White Squaw Currant

June 18, 1805

Today at the magnificent Great Falls we discovered a new shrub and named it the White Squaw Currant.  The plant has small fan shaped leaves that are accompanied by small white trumpet shaped flowers.  It has red berries which I am not sure are edible.  I noticed that it had a musky odor when I crushed it between my hands.  From my measurements it appeared to be approximately 5 feet tall.

Hail!

June 23, 1805

I hate hail!  I hate it!  Its terrible.  Little tiny ice pellets falling from the sky every wear you go, there's no escaping it. It like there's a bunch of people up in the sky dumbing musket balls on you 24/7.  I cant sleep, I cant work, I cant function.  The hail has slowed our progress down tremendously and I hope these constant storms will not endanger the expedition.

Tansy

June 6, 1805

The tansy is a unique plant, not the typical daisy you would find in a meadow.  We came upon it along the Teton River.  It is ugly nor beautiful but different in its very own way.  The plant has a very thin and long stem with leaves 4-8 inches long.  The stem leads up to a cluster of yellow button shape flowers that almost make a small dome over they pant.  It grows up to 2-3 feet in length.  

Fragile Prickly Pear

May 20, 1805

This plant has been giving the crew pain on a stem.  We get back to camp and pull the thorns out of our worn moccasins.  The plant grows in a large low-lying clump of spiny jointed stems that are impossible to avoid when walking through the prairie.  The plant is deadly but beautiful with flowers that vary from light pink to orange.  From my measurements the plant is approximately 8-10 inches tall and 1-3 feet wide.

Grizzzzzzzlies

April 29, 1805

I rarely describe any animal because it is not what I set out to do, but I am compelled to write about the Grizzly Bear.  It is one of the most interesting creatures I have encountered on this journey.  I have only heard the Grizzly described as a ferocious man-eater.  That is as tall as a tree and wide as the river itself, but I was very wrong.  The crew killed its first bear just bellow Big Muddy Creek or Martha's River.  It had dark brown white tipped fur that glistened in the sunlight.   It had massive paws that were about 4 inches in length.  It appeared to slouch over with its head low before we killed it, but it was about 4 feet tall when measured.  From head to tail the bear was about 6 feet long.  From observing a mother with her cubs, from a safe distance, I could tell that they were caring family to there own kin, but very protective when around another bear. 

Purple Coneflower

April 7, 1805

I found a new flower today while I was exploring around the fort.  I named it the Purple Coneflower.  It has a tall 18-24 inch harry stem that leads up to a dark bristley copper shaded cone shape center.  Protruding from the center are long soft pinkish/purplish peddles which droop down.  The plant has long and pointy leaves covered with stiff hairs that feel rough to he touch.

New Members

February 12, 1805

We have acquired a new boatman, a frenchman named Toussaint Charbonneau.  From my first encounter with him I can already tell he is going to have trouble with the captains.  He is loud, obnoxious, and snores a lot when he sleeps, and from what I've seen he is a terrible boatman.  But it is not him who I am interested in, it is his Indian wife Sacagawea.  We call her Bird Woman.  She has extensive knowledge of the lands ahead, and a certain calmness in her that will be useful in challenging situations.  I was surprised to discover that she was pregnant after she announced it in camp.  Some men doubted that she should come with us on our long journey ahead, I agreed with them at the time.  Bird Women went into labor yesterday.  There was great excitement in camp knowing that a new member was on the way.  It was a long and painstaking birth.  The Captains were hard at work tending for BW.  Finally someone suggested we give her some rattlesnake tail to hasten the birth.  She was fed the concoction and  I was told ten minutes later the baby had arrived.  We named the boy Jean Baptiste Charboneau, but we all call him Pomp.

Trading with the Mandans

January 12, 1805

The Mandan have been very hospitable as we waited out the long winter.  We had a relatively warm stay gathering around the fear huddled in our fur coats that we had obtained from the Mandan.  Trading was a regular part of life in the Corps.  It was sometimes the only way to survive in this harsh winter.  John Shield has been hard at work as the only blacksmith.  He has spent hours working up a sweat in the forge repairing tools, guns, and battle axes.  We finally had to charge the Indians food to get repairs, which worked out nicely.  Captains Lewis is also making a prophet as a doctor caring to the needs of ill Indians.  

R.I.P. Sergeant Floyd

August 21, 1804

Captain Clark and Captain Lewis had been hard at work, caring for Sergeant Floyd's ailments.  It started as a simple stomach pain, but as the journey progressed he worsened.  We did not have proper medicine and Rush's Thunderbolts didn't having an effect.  I fear the worst, and I hope he will fare well.  I was wrong.  Sergeant Floyd died August 20, 1804.  They say he died a violent death.  We buried him on a bluff overlooking the missouri.  He had a formal military burial.  Captain Lewis read from the bible and marked the grave.  He blamed himself for the death.  We voted for a new sergeant and moved on.

Four-Wing Saltbush

September 21, 1804

The Four-Wing Saltbush was on of the most interesting plant we have found today on the Big Bend.  It appeared to grow in many ways; compact and rounded, sprawling and low, or open-branched and treelike.  The plant has greenish purplish leaves that grow in small clusters on the bush.  Its height ranges from 6ft to even 15ft.

Aromatic Aster

September 21, 1804

We found a new flower today at the big bend on the Missouri River.  It has a sweet smell and I was surprised by its design.  The stem of the flower is  about 20 inches.  It has narrow peddles which meet at the canter, a yellow ball of pollen.  I counted around 30 peddles.  The peddles and stem  have small hairs that feel rough at the touch.

Lewis 'n Clark

Captain Lewis and Captain Clark are similar and different in many ways.  They both were muscular and around around six feet tall.  The men are great friends and they complement each other on about everything.  Captain Clark is a better boatman, and Captain Lewis is a better navigator of the two. Captain Clark is a better mapmaker, he is always at the bow of the boat maping the landscape.  Captain Lewis is a better botanist and biologist, he is collecting samples wherever we go.  Captain Clark is comfortable with company and enjoys a good laugh.  Captain Lewis is a man of few words, he only speaks when he needs to.

Our Boats

We are taking two canoe like boats that are called pirogues.  They carry men and supplies.  Our mothership the 55 foot keelboat witch could be towed, pulled from the shore, poled, our sailed.  It carries most of our supplies, making it the most important asset of our trip.  The keelboat is not as versatile as the other two pirogues.  We have already had trouble with sandbars, logs, and even overhanging branches.  It has been a pain getting this boat upriver.  A good day we would make it ten miles up river, but on bad days we may only make a mile.