils, with writing clear, and the de the Philadelphia sage advis scriptions short and pre- ing the Virginian to look for cise.42 Wistar's other writ them in eroding bluffs along "Wistar's peers regarded him as intellectually 'strong ings include several papers the Missouri River. They on anatomy and descrip- ~ may also have discussed the rather than brilliant'-a lover of truth who was tions of fossils found at Big 3~ il':i possibility, advanced by Bone Lick, Kentucky, 43 a ~~ patient in uncovering it and generous in sharing it:' ~ ;I! both Wis tar and Jefferson, of site visited by Lewis in O c- ~~ finding mastodons and other The wistaria (below) was named in his honor. tober 1803 during his trip n ice-age mammals still roam down the Ohio. ~~ . d h . ~~ ing the vast unknown land Wistar assume t e pres1- oi:i; '33 Lewis was about to explore.35 dency of the APS from Thomas ~~ Less than two months after Lewis left Jefferson in 1816, but he was only to ~~ Philadelphia, the news broke that the hold the position for two years. He had ~~ United States had acquired the territory heart trouble that caused him, to his ~~ of Louisiana from France. Although great regret, to curtail and finally to end ~! controversy surrounded the purchase, altogether his medical practice.44 Dur- !~ Wistar endorsed Jefferson's decision and ing his final illness, so many people n wrote the President a note "on the very stopped by his house to inquire about i~ happy acquisitions you have made for his condition that, twice daily, his doc- ~~ our Country.... the most important & tor wrote a report that he placed on the ~~
26 - We Proceeded O n February 2000 hall table for visitors to read. When Wistar died, at age 13 DSB, p. 456; Appleton's, p. 583; Dictionary of American Biog fifty-six, on January 22, 1818, the city's cultural and raphy (DAB), Vol. X, 1936, pp. 433, 456. 14 scientific institutions closed until after the funeral. His DAB, p. 433. medical students bore his body to the grave.45 15Appleton's, p. 583. At the time of his death, Wistar was president of the 16DAB, p. 433. Pennsylvania Abolition Society46 and a member of the 17Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 89. Literary and Philosophical Society of New York as well 18 DAB, p. 433. as many other scientific and professional organizations 19Caldwell, pp. 21 -26. at home and abroad.47 Over the years, he had assembled 20 Ibid., p. 22. a large anatomical collection, which his family donated 21Appleton's, p. 583; DSB, p. 456. to the University of Pennsylvania.48 22DSB, pp. 433, 456. Wistar's peers regarded him as intellectually "strong 234F. Weigley, ed., Philadelphia: A 300 year history (New York: rather than brilliant"-a lover of truth who was pa W.W. Norton, 1982), pp. 180-188. tient in uncovering it and generous in sharing it. In a 24DSB, p. 456. eulogy, William Tilghman wrote that Wistar's stron 25Paul Russell Cutright, "Contributions of Philadelphia to Lewis gest ~haracteristic was his sincere benevolence, "not and Clark History," WPO Publication #6 (Portland, Ore.: that useless sympathy which contents itself with its Lithco, 1982), p. 14. own sensations."49 One of Wistar's contemporaries, 26History of the Wistar Association (Philadelphia: Press of The Wistar Institute, 1945), p. 8. the botanist Thomas Nuttall, named in his honor a 21DSB, p. 456. climbing vine with clusters of delicate blue flowers: 28lbid. the Wistaria. 50 29Wistar Association, p. 6; DSB, p. 456. 30Sketch of the Wistar Party of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Foundation member Nancy M. Davis lives in Philadel 1976),p.5. phia and is an interior designer. This is the second in a 31 Tilghman, p. 985. series ofarticles by the Foundation's Philadelphia chap 32Donald Jackson, ed., Letters ofthe Lewis & Clark Expedition, ter on the Pennsylvania mentors of Meriwether Lewis. With Related Documents, 1783-1854 (Urbana: University of Il linois Press, 1962), pp. 17-18. NOTES 33Cutright, pp. 14-15. 'Charles Caldwell, An Eulogium on Caspar Wistar, MD., Pro 34Joseph A. Kastner, A Species of Eternity (New York: Alfred A. fessor of Anatomy (Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson & Son, Knopf, 1977), pp. 126, 150. 1818), p. 12. 35Cutright, pp. 14-15. 2lbid, p. 11. 36Ambrose, p. 102. 3lbid., pp.14-18. 37Caldwell, p. 19. '"Caspar Wistar," Dictionary ofScientific Biography (DSB), Vol. XIV, 1976, p. 456. 38Tilghman, p. 980; DSB, p. 456. 5"Caspar Wistar," Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biogra 39DSB, p. 456. phy, Vol. Vl, 1889, p. 583. 40DAB, p. 437. 6Caldwell, p. 7. 41Tilghman, pp. 981, 986. 7DSB, p. 456. 42 Ibid., p. 980. 8 William Tilghman, An Eulogium in Commemoration of Doc 43DSB, p. 456; Cutright, p. 33. tor Caspar Wistar, Late President of the American Philosophical 44 Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge Caldwell, pp. 18-19. (Philadelphia: E. Earl, 1818), p. 974. 45 lbid., P· 26. 9DSB, p. 456. 46lbid., pp. 19-20. IOJbid., p. 7. 47DAB, p. 433. 11 Caldwell, pp. 14-15. 48Tilghman, pp. 983, 985. 12William D. Sharpe, Caspar Wistar On Depression 1786: An 50DAB, p. 433. Although "wistaria" is correct, this member of Eighteenth Century Psychiatric M.D. Dissertation, 1963-64, Vol. the pea family is now more commonly spelled wisteria. Its 31, 299. drooping clusters of blue flowers make it a popular ornamental.
