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N0KFQ > TODAY 13.06.11 22:08l 80 Lines 3815 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 13
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Sent: 110613/2001Z 8860@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Jun 13, 1805:
Meriwether Lewis reaches the Great Falls
Having hurried ahead of the main body of the expedition,
Meriwether Lewis and four men arrive at the Great Falls of the
Missouri River, confirming that the explorers are headed in the
right direction.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had set out on their
expedition to the Pacific the previous year. They spent the
winter of 1804 with the Mandan Indians in present-day North
Dakota. The Hidatsa Indians, who lived nearby, had traveled far
to the West, and they proved an important source of information
for Lewis and Clark. The Hidatsa told Lewis and Clark they would
come to a large impassable waterfall in the Missouri when they
neared the Rocky Mountains, but they assured the captains that
portage around the falls was less than half a mile.
Armed with this valuable information, Lewis and Clark resumed
their journey up the Missouri accompanied by a party of 33 in
April. The expedition made good time, and by early June, the
explorers were nearing the Rocky Mountains. On June 3, however,
they came to a fork at which two equally large rivers converged.
"Which of these rivers was the Missouri?" Lewis asked in his
journal. Since the river coming in from the north most resembled
the Missouri in its muddy turbulence, most of the men believed it
must be the Missouri. Lewis, however, reasoned that the water
from the Missouri would have traveled only a short distance from
the mountains and, therefore, would be clear and fast-running
like the south fork.
The decision was critical. If the explorers chose the wrong
river, they would not be able to find the Shoshone Indians from
whom they planned to obtain horses for the portage over the
Rockies. Although all of their men disagreed, Lewis and Clark
concluded they should proceed up the south fork. To err on the
side of caution, however, the captains decided that Lewis and a
party of four would speed ahead on foot. If Lewis did not soon
encounter the big waterfall the Hidatsa had told them of, the
party would return and the expedition would backtrack to the
other river.
On this day in 1805, four days after forging ahead of the main
body of the expedition, Lewis was overjoyed to hear "the
agreeable sound of a fall of water." Soon after he "saw the spray
arise above the plain like a column of smoke.... [It] began to
make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short
of the great falls of the Missouri." By noon, Lewis had reached
the falls, where he stared in awe at "a sublimely grand specticle
[sic]... the grandest sight I had ever held."
Lewis and Clark had been correct_the south fork was the Missouri
River. The mysterious northern fork was actually the Marias
River. Had the explorers folloowed the Marias, they would have
traveled up into the northern Rockies where a convenient pass led
across the mountains into the Columbia River drainage. However,
Lewis and Clark would not have found the Shoshone Indians nor
obtained the horses. Without horses, the crossing might well have
failed.
Three days after finding the falls, Lewis rejoined Clark and told
him the good news. However, the captains' elation did not last
long. They soon discovered that the portage around the Great
Falls was not the easy half-mile jaunt reported by the Hidatsa,
but rather a punishing 18-mile trek over rough terrain covered
with spiky cactus. The Great Portage, as it was later called,
would take the men nearly a month to complete. By mid-July,
however, the expedition was again moving ahead. A month later,
Lewis and Clark found the Shoshone Indians, who handed over the
horses that were so critical to the subsequent success of their
mission.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@centurytel.net
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