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THE LEWIS AND CLARK NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL
16 STATES
4,900 MILES
60 TRIBAL NATIONS
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PRODUCED IN 2024
BY THE
LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL ALLIANCE
RICHARD HUNT
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Richard Hunt
Lewis & Clark Trail Alliance
Lewis and Clark Trail Experience
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Even more fun
Embark on a journey like no other along the Lewis and Clark
National Historic Trail! Stretching across over 4,900 miles and 16
states, this iconic route retraces the steps of the legendary
explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Whether you're a
history enthusiast, nature lover, or adventure seeker, the Trail
offers something for everyone.
On the Trail you can walk in the footsteps of history, visit some of
the most stunning and diverse landscapes in the country, enjoy
outdoors in pristine environments that have changed little since
Lewis and Clark’s time, and engage with vibrant communities that
celebrate their heritage with festivals, museums, and cultural
events.
Don't just read about history—live it! Plan your adventure on the
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail today and create memories
that will last a lifetime. Whether it's a weekend getaway or an epic
road trip, the Trail promises an unforgettable experience for all
who dare to explore it.
Trip Inspirations
YELLOWSTONE RIVER
On 3 July 1806, at Travelers’ Rest, the captains divided the Corps into two units. Clark would lead his
men on an exploration of the Yellowstone River. Lewis was to take the others to the Great Falls via the
Road to the Buffalo generally following the Blackfoot River and then, with a detail of three men, explore
more of the Marias River than he had in the spring of 1805. They expected to reunite at the confluence
of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers about 1 August 1806.
Clark and his contingent returned to Fortunate Camp, emptied the cache, raised the six dugout canoes
from their hiding places, and arrived at the Three Forks of the Missouri about noon on 13 July 1806. At
5:00 p.m. Clark, with ten men plus Sacagawea and 15-month-old Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, set his
course overland along the east fork of the Gallatin River. As he started over the mountains at today’s
Bozeman they observed several Indian and buffalo roads heading northeast across the mountains at
the head of the river. However, Clark reported, “The indian woman who has been of great Service to me
as a pilot through this Country recommends a gap in the mountain more South which I shall cross.”
This was one of the few times Sacagawea acted as the guide that legend has made of her, and it was
crucial to Clark’s timely progress down the Yellowstone.
On 15 July 1805, having crossed the mountains separating the Gallatin from the Yellowstone drainages,
the party descended a slope on “a well beaten buffalow road” toward the Yellowstone River. The
Yellowstone flows north out of a mountain-bounded valley between low spurs of the Gallatin and
Absaroka Ranges which Clark described as “rugged and covered with Snows.”
The party struck the river, “wide, bold, rapid and deep,” at the bend in present-day Livingston, Montana.
From where Clark stood, the fertile river basin now called Paradise Valley was hidden from his view, and
the party pressed on downstream.
On 4 September 1805, the Expedition had crossed near modern-day Lost Trail Pass and descended
into an open valley, now called Ross’ Hole, where Clark estimated there to be 400 Salish Indians with
500 horses encamped. The Salish, called “Flathead” by members of the Expedition, gave them a warm
welcome. Ordway wrote, “when our officers went to their lodges they gave them each a white robe of
dressed skins, and spread them over their Shoulders and put their arms around our necks instead of
Shakeing hands as that is their way they appeared glad to See us. they Smoaked with us, then gave
us a pleanty Such as they had to eat . . .” Lewis and Clark spent the next day communicating with
chiefs (complicated by the task of interpreting across several languages), exchanging gifts, bartering
goods, and purchasing horses. Rested and refitted, on the afternoon of 6 September the Corps of
Discovery continued north along the Bitterroot valley.
Ross’ Hole was later named for Alexander Ross, a fur trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company who
camped there on 12 March 1824. The site is currently experienced as a wayside stop along US Highway
93, next to the Sula Country Store. A roadside pull-off is lined by an array of interpretive signage that
details the story of Lewis and Clark’s visit, later exploration and development, and the settlement of
Sula. Despite prominent modern intrusions in the foreground, this vantage point allows expansive views
of Ross’ Hole and conveys the timeless quality of the natural landscape.