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 27 Reviews
Lessons from the mighty Missouri struction of wetlands. Even seemingly benign acts, such as the removal of snags and overhanging trees for the Passage of Discovery benefit of barge traffic, have negative Daniel B. Botkin consequences: snags slow the river's Perigee/Penguin Putnam flow and create temporary darns, result 247 pages ing in more-varied habitat, and the $15.95 paperback leaves of bankside trees feed insects, which in turn are fed on by fis h. Be tween 1940 and 1983 the Missouri's nvironmental biologist David B. George Mason University, is a wise commercial yield of catfish declined EBotkin has written a thoughtful fol teacher, who explains and analyzes and more than 60 percent. In this example low-up to his 1995 Our Natural H is avoids preaching, although it's clear that and others, the author's subtext is the tory: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark. he views how man has changed the river interconnected-ness of a river and the This latest rumination on the country as both nature's loss and ours. His les land through which it flows: they are encountered by the Corps of Discov sons touch on earth history, hydrology, all part of an organic whole. As he ob ery is nominally a guidebook (spon biology, prairie and riverine ecology, serves, "the river farms the land. It de sored by the conservation group and fisheries and wildlife management. posits fresh soil in some places, and American Rivers), but one that is dif He offers clear and engaging sketches there trees and prairie grow. Elsewhere fe rent from any other L&C Baedeker of the life histories of many of the wild I've seen. creatures encountered by Lewis and Passage ofDiscovery is really an ex Clark, among them antelope, deer, prai The author's subtext is the tended environmental essay. It takes the rie dogs, buffalo, wolves, and grizzlies. reader vicariously on Botkin's journey I've been reading and writing about interconnectedness of ariver and up the Missouri from St. Louis to Three the natural history of the American Forks, Montana. Along the way the au West for nearly three decades, yet Pas the land through which it flows. thor stops at forty-two sites. He de sage of Discovery was full of revela scribes what Lewis and Clark saw there tions. For example, I didn't know (or and the changes since their day- some had forgotten) how glaciers changed the river undercuts and harvests. The of them made by nature (rivers, as he the course of the ancestral Missouri, prairie feeds the river, but the river har reminds us, are always in flux, destroy which once flowed north and entered vests the prairie, it harvests the flood ing and creating in their relentless push into Hudson's Bay; the Milk River now plain forests." toward the sea). But mainly they are follows a part of the Missouri's ancient Throughout his environmen tal made by man, who in the two centu bed-as Botkin puts it, "a young river musings Botkin doesn't forget the ries since Lewis and Clark has labored in an old river's arms." first-and in many ways still the best mightily to tame the great river and tap I was reminded, too, of the unnatu chroniclers of this landscape. He finds its water and power for his purposes. ral shocks that rivers are heir to that he can learn much about the natu Botkin, a professor of biology at channelization, pesticide runoff, the de- ral history of the American West ·-··- through a combination of reading the Captains' journals and reading the landscape itself: "The journals were more than the interesting history of an adventure. They provided an accurate account of the landscape and its plants and animals almost two hundred years -··-··-· -.·- ...... ago, a description difficult to obtain elsewhere because few made such care ful notes as Lewis and Clark." -J. I. Merritt ' KA!lSA$ i \ I \/ A selection from Passage of Discovery L._ .._ .. - ··-··-"-. ·--\.,_ .. -.. -· ·-";:.../ titled "What Happens When We Stop a River's Meandering" appeared in the Au Drawings by Garry Pound of buffalo sightings and catfish (top) from Passage of Discovery. gust 1999 WPO.
28 - We Proceeded On February 2000 affect the story Shuman tells, but they Afictional tale of are a bit jarring to those who know What if Lewis didn't die, but better and pass along misinformation to those who do not. Characters' rela the Deep South escaped amurder attempt and lived tionships sometimes seemed rather contrived or inconsistent. Some of the The Meriwether Lewis Murder until the 1860s on a Louisiana characters' decisions and actions seem Malcolm Shuman plantation, an amnesiac recalling rather illogical and unlikely. If I re Avon Books ceived major news regarding a mur 262 pages der case that involved both my girl $5.99 paperback only fragments of his former life? friend and me, as Graham does, my reaction would be to call her imme diately to let her know, not call her ecent years have witnessed an in Courtney, various co-workers, friends, that night and ask if she had seen it Rcreasing interest in Lewis and villains, and characters become in on the news. Clark, the Corps of Discovery, and fac volved in a case of historically impor While mistakes and shortcomings ets of their story in various media. tant journals, forgery, an old plantation, such as these limit the book somewhat, Books, articles, film, television, music, and murder. Was the "Louis" men it still makes for an interesting read. and even cartoons have all focused on tioned in the journals of plantation Shuman gives the Lewis and Clark Trail this most famous exploring venture in owner John Clay Hardin really the fa H eritage Foundation a prominent American history and the people who mous Meriwether Lewis? Who will thank-you for sending him back issues accomplished it. Books about Lewis prove he was? Why are people being of We Proceeded On. H e also thanks and Clark have not focused solely on murdered? Do they know the truth authors whose earlier works were help the historical aspects of the expedition. about "Louis," or about the journals? ful to him. It is clear that Shuman has Two recent ones deal with the death of Are the journals authentic or a plant by been influenced by the conspiracy Meriwether Lewis. Ron Burns's The a talented forger? What theorists and murder ad
Mysterious Death ofMeri wether Lewis about other documents Hd....,...,Cl"'w:l...,.,Mo0...... ,,.'1plOlond~ol~· herents. While giving an (WPo, August 1994) was a mystery and discovered that seem to "°'°"E".,. interesting twist to such made no pretensions to being factual. prove that the famed ex theories, he perpetuates Another, David Chandler's The plorer did indeed reside at the claim that James Jefferson Conspiracies (wro, August Desiree plantation along Wilkinson and James 1995), masqueraded as fact and investi the Mississippi near Baton Neelly were villains and gative reporting but in reality was an Rouge? Shuman answers Thomas Jefferson chose error-riddled, tabloid-style denuncia all these questions in an in the politically expedient tion of Thomas Jefferson and other teresting and plausible route of supporting the leaders of the period. fashion. claim that Lewis commit The most recent author to take up Criticisms of the book ted suicide even though he the "what if" possibilities of Lewis's are few. Because it is fic knew it was not true. No death along the Natchez Trace in 1809 tion, believability can be MALCOLM evidence indicates that is Malcolm Shuman. What if Lewis did suspended and the imagi SHUMAN they were involved in ei- not really die? What if he escaped a n ation allowed to run ther Lewis's death or a murder attempt and lived until the loose. One does wish cover-up. 1860s on a Louisiana plantation; an am Shuman would have been more care As the bicentennial of the Lewis and nesiac who only remembered fragments ful regarding contradictory statements Clark Expedition nears, other books of his former life? and historical facts. "Louis's" death undoubtedly will join The Meriwether Using the character of Alan Graham, date changes from July 3, 1863 (page Murder and its predecessors in specu an archaeologist with a nose for mur three) to July 10, 1861 (page eighteen). lating about the death of one of der and sleuthing, Shuman poses that H ardin's journals mysteriously move history's greatest explorers. It is one of alternative to L ewis's death. The from Graham's locked desk drawer at history's controversies and a magnet for premise is intriguing, and Shuman takes work to his study at home (page eigh conspiracy enthusiasts. Books such as the reader on an enjoyable little read. teen). A permanent party of thirty this fill a niche in the history of the ex The story maintains a lively pace and three journeyed to the Pacific, not pedition and its members, and all in all, engages the reader's imagination with forty-seven. Thomas Jefferson was reading them is an interesting way to its plot. Archaeologist Graham, rival ar President until March 1809, not 1807. spend a few hours. ch aeologist and girlfriend Pepper Mistakes such as these do not seriously - James J. Holmberg
February 2000 We Proceeded On - 29 Meriwether Lewis: not ahad botanist
Herbarium Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition "Moulton sketches an engaging tale Gary E. Moulton, Ed. of the Diaspora of Lewis'scollection University of Nebraska Press 357 pages following the expedition's return:' $75 hardcover
his twelfth and final volume of the mainly of full-page photographs of Tmonumental]oumals ofthe Lewis & dried plants mounted on sheets and rep Clark Expedition focuses on the plants resenting the 177 distinct species gath collected by Meriwether Lewis during ered by the Corps of Discovery. At the Corps of Discovery's twenty-eight tached to each sheet are labels and notes month odyssey across the continent appended over the years by curators. and back. Lewis, as editor Gary Eleven sheets include labels in Lewis's Moulton notes in his succinct and in hand, cut from his botanical field jour formative introduction, was for prac nals, mainly remarking on when and tical purposes the Corps's sole bota where he found the specimen. Moulton nist-of the 239 Lewis and Clark plant has done his usual thorough job of specimens that have survived both the scholarly annotation and cross-refer ravages of time and the vagaries of cu encing. Tables he's compiled make it rators often ignorant of or indifferent easy, for example, to look up species al to their historical value, only one was phabetically or by the date and place collected by someone other than Lewis. collected. That was Clark, whose single contri Lewis's role as the expedition's natu bution to what's known as the Lewis ralist came to him-well, naturally. As and Clark Herbarium was a wildflower Moulton observes, he "was blessed with that goes by the popular name of snow those qualities most important in a natu on-the-mountain, which he gathered ralist: an unquenchable curiosity, keen on the Yellowstone River on July 28, observational powers, and a systematic 1806, while separated from Lewis. approach to understanding and describ This handsome volume consists ing the natural world." His abilities as a botanist were honed by the teachings of three mentors: his mother, Lucy Meriwether, "a recognized herbalist in Albemarle County, Virginia," from White camass (July 7, 1806) whom he leaned about the medicinal qualities of plants; Thomas Jefferson, sorbed that viewpoint. Although Lewis who for more than fifty years kept a left no written record about his criteria "garden book" detailing his plantings at for deciding which plants to collect, Monticello; and Benjamin Smith Barton, Moulton deduces that he concentrated the leading botanist of his day and one on those with potential value as phar of the Philadelphia philosophes who, maceuticals or ornamentals. before Lewis's departure for the West, Moulton sketches an engaging tale instructed him on the science he would of the Diaspora of Lewis's collection need to know in the field. following the expedition's return. Part Jefferson, "the American pragma of it wound up in the hands of tist," as Moulton calls him, emphasized Frederick Pursh, a German emigre the practical side of botany. It was the botanist working with Barton in Phila usefulness of plants that interested him delphia. When Pursh left the United Dull Oregon grape (October 1805) most, and Lewis appears to have ab- States for England he took many of the
