The Lewis and Clark Expedition Begins…
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Braddock’s Grave: The Lewis British General Braddock was and Clark mortally wounded during a battle in the Expedition French and Indian Begins… War and was buried on the trace named for him. The Lewis and Clark expedition GPS: 39°49’55” - 79°36’2” was planned and prepared in the Friendship east. Although Meriwether Lewis Hill: It was the travelled the Ohio River from its beginning in home of Pittsburgh, Pa. to its mouth in Cairo, Ill., it was not Secretary of the the waterway it is today. Shallow stretches and Treasury, riffles often divided a sparsely settled landscape. Albert Gallatin. There are many sites along the This Swiss river and beyond travelled by immigrant was responsible for developing financial support for the explorers that we can the Lewis and Clark expedition. actually see and visit today. GPS: 39°46’32” - 79°55’51” The following are among the best. Elizabeth, Pennsylvania: Located on the Monongahela River, the Walker Boat Yard constructed boats, and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: many historians believe that the keelboat and perhaps Meriwether Lewis arrived in Harpers Ferry (Virginia) other smaller vessels were built here for the journey. March 16th 1803 to secure supplies vital to the expedition’s survival, such as rifles and extra rifle parts. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Lewis began recording He also oversaw the construction of the iron frame boat. th Lewis left April 18th but returned July 7th to gather his August 30 1803 in his supplies. He departed for Pittsburgh, Pa., journal at this point of his the following day. departure to the West. GPS: 39°19.007 N - 77°45.381 W “Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 ock with a party of 11 Lower Armory Grounds: See a replica hands 7 of which are of the iron frame boat where it was soldiers, a pilot and three produced for Meriwether Lewis. The unusual design young men on trial they was developed for the explorers to use in the unknown having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage.” west with the uncertain river conditions. Brunot Island: Located just 3 miles below Pittsburgh, Meriwether Lewis Exhibit: Located in Lewis stopped to show his air gun to “some of the the Lower Town, it explores how the Harpers Ferry gentlemen present.” He fired it successfully 7 times Armory supplied the expedition for success and survival. “with pretty good success” when he allowed “Mr. Blaze Cenas being unacquainted with the management of the Ft. Necessity National Battlefield: gun to suffered her to discharge herself accedentaly the Braddock’s Trace ball passed through the hat of a woman about 40 yards was a major road in distanc cutting her temple …” With blood gushing from 1803 for Lewis to use her temple, they thought she was dead but learned the to travel to Pittsburgh wound was neither fatal nor dangerous. and to transport goods to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). It Legionville: (located at Baden, Pennsylvania) William was a road during a significant period of Clark reportedly received his military training at this our history and dates back to the French and location established by Anthony Wayne. Indian War. GPS: 39°48’46” - 79°35’23” 40°37’30”N - 80°13’34”W Logstown: (near Ambridge, Pa.) At this village of Shawnee, Delaware, Iroquois, and other Indians Ft. Steuben, established before 1748, Lewis Steubenville, noted in his journal on September Ohio: On 2nd 1803 the rich land here. He had September 6, to engage a horse and an ox for $1 1803, Lewis to pull their boats over the riffles recorded in much to his disdain. his journal that they had reached Steubenville. They GPS: 40°37’22” N - 80°13’46” W managed to hoist the sail and run two miles before the wind became too strong and they were forced to furl the Beaver Creek, Pennsylvania: sails. Striking a riffle, Lewis was “obliged again” to hire Lewis described “the water so a team of oxen to pull them down river where they low and clear that we see a camped about a mile and a half downstream. A USGS great number of Fish of Lewis and Clark geodetic marker at Ft. Steuben different kinds, the Stergeon, commemorates their adventures here. Bass, Cat fish, pike, &c.” in this area. GPS: 40°21’31” N - 80°36’49” W GPS: 40°41’55” N - 80°17’18” W (Beaver River) GPS: 40°41’52” N - 80°17’12” W (Rochester) Wellsburg, West Virginia: On September 7th Lewis described passing “Charles town” (now Wellsburg). He recorded thermometer readings and foggy conditions in Ft. McIntosh, Pennsylvania: his journal as he often did while traveling down