ROSS’ HOLE
The Jefferson River Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance (LCTA) brings together supporters
from near and far who are passionate about conservation, recreation, and history on the Jefferson River
segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. We are an inclusive group with diverse interests
in canoeing, kayaking, camping, fishing, walking, birding, and mushrooming along the Jefferson River.
As a chapter of the Montana Region of LCTA, we join a nationwide network of people devoted to telling
the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and preserving and connecting elements of the Trail.
The Jefferson River Canoe Trail is a network of multipurpose backcountry campsites on private and
public lands along the Jefferson River. The public may paddle into these sites for primitive camping
along the river. At each camp there are opportunities for such activities as bird watching, mushrooming,
hiking, and fishing.
The Jefferson is a great river with incredible scenery, abundant wildlife, excellent floating
opportunities, and an essential stake in our nation's history. Most land along the river is in private
hands and development is encroaching everywhere. Yet amazingly, when you get into a canoe and
experience the river from the viewpoint of Lewis and Clark, you discover how much the viewshed
remains intact from the river. Most of the existing development is far enough back from the river that
you only experience the cottonwood ecology along the river against a backdrop of undeveloped
mountains in the distance.
With the addition of strategically chosen backcountry campsites, floaters can take the Lewis and Clark
experience from the water to the land by camping and recreating in remote sites where the landscape
seems nearly unchanged from 200 years ago.
JEFFERSON RIVER CANOE TRAIL
One week and a hundred miles after starting down the Yellowstone River, Clark finally found
cottonwood trees large enough for building canoes, though they would not quite meet previous
standards. “[T]hose trees,” he wrote on 20 July 1806, “appeared tolerably Sound and will make Canoes
of 28 feet in length and about 16 or 18 inches deep and from 16 to 24 inches wide.” The men would
have to lash them together, catamaran-style, for stability.
Clark’s party made camp at today’s Park City, Montana,
and settled in to build the new canoes and attend to
other business. While a few of the men took turns with
the three axes they had along, some of the rest, being
nearly naked, made elk- and deer-skin clothing. Clark
himself tended to Private Gibson, who had punctured a
thigh on a fallen tree when bucked off his horse. Some
of the men hunted, some dried meat, and others looked
after the horses. Between chores they rested up.
That night some Indians, presumably Crows, stole half
the company’s remaining horses and headed downriver
with them. Clark composed a serious lecture,
alternating diplomacy with diatribe, to deliver if and when he caught up with the culprits’ chief. On 24
July 1806 Clark and company packed up and took to the river, reaching the Missouri early on 3 August
1806. They never came face-to-face with a single Crow Indian.
DUGOUTS
Tom Elpel
It is true that there were several times when Sacagawea told the captains they were in territory she was
familiar with. On 6 July 1806, after following directions a Salish Indian informant had given them the
previous September concerning the best road back to the forks of the river they called Jefferson’s,
Clark led his party from the headwaters of the Bitterroot River across the divide now called Gibbons
Pass. Descending the east slope of the pass he found himself in “an extensive open Leavel plain in
which the Indian trail Scattered in Such a manner that we Could not pursue it.” The Lemhi Shoshone
woman promptly informed him that “she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well,” that the
creek they were following was a branch of the Big Hole River, and that “when we assended the higher
part of the plain we would discover a gap in the mountains in our direction to the Canoes.” Moreover,
she told Clark, “when we arrived at that gap we would See a high point of a mountain covered with snow
in our direction to the canoes.”
That would be Big Hole Pass, at the upper end of the Big Hole Valley, which, Clark later told Nicholas
Biddle, was “the great plain where Shoshones gather quawmash [camas] & cows [cous] &c. our woman
had done so.”
