On this day in Lewis & Clark history...
The Expedition concludes its northern trek up the Bitterroot valley at Lolo Creek in present Montana. The Captains name the camp Travelers' Rest. Their Indian guide tells them of a 4-day long trail that leads to the Great Falls from here.
From the journals...
Monday September 9th 1805
Set out at 7 A M. this morning and proceeded down the Flathead river leaving it on our left, the country in the valley of this river is generally a prarie and from five to 6 miles wide
Bitterroot Valley sunrise
Monday 9th Sept. 1805.
we camped on the bank of a creek which runs in to the Small River
Monday September 9th 1805
we called this Creek Travellers rest.
Travelers' Rest
Monday September 9th 1805
just as we were seting out Drewyer arrived with two deer.
Deer
Monday September 9th 1805
near the wartercourses we find a small proportion of the narrow leafed cottonwood some redwood honeysuckle and rosebushes form the scant proportion of underbrush to be seen.
Honeysuckle, Lonicera sp.
Monday September 9th 1805
it is hear a handsome stream about 100 yards wide and affords a considerable quantity of very clear water, the banks are low and it's bed entirely gravel. the stream appears navigable, but from the circumstance of their being no sammon in it I believe that there must be a considerable fall in it below.
Bitterroot River
Monday September 9th 1805
we called this Creek Travellers rest. it is about 20 yards wide a fine bould clear runing stream
Lolo Creek at Travelers' Rest
Monday September 9th 1805
the land through which we passed is but indifferent a could white gravley soil.
Bitterroot Valley soil
Monday 9th Sept. 1805.
we find wild or choke cherries along the branches.
Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana
Monday September 9th 1805
two of our hunters have arrived, one of them brought with him a redheaded woodpecker of the large kind common to the U States. this is the first of the kind I have seen since I left the Illinois.
Pileated woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus
