The seventh volume of this new, definitive edition of Lewis and Clark's journals begins as the expedition turns homeward. On March 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery left Fort Clatsop, their winter quarters on the Pacific Coast, for the long return journey to the United States. Although they were largely retracing their outbound route, their journals were still filled with descriptions of the country and its people, and new discoveries were yet to be made. They departed from the Columbia River at one point to take an overland shortcut between the Walla Walla and Snake rivers and reached the latter a little below the mouth of the Clearwater. Detained by winter snows at the edge of the Rockies, the Corps camped among the friendly Nez Perce Indians. Here, in modern west-central Idaho, the captains attended to sick Indians and continued their scientific studies while others in the party passed the time hunting and socializing. By June 9 the captains decided to resume their move eastward. According to the Nez Perces, the snow would not be gone from the mountains along the Lolo Trail until early July, but the party, looking homeward, left the Clearwater valley for the flats above the river.
Incorporating substantial new scholarship concerning all aspects of the expedition from Indian languages to plants and animals to details of geography and history, this edition greatly expands and updates the annotation of the last one, published in 1904–5.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: March 23-June 9, 1806 (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

Lewis, Meriwether

Clark, William

American Philosophical Society

University of Nebraska--Lincoln Center for Great Plains Studies

Biographies & Memoirs

University Of Nebraska Press

Volume 8 of this prize-winning new edition continues the return of the expeditionary party, from their base at Camp Chopunnish on the Clearwater River in present Idaho back to St. Louis. At the outset, they are hindered by deep snow; but after returning to obtain help from Nez Perce guides they make rapid progress, so much so that at their Travelers’ Rest Camp near the site of today’s Missoula, Montana, the captains divide the party for separate explorations. Lewis heads east to the Missouri River, then north along the Marias to examine the northern extent of the Louisiana Purchase; Clark goes southeast toward the Yellowstone to explore that river and to make contact with local Indians. Lewis’s party suffers various forms of ill luck—grizzlies, horse thieves, and a violent encounter with a party of Piegan Blackfeet (the only trouble of this kind on the expedition)—and Lewis is wounded by one of his own men in a hunting accident.
Clark’s group has its own troubles, although not as severe as those of Lewis and his men. The two parties eventually reunite on August 12 in present North Dakota and continue downriver. They revisit Indian tribes—Mandans, Hidatsas, Arikaras, and Yankton Sioux—they had met on the way out, and encounter traders and trappers going upriver. They arrive back in St. Louis to a triumphal welcome on September 23.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, June 10-September 26, 1806/a Project of the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lin (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

Widely heralded as a lasting achievement, the University of Nebraska Press editions of the journals of Lewis and Clark now present volume 9 of the projected thirteen containing the complete record of the expedition. In order that the fullest record possible be kept of the journey, Captains Lewis and Clark required their sergeants to keep journals to guard against loss of the captains’ own accounts. The sergeants’ accounts extend and corroborate the journals of Lewis and Clark and contribute to the full record of the expedition. The bulk of this volume contains the fullest of the enlisted men’s records, the journal of John Ordway. As senior sergeant, Ordway was in command when the captains were absent from the main body of the expedition. He was also the sole member of the party never to miss a day in his journal; for several portions of the crossing, his is the only extant account. Ordway’s journal has never before been published with the other records of the venture. Charles Floyd’s journal is tragically short, ending with his death near present-day Sioux City, Iowa, on 20 August 1804. Floyd was the only member of the party to die en route, and his journal—adding several details absent from the captains’ records—indicates that the record of the journey is poorer for his loss.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: The Journals of John Ordway, May 14, 1804-September 23, 1806, and Charles Floyd, May 14-August 18, 1804 (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

Since the time of Columbus, explorers dreamed of a water passage across the North American continent. President Thomas Jefferson shared this dream. He conceived the Corps of Discovery to travel up the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains and westward along possible river routes to the Pacific Ocean. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led this expedition of 1804–6. Along the way they filled hundreds of notebook pages with observations of the geography, Indian tribes, and natural history of the trans-Mississippi West. This complete set of the celebrated Nebraska edition incorporates the journals along with a wide range of new scholarship dealing with all aspects of the expedition, including geography, Indian languages, plants, and animals, in order to recreate the expedition within its historical context.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: Comprehensive Index (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

Travel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by University of Nebraska--Lincoln Center for Great Plains Studies. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by University of Nebraska--Lincoln Center for Great Plains Studies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by University of Nebraska--Lincoln Center for Great Plains Studies. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: March 23-June 9, 1806 (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, June 10-September 26, 1806/a Project of the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lin (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: The Journals of John Ordway, May 14, 1804-September 23, 1806, and Charles Floyd, May 14-August 18, 1804 (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: Comprehensive Index (JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION)