What The Corps Found
As spring came to the prairie, Lewis and Clark left Fort Mandan and once again took to the river. After a long winter among the Mandan, the 33 men of the Corps of Discovery, accompanied by the French trader Charbonneau, his wife Sakakawea and their infant son, loaded their supplies into two pirogues and six canoes and began the long journey into territory uncharted by any white man.
Resuming the journey
The winter spent among the Mandan gave Lewis and Clark an opportunity to learn about the tribes they would encounter on their journey to the Pacific and gave them much valuable information about the river ahead of them. Although the information they gained was somewhat sketchy in detail, they were able to prepare for the journey and the conditions ahead.After five months among the Mandan, the Corps of Discovery set their sights westward and took to the river again.
"We were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand
miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trod. The good
or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and
these little vessels contained every article by which we were to expect
to subsist or defend ourselves…I could but esteem this moment of my
departure as among the most happy of my life. The party are in excellent
health and spirits, zealously attached to the enterprise, and anxious to
proceed. Not a whisper or murmur of discontent to be heard among them, but
all act in unison and with the most perfect harmony."
- Captain Lewis, Fort Mandan, 7 April 1805
Grizzly bear sightings
One of the tasks with which President Jefferson charged the Corps of Discovery was to catalog new plants and animals encountered on the journey. Lewis especially proved adept at the task. The expedition recorded hundreds of plants and animal specials that were new to science.The stretch of river they entered in the spring of 1805 was home to immense herds of buffalo, antelope (which Lewis called goats), elk, and deer. But north of the Knife River Villages was an animal that provided a first dramatic encounter to a new species. On the 27th of April, Lewis and a companion shot at and wounded two unusual bears. This first encounter with a grizzly bear must have been a hair raising event, although Lewis' journal entry is pretty matter-of-fact.
"One of them [grizzly bears] made his escape; the other, after
my firing on him, pursued me 70 or 80 yards but fortunately had been so
badly wounded that he was unable to pursue so closely as the prevent my
charging my gun. We again repeated our fire and killed him."
- Captain Lewis, 27 April 1805
Not long afterwards, Clark encountered an even bigger specimen which took 10 rifle shots, 5 of them through the lungs. Even so wounded, the bear swam halfway across the river to a sandbar before succumbing to his wounds.Fortunately, grizzly bears no longer roam in North Dakota.
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation lies along the shores of Lake Sakakawea and is home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes.
What The Corps Found