30 - We Proceeded On February 2000 The legacy lives on ... specimens with him. While abroad he wrote and illustrated his Flora Americae Septentionalis (Flora ofNorth America). Published in 1813, this first major survey of the continent's native - I plants depended crucially on the type Fort Clatsop specimens collected by Lewis. The plants in Pursh's possession wound up Historical in the hands of gentleman botanist Association A. B. Lambert. In 1842, after Lambert's death, his collections were auctioned by T Association Memberships Available! Support Fort Clatsop National Memorial Sotheby's. An American named Ed and the legacy of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. ward Tuckerman purchased one of two lots containing Lewis specimens. The Limited Editions ... high bidder on the other lot was a Lon T Pendleton Woolen Mills Blanket This s11ecially woven blanket features the 1805 don bookseller named William floor plan sketch of Fort Clatsop by William Clark. Pamphlin, who passed them on to bota $175.00 nist William Jackson Hooker, who in "Arrival" T Bronze Sculpture "Arrival" Bronze Sculpture by turn deposited them in the Royal This 15 inch bronze statue, on a walnut base, Stanley Wanlass Botanic (Kew) Gardens. Apparently, depicts Lewis & Clark's arrival at the Pacific. Signed by artist, Stanley Wanlass. $ , . neither Pamphlin nor Hooker knew (or 2 250 00 would have cared) that the lot con tained specimens collected on the Lewis 92343 Fort Clatsop Road T Astoria, OR 97103 and Clark Expedition. Lambert even Fax (503) 861-2585 wally donated his Lewis trove to the (503) 861-2471, ext. 216 Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) in Philadelphia. Hooker's lot, meanwhile, remained at Kew Gardens; only in the 1950s did an American botanist, Joseph
Ewan of Tulane University, discover ~ that it contained Lewis specimens. LEWIS AND CLARK'S Lewis gave some of his plants to the American Philosophical Society, which JOURNEY later placed them on permanent loan COMES ALIVE! with the ANS (which now holds the Join expert historians along the bulk of the Lewis and Clark Her Montana segment of the most momentous expedition in barium, 227 sheets; Kew Gardens has American history. 11). The single sheet outside the ANS .Cew is and" C(arR at· 'Tliree :forRs and Kew Gardens is an errant specimen .. Explore stretches of the Missouri and Jefferson Rivers by boat .. that wound up in a museum in Charles .. Join a Blackfeet historian atop cliffs overlooking the Missouri .. ton, South Carolina; its provenance was .. Meet "Sacajawea" in Three Forks .. Enjoy exclusive stay at historic ranch .. uncovered in the 1 990s. Other Lewis .. Re-live the approach to the Continental Divide .. specimens are still being "discovered" Three Depatit1res: fttb1 14-22 .. Septe111ber 12-20 .. Septe111ber 15-23 in collections by various scholar $2,795 per person .. 16 travelers sleuths-among them Gary Moulton. OFF THE BEATEN PATH LL.<: In 1995, while investigating collateral collections at the ANS, he found two. 800.445.2995 27 E . Main Street .. Bozeman, Montana 59715 "The connection of the specimens with Est. 1986 www:offthebeatenpath.com .. [email protected] the expedition was easily apparent: who else was collecting plants on the Co lumbia River in March 1806 or at the head of Clark's River (now the Bitter root) in July of the same year?" -J. I. Merritt
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 31 Chapter News
Thanks to the efforts of the Ohio River Chapter, the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will open a Lewis and Clark exhibit on March 25. It will run through October 29 . • The Portage Route Chapter reports that Gary Moulton, editor of the J our nals of Lewis and Clark Expedition, will spend five weeks in June and July as scholar-in-residence at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls, Montana. The chapter has estab lished an endowment fund to sponsor a nationally recognized L&C scholar each summer at the center. • Lemhi Pass, on the Montana-Idaho border, looking west toward the "immence ranges of high In N overnber, Oregon Chapter mem moutains" seen by Meriwether lewis as he first gazed on the watershed of the Pacific. ber Roger D. Wendlick visited the gravesite of Jean Baptiste Char bonneau (Pompey) in remote Jordan Lewis and Clark at the Great Divide Valley, Oregon. He noted that better signs are needed to direct people to the rif eriwether Lewis and three The Mormons built a fort in the valley site. The site also should be cleared of - other members of the which they abandoned in 1858 after an brush, and the turnout for cars needs J ' Corps of Discovery Indian attack. improving. Wendlick is applying to (George Drouillard, Hugh McNeal, Lemhi Pass was part of a major trail agencies for funds to develop a rest stop and John Shields) reached the Conti used by the Shoshonis. It was later part and additional interpretive signage. nental Divide at Lemhi Pass on August of a stagecoach route between Red • 12, 1805. They were at the western lim Rock, Montana, and Salmon, Idaho . Last September 26, the Greater Metro its of the Louisiana Purchase and were Lemhi Pass is a National Historic St. Louis Chapter visited the grave of about to leave United States soil. Landmark and the location of Saca Pompey's father, Touissant Char The small stream they followed on gawea Memorial Park. bonneau, in Richwoods, Missouri. the west slope of the divide is now -Charles Cook • called Agency Creek, which flows into President, Camp Fortunate Chapter The Travelers' Rest Chapter reports the Lemhi River, a tributary of the that the Travelers' Rest campsite has Salmon River. Lewis made no mention Lemhi Pass is just one of the spots to be been designated an official project of of a name for the pass they crossed. The visited during the Foundation's annual Save America's Treasures. A joint name Lemhi wasn't used 1855, when meeting in Dillon, Montana, August 13- public-private partnership between the Mormon settlers moved into the val 16. To register, contact the Foundation National Trust for Historic Preserva ley. Lemhi is derived from "Limhi," a at P. 0. Box 3434, Great Falls, MT tion and the White House Millennium name found in the Book of Mormon. 