The next morning Clark dispatched a six-man search team to look for the nine horses—the best mounts
they had—that had gone missing. He suspected they might have been “stolen by Some Skulking
Shoshones.” Meanwhile, the rest of his contingent pushed on, stopping for lunch at a “Boiling Spring”
where the water, he said, “actually blubbers with heat for 20 paces below where it rises.” At day’s end
his journal entry was tinged with regret: “I now take my leave of this butifull extensive vally which I call
the hot spring Vally.” He was gathering memories—of the hot spring, “a little sulferish”; of pungent
“hysoop” or big sagebrush; of the carrot-like lomatium root. That “remarkable Cold night” they camped
near Willards Creek.
BIG HOLE
After the Lewis and Clark Expedition Centennial observances in St. Louis and Portland in 1904 and
1905, the next formal commemoration of Sacagawea’s role in the Expedition was a historical pageant
presented in 1915 at the place where it was believed the explorers stepped out of their canoes, the
place they dubbed “Fortunate Camp.” The pageant was written by Mrs. Laura Tolman Scott and
sponsored by Montana Daughters of the American Revolution.
The monument shown here was erected in 1937 near the presumed site of Fortunate Camp. It was
moved to higher ground in 1962 when construction of Clark Canyon Dam began. The text on the bronze
plaque recalls the legend, which had emerged at the turn of the century, that Sacagawea’s principal role
was to guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the West.
The plaque reads:
This site was the pivotal point in the success of the
journey of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The
party camped here in August 1805. They cached
their boats and aided by influences of Sacajawea
obtained horses from her people the Shoshone
Indians.
The Great American Epic of Lewis and Clark stands
without parallel in the history of the opening of the
west and the successful accomplishment was
largely due to the guidance and loyalty of the Indian
girl Sacajawea.
CAMP FORTUNATE
1. Drinking Horse Mountain Trail Miles: 2.2 Elevation Change: 583 feet
Drive Time From Downtown: 10 minutes
This trail is located across from the popular M Trail and is one of Bozeman’s newer trails, popular
with local hikers and runners.
2. M Trail Miles: 1.7 - 2.4 Elevation Change: 800 feet
Drive Time From Downtown: 10 minutes
Perhaps the most iconic Bozeman hike, the M Trail is easily accessible just 4.9 miles from
downtown. The short 1.7-mile loop gains 770 feet as it climbs to a large, white "M" sketched into
the hillside.
3. Baldy Peak Summit Miles: 9.6 Elevation Change: 4,225
Drive Time From Downtown: 10 minutes
For those seeking a challenging all-day adventure, Baldy Peak Summit is well worth the climb. The
9.6-mile, out-and-back trail gains an impressive 4,225 feet as it follows the backbone of the Bridger
Mountains, offering breathtaking views along the way.
4. Sypes Canyon Trail Miles: 6 Elevation Change: 1,620 Feet
Drive Time From Downtown: 13 minutes
The Sypes Canyon Trail is a fairly quick afternoon hike if you're looking to get your heart rate up.
Located on the north end of town, access to the trailhead takes you through the Springhill
neighborhood to the base of the Bridger Mountains.
5. Bear Canyon Trail Miles: 8.1 Elevation Change: 1,463 feet
Drive Time From Downtown: 18 Minutes
Just 17 miles from downtown Bozeman, the Bear Canyon Trail covers 8.1 miles through a stream-
fed canyon south of town. The out-and-back trail winds along a flowing creek and, after the
turnaround, climbs to the Bear Lakes and then ties into the Chestnut Mountain Trail.
FIVE BEST HIKES IN BOZEMAN, MONTANA
YELLOWSTONE GATEWAY MUSEUM
At 5:00 pm Clark, with nine men, plus Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and 15-month-old Jean
Baptiste, set a course overland along the east fork of the Gallatin River. On 15 July 1806, they crossed
the mountains separating the Gallatin from the Yellowstone drainages and descended a slope on “a well
beaten buffalow road” toward the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone flows north out of a mountain-
bounded valley between low spurs of the Gallatin and Absaroka Ranges which Clark described as
“rugged and covered with Snows.” The party struck the river, “wide, bold, rapid and deep,” at the bend at
about the center of the accompanying photo, in present-day Livingston, Montana. From where Clark
stood, the fertile river basin now called Paradise Valley was hidden from his view, and the party pressed
on downstream.
