Lewis and Clark Timeline

Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood), Illinois, on May 14, 1804 at 4 pm, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Louis, and began the voyage up the Missouri River.

After the expedition set off in May, the Spanish sent four armed expeditions of 52 soldiers, mercenaries, and Native Americans on August 1, 1804, from Santa Fe, New Mexico, northward under Pedro Vial and José Jarvet to intercept Lewis and Clark and imprison the entire expedition.

Image source: Pedro Vial

On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He was the only member of the expedition to die during the journey.

Image source: Charles Floyd (explorer)

There was a tense confrontation on September 25, 1804, with the Teton-Sioux tribe (also known as the Lakota people) under chiefs that included Black Buffalo and the Partisan.

Image source: Lakota people

The party learned that Captain Samuel Hill had been there in early 1805. Captain Hill returned in November 1805, anchoring about 10 miles (16 km) from Fort Clatsop.

Image source: Fort Clatsop

The expedition crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas near the Lemhi Pass, eventually coming to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean in 1805.

Image source: Lemhi Pass

On February 11, 1805, a few weeks after her first contact with the expedition, Sacagawea went into labor which was slow and painful, so Charbonneau suggested she be given a potion of rattlesnake's rattle to aid in her delivery.

Image source: Sacagawea

Just before departing on April 7, 1805, the expedition sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with specimens and reports, while the rest of the corps continued westward in pirogues and canoes.

When the expedition reached the Marias River on June 16, 1805, Sacagawea became dangerously ill, and Lewis cared for her during her recovery.

The expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805, arriving two weeks later, using William Robert Broughton's 1792 notes and maps to orient themselves on the lower Columbia River.

On November 24, 1805, the majority of the party voted to move their camp to the south side of the Columbia River near modern Astoria, Oregon, where they built Fort Clatsop for the winter.

By March 22, 1806, the stormy weather had subsided, and the following morning, on March 23, the journey home began as the expedition departed Fort Clatsop, Oregon.

The return voyage ended six months after departing Fort Clatsop, when the expedition arrived back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806, completing its journey across the continent.

In 1807, Patrick Gass, a private in the U.S. Army who served on the expedition, published an account of the journey, one of the earliest published records of the expedition.

Image source: Patrick Gass

Clark persuaded Nicholas Biddle to edit the journals, which were then published in 1814 in Philadelphia as the History of the Expedition Under the Commands of Captains Lewis and Clark, edited by Paul Allen but without mention of Biddle as the actual author.

Image source: Nicholas Biddle

During the 19th century, references to Lewis and Clark scarcely appeared in history books, even during the United States Centennial in 1876, and the expedition was largely forgotten.

It wasn't until 1904–1905, through the publication of Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Reuben Gold Thwaites, that the general public became aware of the full extent of the scientific discoveries made by the expedition.

Image source: Reuben Gold Thwaites

Both the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, showcased them as American pioneers, helping renew public interest around the beginning of the 20th century.

Image source: Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition

In the 1970s, the federal government memorialized the winter assembly encampment, Camp Dubois, as the start of the Lewis and Clark voyage of discovery; in 2019 it also recognized Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the start of the expedition.

Image source: Camp Dubois

In 2004, the American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Lewis & Clark' (selling name Prairie Expedition) was released by North Dakota State University Research Foundation in commemoration of the expedition's bicentenary; the tree has resistance to Dutch elm disease.

Image source: Ulmus americana 'Lewis & Clark'

In 2004, a complete and reliable set of the expedition's journals was compiled by Gary E. Moulton, providing scholars and the public with definitive access to the explorers' writings.

Image source: Lewis and Clark Expedition

Circa 2004, the bicentennial of the expedition further elevated popular interest in Lewis and Clark. By 1984, no US exploration party was more famous, and no American expedition leaders are more recognizable by name.