59403 (888-701 -3434). Council, the project "works to recog nize and rescue the enduring symbols From the Archivist of American tradition that define us as a nation." • Goals set for 2000 Through its Adopt-a-School program, the Minnesota Chapter is now help ~'-Ii he Archives Library Com chivist, Julianne Ruby serves as an ex ing four elementary schools teach f_ I mittee has set its course officio member of the committee. youngsters about the Lewis and Clark C for this year. Committee mem The committee has finalized its mis Expedition. The chapter has aided in bers include Jane Weber, Ella Mae sion statement and goals for the year. the purchase of the L&C Curriculum Howard, and Don Nell from Montana; The mission of the Archives Commit Guide and other educational materi Doug Erickson and Kelly Janes from tee is to provide direction on the acqui als and has donated books to school Oregon, Bob Moore from Missouri, sition and management ofarchival ma libraries. and Jane Henley from Virginia. As ar- terials for the Lewis and Clark Trail
32 - We Proceeded On February 2000 Heritage Foundation. The committee Robert Weir's L&C collectibles on display has held teleconference meetings every two months to develop the year's goals """' raveling to Dillon, Montana, land, Oregon, at the turn of the cen and assign tasks. Following are the ma - this August to attend the tury. Collectibles range from com jor goals set for 2000: C.~ Foundation's annual meeting? memorative photo albums, paper • Finalize the Collections and Use Consider extending your stay to in weights, coins, and spoons to souvenir Policy Handbook. clude a side trip to Great Falls for a spe coffee mugs and pennants. Dr. Weir's • Identify items needed in the col cial evening at the Lewis and Clark Na exhibit premiered for a brief showing lection and develop a plan to acquire tional Historic Trail Interpretive Cen at the University of Scranton last them. ter on Friday, August 18. spring; the showing at the Great Falls • Identify inappropriate items and In preparation for the bicentennial interpretive center marks its first trav develop a plan to deaccession them. commemoration of the explorers' jour eling venue. • Develop information for the ney, the center is hosting a reception, The evening's events will culminate Foundation's Web page. lecture, and viewing of Montanans with two scholarly presentations by Dr. • Prepare quarterly WPO articles to Honor Lewis and Clark: Memorabilia Weir and David Walter. Dr. Weir will update membership. ofthe Robert Weir Collection. This dis explore "Memorabilia of Lewis and • Establish a Friends of the Library play of collectibles provides a glimpse Clark: Our Continuing Fascination organization. into how Americans celebrated the with Epic Tales," a retrospective on the • Support the Scholar in Residence 1OOth and 150th anniversaries of the expedition and its significance to all cul Program. Lewis and Clark Expedition. tures. David Walter, librarian at the • Continue to catalogue slides, The exhibit showcases a lifetime pas Montana Historical Society, will books, photographs, professional pa sion of Robert Weir, chairman of the present "Montanans Commemorating pers, and related articles on Lewis and Foundation's Bicentennial Committee Lewis and Clark: Two Centuries of Clark. and professor of education at the Uni Societal Change." • Prepare for the future by anticipat versity of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. A We invite all members of the Lewis ing personnel and equipment needs for scholar of the expedition, Dr. Weir has and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation to the library. amassed a large selection of memora attend this private celebration. Please An important goal is to keep the bilia from the 1904-05 Lewis and Clark RSVP us at 406-761-3950 (library Foundation membership informed of Centennial and some interesting objects @lewisandclark.org). the accomplishments and activities of from the 1950s. Many pieces are from -Julianne Ruby this committee. The list of goals is a the Centennial Exhibit, held in Port- Archivist, LCTHF healthy workload, but essential if the library is to establish itself as a national resource on Lewis and Clark and re CLASSIFIEDS: L&C EXCURSIONS lated subjects. Future information in WPO will include an update on the FOLLOW THE STEPS of the explorers L&C MOTORCOACH TOURS. 8-day committee's progress. from the Great Falls of the Missouri to Rocky Mountain Tour (Montana, Idaho), For members traveling to Great Travelers Rest. 6 nights-7 days. Motor 11-day Northwest Passage Tour (Mon Falls, Montana, our summer hours are coach and van transportation, accommo tana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Pacific 1 to 5 P.M. Tuesday through Saturday. dations, meals, events, attractions, speak Ocean), 17-day Plains to the Pacific Tour Winter months, the library is only open ers, and more. Group discounts. Rates (St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean). Includes to the public on Wednesday and Satur vary. For further information: www. on-bus expert scholar Goe Mussulman for swanriver tours.com, 1-800-792-6748. '1- the Northwest Passage Tour) and numer day. The library can be opened for 406-754-2538 (phone/fax). ous historic sites, musuems and local members by appointment. • speakers. Boat Tours of the Missouri and The library collection is dynamic, FLOAT THE JEFFERSON RIVER to the Columbia Rivers. The scenery is spectacu thanks to donations made by our mem headwaters of the Missouri. If you come lar. Contact Rocky Mountain Discovery bers and collectors who are devoted to to Montana, don't miss this excellent non Tours. 1-888-400-0048, www.rmdt.com. engaging others in the excitement of a whitewater natural and cultural history E-mail: [email protected]. scholarly journey. For more informa experience. This trip gives the best impres tion about the library or the sion of the wildlife experienced by Lewis CLASSIFIED RATES: 50 cents per word for committee's work, contact Jane Weber, and Clark. Suitable for all ages; small Foundation members; 75 cents per word for nonmembers; $10 minimum. Address, chairman, at 406-727-8733, or Julianne groups and lots of wildlife. Professional city, state, and Zip code count as one Ruby, archivist, at 406-761-3950 interpretive guide service. Northern Rockies Natural History, POB 42, word. Payment must accompany ads. (([email protected]); or write Bozeman, MT 59771. 406-586-1155; e Goods and services offered 1nust relate to to the Foundation offices. mail: info@beyondyellow stone.com. L&C. Send ads to Editor, WPO, 51 N. -Julianne Ruby Web: www.beyondyellow stone.corn. Main St., Pennington, NJ 08534. Archivist, LCTHF
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 33 ... the 'frail of Lewis & Clark
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Chuinard, Eldon. ONLY ONE MAN DIED: THE Jackson, Donald. AMONG THE SLEEPING AND CLARK AND FUR TRADER, 1807-1810. MEDICAL ASPECTS OF THE LEWIS AND GIANTS. OCCASIONAL PIECES ON LEWIS Clark, 1st, 1964, 356 pgs., vg cond., illus., maps. CLARK EXPEDITION. Clark 1st, 1979, 444 pgs. , AND CLARK. U of Ill, 1•1, 1987, 136 pgs., vg Western Frontiersmen Series XL $275.00 vg cond., vg dj, illus., maps, ports. Western cond., vg dj. maps (1 double), facsms. $85.00 Frontiersmen Series XIX. $595.00 Swayne, Zoa. DO THEM NO HARM! AN IN Moulton, Gary E. (ed). THE JOURNALS OF TERPRETATION OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK Cutright, Paul Russell. LEWIS AND CLARK: THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION. U. EXPEDITION AMONG THE NEZ PERCE IN 1 1 PIONEERING NATURALIST. U. ILL, 1• , 1969, OF Neb. Press. 12 vols ... ,all 1st ed. $6500.00 D/ANS. Legacy house, 1• , 1990, 348 pgs., vg 506 pgs., vg cond., vg dj, illus. $645.00 (Individual 1st edition vols. also available.) cond., vg dj, end paper maps, illus. $95.00
Hawke, David Freeman. THOSE TREMEN Quaife (ed.), Milo. THE JOURNALS OF CAP TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR PARTS OF DOUS MOUNTAINS. THE STORY OF THE TAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS AND SER AMERICA; COMMUNICATING DISCOVERIES LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION. W.W. GEANT JOHN ORDWAY KEPT ON THE MADE IN EXPLORING THE MISSOURI, RED Norton and Co., 1st, 1980, 273 pgs., vg cond., EXPEDITION OF WESTERN EXPLORA RIVER AND WASHITA, BY CAPTAINS LEWIS vg dj. end papers, illus., facsms. $40.00 TION, 1803-1806. Wisconsin Historical Soci AND CLARK, DOCTOR SIBLEY AND MR. ety, 151, 1916, 444 pgs., vg cond., front., illus., Hebard, Grace Raymond. SACAJAWEA: A DUNBAR WITH A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT 2 fold out maps, facsms., illus., two rubbed OF THE COUNTRIES NEVER BEFORE PUB GUIDE AND INTERPRETER OF THE LEWIS pin holes on spine. $425.00 LISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN. J.G. Barnard AND CLARK EXPEDITION, WITH AN AC 1 Pub., 1• , 1807, 116 pgs., vg cond. Originally in COUNT OF THE TRAVELS OF TOUSSAINT Ronda, James P. LEWIS AND CLARK wraps and now rebound in 1/4 leather and gold CHARBONNEAU, AND OF JEAN BAPTISTE, AMONGTHEINDIANS.UNeb., 1•1, 1984, 310 title on spine, page 40 numbered as 5, the Sioux THE EXPEDITION PAPOOSE. Clark, 2nd, 1957, pgs., vg cond., vg dj, maps, photos. $425.00 340 pgs., vg cond., front, photos, rear pull out fold-out was sewn in wrong location when map. $295.00 Skarsten, M.O. GEORGE DROUILLARD, bound, however the book is complete. Very HUNTER AND INTERPRETER FOR LEWIS Scarce. $7500.00 Catalogs available upon request ------
34 ~ We Proceeded On February 2000 peoples to help them, the incredible coincidence of The Mythic Lewis and Clark Cameahwait's sibling relationship to Sacagawea, the death Soundings continued from page 36 of just one member of the crew, and the heroism of individu telecast in 1988. Film maker George Lucas cr edited als. In the mythic version of the tale, the characters become Campbell's writings about the place of myth in society as less complex and more representative of types: Charbonneau the inspiration for his Star Wars saga (the closest thing we and Cruzatte offer comic relief, Drouillard is the man of the have in the United States to a late twentieth-century myth). wilderness, the Field brothers represent hunting and athletic Campbell revived scholarly interest prowess, and Sacagawea and her in myths and argued that we need baby recalJ the homes and hearths them to survive. 1 Although the Captains are historical figures left behind. The real-life story of the Corps of L&C as hero tale whose story is documented by their Discovery parallels famous myths The Lewis and Clark story falls into and hero tales, and I believe this is a subcategory of myth, that of the journals. one can argue that much of their the root of its popularity. Like other "hero tale." In contrast to myths, myths, the Lewis and Clark saga de hero tales· are narratives that are story's appeal springs from its mythic fines us as a people. It's a tale of longer and more complex in their courage, tenacity, expansiveness, structure. Campbell developed a elements. These include lewis as flawed cultural chauvinism, pioneer spirit, theory that nearly all hero tales, curiosity, and a willingness to aspire from all periods of time and all cul hero, like Jason and Ulysses. to lofty goals-all qualities pervad tures, conform to a pattern. To de ing the American character. Our scribe this phenomenon, he adopted story is their story, and whatever a term from James Joyce and dubbed his hero-myth pattern our backgrounds, most of us can relate to one or more of the the "monomyth." As Campbell described the monomyth, expedition members. In addition to Anglo-Americans like Lewis and Clark, the Corps of Discovery included an immi The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero grant Qohn Potts), a