On this day in Lewis & Clark history...
Several Expedition men portage the first dugout canoe across the plains south of the Great Falls of the Missouri. After a long, tiring day, the cart breaks just before reaching Upper Portage Camp.
From the journals...
June 22nd Satturday 1805
a fine morning, Capt Lewis my Self and all the party except a Sergeant Ordway Guterich and the Interpreter and his wife Sar car gah we â (who are left at Camp to take Care of the baggage left) across the portage with one Canoe on truck wheels
Lower Portage Camp morning
Saturday June 22cd 1805.
after dark we had reached within half a mile of our intended camp when the tongues gave way and we were obliged to leave the canoe, each man took as much of the baggage as he could carry on his back and proceeded to the river where we formed our encampment much fortiegued. the prickly pears were extreemly troublesome to us sticking our feet through our mockersons.
Plains prickly pear, Opuntia macrorhiza
Saturday June 22cd 1805.
there is a kind of larke here that much resembles the bird called the oldfield lark with a yellow brest and a black spot on the croop; tho' this differs from ours in the form of the tail which is pointed being formed of feathers of unequal length;
Western meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta
