The Lewis & Clark Expedition Across Missouri

The Lewis and Clark Expedition Across Missouri. . , "... Set out this morning verry early passed Some bad placies in the river Saw a number of Goslings... pass[ed] near a Bank which was falling in...passed the two River of Charletons [Charitons] ...above Some high land which has a great quantity of Stone Calculated for whetstons... Capt. Lewis Killed a large Buck, passed a large Isd. Called Shecco and Camped in a Prairie on the L[arboard or left] S[ide]..." , , William Clark, June 10, 1804 , On June 10, 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed the site of present-day Glasgow. The party was 225 miles from the mouth of the Missouri and they were fighting swift currents and floating debris from the rain that had been falling for the last two days. At one point the expedition passed a part of the river where the banks were falling in taking large cottonwood trees with them. But the crew was now growing more accustomed to dealing with the treacherous river. Following one particularly perilous encounter on June 9, near today's Richland Creek, Capt. William Clark wrote in his journal: "I can Say with Confidence that our party is not inferior to any that was ever on the waters of the Missoppie." , Above the future site of Glasgow, the expedition encountered the two "Charletons" (Chariton Rivers). Clark knew that the Big Chariton River could be navigated by pirogues for a great distance and that the river's headwaters were near those of the Des Moines River on which the Iowa Indians lived. As this was a major confluence, the expedition halted for an hour and a half while Capt. Meriwether Lewis made several observations with his scientific instruments. , Not far above this confluence, the expedition halted at an island and waited for the hunters on shore to arrive. While there, the men were plagued by swarms of mosquitoes. When the hunters arrived, the flotilla moved upstream against a swift current. They passed a large island Clark called "Sheeco" or "Shecco" (his phonetic rendering of the French word chicot meaning stump), and then pulled ashore at a prairie on the larboard (south) side and set up camp. The exhausting struggle against the swift currents of the Missouri, the constant rain, and the torments of insects did not dampen the morale of the Corps of Discovery. Clark concluded his journal entry for June 10 by stating, "the evening is Cloudy, our party in high Spirits.", The Lewis and Clark Expedition Encounters the Prairies , By the time the expedition passed present-day Glasgow, it was leaving behind the familiar flora and fauna of the eastern woodlands and entering a region of extensive prairies. The June 10 campsite was on the margin of a prairie that was vividly described by William Clark. Clark walked out three miles and "found the prarie composed of good Land and plenty of water roleing and interspursed with points of timbered land, Those Praries are not (open) like those, or a number of those E. of the Mississippi Void of every thing except grass, they abound with Hasel Grapes and a wild plumb of a Superior quallity, called the Osages Plumb Grows on a bush the hight of a Hasel (and is three times the sise of other Plumbs) and hang in great quantities on the bushes I Saw great numbers of Deer in the Praries." Judging from their descriptions, the expedition members must have thought they entering an Edenic "garden" as they moved westward. More and more frequently Clark and the other journal keepers of the expedition wrote of the beauty and bounty of the prairies they were encountering.