Oregon: Follow the Trail.
Captain Clark wrote at Fort Clatsop:
I completed a map of the country through which we have been passing from the Mississippi to this place. [The places] are laid down by celestial observations and survey.
—February 14, 1806
Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery explored places that had never been mapped. They had to make their own maps as they went. Here are some places on the way to Fort Clatsop and the Pacific Ocean that are still known by the names that Lewis and Clark gave them!
The Gates of the Mountains in Montana!
While traveling up river along the Missouri through modern day Montana, the Corps of Discovery came across "the most remarkable cliffs that [they had] yet seen." They estimated that the cliffs rose about 1200 feet above the water. We still call this site by the name Captain Lewis gave it: "the gates of the Rocky Mountains."
Beaverhead Rock, Montana!
It took Lewis and Clark nearly a month to get here from their last stop, but they had made many stops along the way. When the expedition arrived, they desperately needed horses to carry their supplies across the mountains.
Sacagawea saw the hill that her nation, the Shoshone, called "the Beaver's Head" because of its shape. The Shoshone spent summers there, and the expedition members hoped the Shoshones would make trades for horses.
Camp Fortunate!
When Captain Lewis and his scouting party met some Shoshones, the Indians didn't trust the explorers.until Sacagawea arrived and one of the tribe members recognized her right away as her childhood friend. Later, when Sacagawea was asked to interpret between the captains and a Shoshone chief, Sacagawea realized that the chief was her brother! No wonder they named the place "Camp Fortunate," its name even today.
Hat Rock!
It took the Corps of Discovery more than two hard months to make this same trip across the Bitterroot Mountains that you just made! The explorers nearly starved in the mountains, as there were no animals there to hunt for food. But after the Corps crossed, they came to a large rock that was shaped like a hat. Captain Clark gave it its name: Hat Rock. From the top of the rock, Captain Clark saw Mount Adams, Washington's second highest mountain. He was also able to see that their journey was far from over!
Beacon Rock!
As the Corps of Discovery finally neared the Pacific Ocean, they came across a tall, thin rock along the banks of the Columbia River. Captain Clark named it "Beacon Rock" and wrote much about it. We now know that this rock is what's left of an ancient volcano. It was also near this rock where Lewis and Clark began to see how the tides of the ocean, 150 miles away, affected the Columbia River.Fort Clatsop, Oregon!
In the winter of 1805, the Corps of Discovery built a fort near the ocean, but far enough away from it to be safer and more sheltered. It also kept them close to a source of fresh water and trees that could be used for lumber. They named this camp after the friendly Clatsop Indians with whom they traded. Lewis and Clark stayed here from early December of 1805 through late March of 1806, to wait out the bad weather, organize their journals and specimens, and get ready for their journey back East.
This leg of the trail has earned you a Missouri quarter. To learn more about it, click here.
The trail will lead you back east and home. On the way, you'll have more meetings with American Indian tribes.