the Ohio Lewis anchored off Ft. McIntosh River. He noted a “handsom wooden bridge” and a (built in 1778) where he discharged village “containing about forty houses.” “one of my hands.” The modern town of Beaver, Pa. now stands on Bust of Patrick Gass: the approximate site. After the expedition GPS: 40°41’29” N - 80°18’7” W returned in 1806, expedition member Patrick Gass eventually Georgetown, Pennsylvania: On settled in Wellsburg, September 4th Lewis recorded, wrote a book about the “purchase a canoe compleat with expedition, and lived to two paddles and two poles for the age of 99. which I gave 11$” but found the canoe leaky and unsafe GPS: 40°16’9” N - 80°36’50” W without repairs. About a mile further downstream they camped, repaired canoes, dried out and oiled articles Gravesite of they had brought with them. Patrick GPS: 40°38’40” N - 80°29’55” W Gass: This expedition Point of Beginning, member was Pennsylvania: Lewis buried here in describes in detail this the Brooke location in his journal Cemetery. where “the line which Roads are narrow with sharp curves and divides the States of impassible during winter months. It is located Virginia [now West off Rt. 2, east on 23rd St. Virginia] and GPS: 40°17’15” N - 80°36’19” W Pennsylvania; this line is made visible from the timber having been felled about sixty feet in width, the young timber has spring up but Brooke County Museum: Located at 704 has not yet attained the hight of the other that it can with Charles St., Wellsburg, West Virginia, it ease be traced with the eye a considerable distance— ” contains exhibits about the Lewis and Clark GPS: 40°38’33” N - 80°31’9” W Commemoration here in 2003. Wheeling, West Virginia: Ravenswood, West Virginia: Located at Washington Western Lewis and Clark Lands Park along the Ohio state historical River is a USGS Lewis and marker: It notes Clark marker denoting this site Lewis’ arrival where Lewis and his men September 7th. While passed. Near here, they stopped to dry out their goods as here he “wrote to the rains continued to plague them at this time of year. President, purchased a GPS: 38°56’39” N - 81°45’33” W [red] pirogue and hired a man to work her..” His men “were much Point Pleasant, West Virginia: fatiegued” and he concluded they needed rest, an Riverfront Park: On opportunity to wash their clothes and exchange September 14th Lewis and his men flour for baked bread. Lewis “dined with Colo. camped on the NW shore in this Rodney and his suit” walked down to his boat area. He recorded that he “saw and ate watermelon. He reported, “the people many squirrels this day swimming began to top their corn and collect ther fodder--” the river from N.W. to S.E. Departing on the 9th, Lewis and his men caught several by means of my dog—” encountered a powerful cold rain that came GPS: 38°50’34” N - 82°8’23” W down in torrents. Boats were bailed “frequently during the course of the night…” GPS: 40°3’43” N - 80°43’59” W Tu-Endie-wei State Riverfront Park: Located at 1 Interpretive Panel: Located Main Street over- at the riverfront, the panel looking the river, it is explains Lewis’ visit to the the site of a decisive Wheeling area where he battle led by Chief Cornstalk in 1774. The name received the goods brought of the park is a Wyandotte word meaning “point overland on the Braddock between two waters.” Lewis passed this point in Trace. 1803 where the Kanawha and Ohio rivers meet. GPS: 40.06750517 – 80.72475242 GPS: 38°50’28” N - 82°8’33” W Ft. Randolph: Under the command of Ft. Pitt Grave Creek Indian Mound, Moundsville, West along with Ft. Fincastle (Wheeling), the fort was th Virginia: On September 10 Lewis described “a established in 1776. William Clark’s older remarkable artificial mound of earth called by the people brother, in this neighbourhood the Indian grave.—” Located “on George the east bank of the Ohio 12 miles below Wheeling and Rogers about 700 paces from the river” he described the mound Clark, in detail noting “a regular cone 310 yards in stopped here on his way to Vincennes in 1778. circumpherence at it’s base & 65 feet high terminating in GPS: 38°50’1” N - 82°7’43” W a blont point whose diameter is 30 feet.” He noted “a white oak tree Huntington, West Virginia: This whose girth is 13 river town is where the “river runs ½ feet, from the West” making a turn west along the aged appeance of southern border of the Northwest this tree I think Territory. Ohio to the North had just it’s age might been carved out of that mostly resonably unsettled territory in 1803. A USGS calculated at 300 Lewis and Clark geodetic marker years…” commemorates the passage of the GPS: 39°55’0”N - 80°44’39”W expedition past this point.