child (Pomp), a Native American is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of (Sacagawea), mixed bloods (Drouillard, Labiche, and passage: separation-initiation-return. .. . A hero ventures forth Cruzatte), and an African-American (York). from the world of common day into a region of supernatural There is more to the mythic Lewis and Clark. Joseph wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious Campbell hoped to show that people, whatever their cul adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.2 tures or religions, are not that different from each other that all hum an beings, by examining their similar myths and In his book Joseph Campbell: An Introduction, Robert hero tales, can find a common humanity. Myths can, he be A. Segal explained that Campbell tried to show that the uni lieved, take us back to those primitive campfires shared by form meaning of all hero myths is at once psychological our ancestors as they defined their place in the universe.6 and metaphysical: hero myths describe not the outward, We need to keep all this in mind as we look forward to the physical adventures of legendary or historical figures but bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The power the inward, mental adventures of adherents to the myths. of myth can bring people together in a spirit of reconcilia Rather than the discovery of a lost continent by some fa tion. And the "myth" of Lewis and Clark can promote an mous figure, a hero myth describes the rediscovery of a lost understanding by Americans of their own culture, while help part both of the human personality and the cosmos.3 ing others to understand us. Campbell stated that heroism has two facets- a hero does what no one else can do or dares to do, and he does it for the Bob Moore is the historian at the Jefferson National Expan good of others rather than for self-aggrandizement. 4 Further, sion Memorial, in St. Louis. the hero, in exploring a strange new world of reality, finds another strange world within his own mind, leading to an understanding of his true identity. The hero's discovery of N OTES another reality offers a model for others to emulate. Campbell 1See Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (New explained that "within each person there is what Jung called York: Doubleday, 1988), pp. 8-9 and 95. a collective unconscious . ... We penetrate to this level by 2Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York: getting in touch with dreams, fantasies, and traditional myths; Pantheon, 1949), p. 30. by using active imagination. "5 1Robert A. Segal, Joseph Campbell: An Introduction (New York: Although the Captains are historical figures whose story Mentor/Penguin, 1990), p. 27. is documented by their extensive journals, one can argue that 4Hero, pp. 30-3 1. much of their story's appeal springs from its mythic elements. 5Joseph Campbell, interview with Sam Keen in Voices and Visions These include Lewis as flawed hero (like Jason or Ulysses), (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), p. 73 . the extraordinary luck of the explorers in finding native 6H ero, pp. viii, 4, and 121.
February 2000 We Proceeded On ~ 35 Soundings
- The Mythic Lewis and Clark Their story helps define us as a nation - and connect us to cultures around the world
BY B OB MOORE
nee upon a time, that much of the appeal of a young man was their story springs from its 0 sent away to be mythic elements. educated by a wise sage. Similarities to the Lewis After the completion of his and Clark story can be education, he was given a found in portions of other perilous and seemingly im hero tales from world cul possible mission to per tures, including Yudhishtira form. He gathered around (India), Gilgamesh (Meso him the bravest and the best potamia), Yuriwaka Qapan), men in the land, and or Tokahe (Lakota), Parsifal dered a special vessel to be and the Holy Grail (Ger built to carry them on their man y), t he H ero Twins quest. O n their jou rney, the (Maya), the Brave Q uest small band of heroes faced Jason and the Argonauts - parallels with the Corps of Discovery? (Blackfeet), Maui (Poly many fearsome creatures nesia), Mary Bryant (Aus that had to be defeated, met people of new and unimagined tralia), Kupe (Maori), and Sadko (Russia). Parts of the sto cultures, and in the end brought back the information and ries of Leif Eriksson, El Dorado, and the Fountain of Youth the objects they were sent to fi nd. The young leader of the also parallel those of Lewis and Clark. mission was received with joyous acclaim by his people upon Myths are the world's oldest form of literature. They go his return, but within a few short years he died, either by his back to man's beginnings and attempt to answer in story form own hand or by murder. our basic questions about life and nature: How was the world Obviously, readers can understand this to be the story of created, who are we as human beings, who or what is God, Meriwether Lewis and the expedition he led into the Ameri why do humans experience beauty, ugliness, love, hatred, can West in 1804-06. In this bare-bones version of the tale, birth and death? For thousands of years, myths were told the wise sage is President Jefferson, the special vessel the and retold around firepits and hearths. They were a culture's keelboat built near Pittsburgh, the impossible tasks the record entertainment and its link to its place in the cosmos. of scientific knowledge and the act of crossing a continent, With numerous retellings, myths and hero tales become the fearsome creature the grizzly bear, the new cultures those streamlined, fas t-paced stories that tell us much about a cul of Native Americans. However, this same description also ture. For instance, the Arthurian legends of Great Britain relates the story of Jason, the famous Greek hero of myth are about much more than a king, a magic sword, a dodder and legend. Jason was educated by the centaur Chiron, sent ing wizard, an unfaithful queen, and the betrayal of a friend. to find the Golden Fleece in his special ship, the Argus, fought They are about Britain