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Historical Background

Crossing the treeless Plains

Beyond Fort Mandan the rolling, treeless plains of present North Dakota unfolded endlessly. The nights remained frosty, water still froze readily, and sometimes snow fell. Game continued to be abundant. Deer, elk, buffalo, and antelope were visible in all directions, and hunters took some fine-looking beaver. Three unnamed French trappers, on their way to the Yellowstone River from the Mandan villages, were encountered on April 10 and they accompanied the expedition for 3 days. Had its members known that these white men were the last they would see for 16 months, the farewell might have been more poignant.

On April 15, only 8 days out of Fort Mandan, the farthest point upstream on the Missouri known by Lewis and Clark to have been reached by white men was passed. They were Lepage, now a member of the expedition, and another Frenchman, but the former was unable to indicate the exact spot. It was apparently a few miles above the creek across from the camp on the previous night that Lewis and Clark had named for Charbonneau, who had earlier camped at its mouth.

Only fragments have survived of the herds of buffalo that Lewis and Clark viewed—sometimes an estimated 10,000 in one sweep of the eye. (Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.-Mont.-Idaho.)

Signs of grizzlies

On the 14th, an exciting event occurred. Clark saw the first "white bear"—the huge, dreaded grizzly—in the distance passing over some hills. Talk and speculation about these creatures had been rampant. The Mandans, Minitaris, and traders at the Mandan villages had told many tales about the animals, which it was claimed feared neither man nor beast, and on meeting a human would more likely attack than flee.

The Indians called the species "white bear," though their hair varied in color from yellow-brown to white tipped. They were dreaded so much that they were never hunted except in parties of eight to 10, and even then one or more men were often lost. According to Lewis, before the natives set out in quest of a grizzly, they painted themselves and performed "all those supersticious rights commonly observed when they are about to make war uppon a neighboring nation."

Yet Lewis and Clark, confident their new Harpers Ferry rifles would take care of any animal they met, discounted the stories of the strength and ferocity of the grizzlies as grossly exaggerated. Almost daily their paw tracks were seen along the river's edge around the carcasses of buffalo, on which they had been feeding. Sometimes the bears themselves were visible in the distance. But, before the first direct encounter occurred, concern about wildlife turned to geographic amazement.

At the mouth of the Yellowstone

Sensing from the topography that the Yellowstone was near, at 11:00 a.m. on April 25 Lewis took four men and pushed ahead. [93] Within a matter of a few hours, they reached the river and set up camp. In the morning, Lewis sent Joseph Field on a day's excursion up the Yellowstone, while he and another man probed the region at the juncture of the two rivers. It was beautiful and teemed with all kinds of wildlife. At noon the main party arrived. That day, the first bighorn, or Rocky Mountain, sheep was seen—a species that was to be observed in large numbers all the way to the mouth of the Marias. [94] In the evening, happy to have reached this key spot and unmindful of tribulations to come, the group enjoyed a liquor ration and sang and danced to Cruzatte's fiddle.

Lewis and Clark designated the river the "Roche Jaune" (Yellow Rock or Yellow Stone), the name applied by French trappers in a literal translation of a Minitari word apparently describing the grayish-yellow rocks lining its banks. At least three French-Canadian traders had undoubtedly reached there before Lewis and Clark, but the latter were the first to provide firsthand documentary evidence. [95] Even before they arrived at the Yellowstone, back at Fort Mandan when the Mandans and Minitaris had told them about it, they had recognized its strategic importance and at that time recommended its mouth as a site for the establishment of a trading post. [96]

Close calls with grizzlies, or "white bears," were numerous. At first, the explorers tended to discount Indian fear of this "king of beasts," but soon learned to treat them with the utmost respect. A few other Englishmen and Frenchmen had seen them before Lewis and Clark, but the two captains were the first to provide scientific descriptions. (Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.-Mont.-Idaho.)

Skirmishes with grizzlies

On April 29, the day after the expedition moved upriver from the Yellowstone, the first grizzly was killed. Lewis and a companion wounded two of them. One escaped, and the other was taken. It was a young male, weighing only about 300 pounds. Clark and Drouillard killed the first full-size beast, a 500-600 pound male, on May 5, but had to expend 10 bullets to do so. Five days later, in present Dawson County, Mont., the men saw their first moose. [97]

May 14 was almost a Black Tuesday. Either of two episodes could have resulted in calamity. First, a huge grizzly almost made "mince meat" of six men who went out to kill him after he was discovered lying on open ground along the river. They crept up unnoticed within 120 feet of him and concealed themselves behind a mound of earth. Four took careful aim and shot, two holding fire. All the shots hit their mark, two of them passing through the lungs. Oblivious to his wounds, the bear leaped to his feet and charged the group. The two men with loaded weapons shot and hit him, one bullet breaking his shoulder, but on he came. Everyone ran for his life.

The bear nearly overtook them before they reached the river. Two of the men jumped into a canoe, and the other four separated and hid in the willows. Reloading as fast as they could, they refired. But the bear nearly caught two of them before they threw away their guns in panic and dove off the 20-foot-high bank into the river. As the beast leaped into the river close on the heels of the second man, another on the bank fatally drilled the animal through the head. Examination showed he had eight bullets in him.