itself, and each character represents a creatures like the Cyclops, and later died by his own hand of facet of the British national character, the relation of the grief after his wife, Medea, killed their children in a fit of people to their land, and the transition from the era of pagan jealous rage. magic and living within nature to a new era of science, learn Although not exact in all its particulars, the story of Jason ing, and Christianity, wherein people live on the land and and the Argonauts closely resembles that of Lewis and Clark. put the land to the use of mankind. Is this a coincidence? Certainly. Although there may have The theories of Joseph Campbell (1904-1 987), the famous been a historical person named Jason, his story is in the realm student and teacher of myths, can tell us much about the of what are popularly called myths. As we know, Lewis and mythic elements of Lewis and Clark. Campbell became ex Clark documented their activities in a painstaki ng fashion, ceedingly popular during the 1960s, and gained even greater and their journals survive, acquainting us with the historical fame as the result of a six-hour Public Broadcasting Service occurrences of their journey. Although Lewis and Clark are series with journalist Bill Moyers called The Power ofMyth , real figures on a historical quest, an argument could be made Soundings continues on page 35
36 - We Proceeded On February 2000 Missouri River Expeditions™
; ~~ iver Odysseys West (ROW) is proud to offer fully outfitted Journeys f D· qt,yfj.-, trips on the Upper Missouri River traveling in stable 34' canoes that Jointbesede 0 lSCovery"' replicate those of the early fur-traders. Similar in size to the dugouts used by Jul ~uthors, histo~f;!~:e:.d~ith talented the Corps of Discovery, each canoe carries up to 14 paddlers and two talented Y Cbarles Sacavage- EJde~nterpreters: ROW guides. They provide the perfect platform for spinning yarns and gazing and modern-day m ~ostel instructor upon the many points of interest along the way while you paddle from a July 9 & 16 Ron ounta10 man. Laycock- Board M comfortable sitting position. These adventures are designed for people age Lewis & Clark H . ember of the five and up with an interest in exploring and learning about the rich history Elderhostel teachentage Trail Foundation July23 er and fre , of the Upper Missouri. No previous camping or canoeing experience Jack Nisbet- A h quem speaker. is required. about David Thut or of~ the Riw·· B ompson and S'- -~ ROW provides all the equipment you need along with our ~ Talent ' ~ legendary "safari-style" luxury camping. A camp boat sets up camp July This is a /amity dep:~t~~uralist and teacher. 30 prior to your arrival, including roomy tents, dining tables, chairs, and H~nry Stamm- Autho · sun-showers. Six-course meals begin with tasty hors d'oeuvres and end W10d River· Th E r of~ August 10 . e astern Shosh with a Dutch oven dessert. Stargazing and tales around the evening Julie FanseJow-A ones 1825-1900. campfire complete the day. A Travelin the ~tbor of 1 ugust 17 ~Lewis1 & Cla~k T _ Three and five-day trips are offered, each allowing plenty of August 22 ~ -~~ - ~- r 0 time for hiking and enjoying camp. You'll visit some of the camps where th l:lmWilliams- Producer d Lewis and Clark stayed. You'll hike to some of the scenes of Karl Bodmer's Sept. 12 Ti~ p r.~The Trail" about 1':,. n&arrator of ill· ustrations . "1ou '11 see ancient tipt· rmgs· . Tur ee-day tnps· trave I some 48 on riversa=er- a d AurJ. ior of more theis Clark· 11 miles through the White Cliffs area and end at Judith Landing. Call for addit. tJver conservation n ten books tonal dates and . . Five-day trips cover a total of 60 miles, entering into the Missouri River interpreters. breaks, and taking out at the Stafford Ferry crossing. For experienced paddlers we also offer the option of paddling a smaller 17' canoe.
The adventure begins in Great Falls, Montana. Five-Day trips Please note our special August 10th and 17th, 3-day trips designed as include a visit to the fabulous Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. We also pre- or post-convention tours to the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail stop in Fort Benton for lunch, the confluence of the Marias and Missouri Foundation annual convention- August 13-16 in Dillon, MT! and then we proceed on to the put-in point at Coal Banks Landing. ll ISiliSS E!lf5Sl' S!llili Trips depart weekly from June through Sept. For a free brochure describing these trips, as well as our whitewater rafting trips on Idaho's Snake, Salmon, Lochsa, Bruneau and Owyhee rivers, please call - 1-800-451-6034 PO Box 579-WP, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816 • E-mail: [email protected] • Visit our website at www.rowinc.com/wp.htm R.O.W, Inc. is'1Jl EQ11al Opportunity recreation .service provider under permit from lhc Bureau ofU.nd J\b.nagcment,Judith Resource Are:a. We practice state·of·the·art minimum impact camping techniques, Member of Montana Outfitters & Guides Association, America OuuloorS, American Rivers ilnd the lcVvis :1nd Clark HL'fitage Trail Founda1ion. Ucen.sed and bonded. Established 1979. ROW is const antly looking for talented interpreters, authors and historians for our "Jolltllt:}'S of D iscove ry~ . Please comact Peter Grubb at [email protected] if you are interested. the Columbia & Snake Rivers
Cruise in the wake of Lewis and Clark. Of all the rivers of the West, the historic Columbia and Snake Rivers are the mightiest. On our up-close, casual small-ship cruise, you'll explore a gorge deeper than the Grand Canyon. Transit the locks of eight major dams. And follow the route of Lewis and Clark from the Rockies to the Pacific. On board you'll enjoy complete comfort, delicious cuisine, and congenial company. In port enjoy a wide range of included shore excursions. Seven-night cruises from Portland, Oregon depart March-Apri I and September-October. Adventure awaits. Call today. For brochures 800-888-93 78 (;,\i.' ri.,l ...... , -~· ' Q CruiseWest www.cruisewest.com
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