Today, the Yellowstone Gateway Museum commemorates not only the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but
also the local history, wildlife, and geology. It was founded in 1977 by collaboration between Park
County and a group of citizens. Together, they purchased the North Side School, itself a historic
landmark built in 1906, as the home of the
museum. The museum houses an enormous
collection of artifacts, some of which are
more than 12,000 years old! Permanent
exhibits explore the relationship between
regional history and the establishment of
Yellowstone, America’s first national park, on
1 March 1872. The Expedition room details
the geology of the region and includes an
interactive station where visitors can dress
up in the traditional garb of the Corps
of Discovery.
On 3 July 1806, at Travelers’ Rest, the captains
divided the Corps of Discovery into two units.
Clark would lead his men on an exploration of the
Yellowstone River. Lewis was to take the others to
the Great Falls via the Blackfoot River and then,
with a detail of three men, explore more of the
Marias River.
Clark and his contingent returned to Fortunate
Camp, emptied the cache, raised the six dugout
canoes from their hiding places, and arrived at the
Three Forks of the Missouri around noon on
13 July 1806.
Pictograph Cave State Park near Billings is a place to contemplate the origins of human habitation in
Montana. The Pictograph Cave site was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964 because
of its archeological significance. Today's visitors can enjoy a unique opportunity to explore the mystery
of this extraordinary site and tour the new visitor center.
Prehistoric hunters who camped in Pictograph Cave left behind artifacts and more than 100
pictographs or rock paintings. The oldest rock art in the cave is over 2,000 years old.
Their interpretation is still subject to debate. The images of animals, warriors, and even rifles tell a
story that has lasted thousands of years.
The park's three main caves - Pictograph, Middle, and Ghost cave - were home to generations of
prehistoric hunters. The caves were carved from the Eagle sandstone cliff by the forces of water and
wind. The first recorded discovery of artifacts and paintings in the caves was made in 1936.
Approximately 30,000 artifacts, ranging from stone tools, weapons, paintings, and the instruments
used, were excavated from the site. The pigments used in the rock art enable researchers to date when
people inhabited the region and offer insights into their lifestyle. Through study of the artifacts
discovered researchers are able to pinpoint which Native peoples used the caves and when they
inhabited the region.
PICTOGRAPH CAVE STATE PARK
At four in the afternoon of 25 July 1806, Clark and his contingent of nine men, plus York, Toussaint
Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and little Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, arrived at “a remarkable rock
Situated in an extensive bottom, on the Star[boar]d. [south] Side of the river & 250 paces from it.”
That landmark can hardly be seen from the river today, for cottonwood trees, their seedlings no
longer fodder for Indians’ horses, have filled in the broad riverbank between.
Clark’s Description
Clark measured the rock’s circumference at 400 paces, or about 1,200 feet, and estimated its height
at 200 feet. The first dimension was fairly accurate, but the height was off by about 40 percent.
Even today, having apparently suffered but little erosion, or even perhaps grown a few inches with
humus from dead grass and shrubs, it reaches 121.88 feet or 127.42 feet, depending on the side
from which one measures it. Climbing to the summit of this “lightish Coloured gritty rock”— actually
sandstone of the Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation — Clark found “a tolerable Soil of about 5 or 6
feet thick Covered with Short grass,” and took notes on the “most extensive view in every direction.”
Clark recorded, “The Indians have made 2
piles of Stone on the top of this Tower. The
nativs have ingraved on the face of this
rock the figures of animals &c. near which I
marked my name and the day of the month
& year.” He named it “Pompys Tower,” in
honor of the Charbonneaus’ young son, who
sometime that summer had acquired the
nickname Pomp. On his map, he named that
large brook “River Baptieste” after
Sacagawea’s 17-month-old son, adding
parenthetically, “almost dry.”
POMPEYS PILLAR
The detail from Clark’s map of 1814 shows his post-expeditionary conclusions regarding the lay of the
land from just west of the Three Forks of the Missouri, roughly 230 air miles eastward along the
Yellowstone, to the Tongue River. It shows how much Clark learned from the Indians and how much he
learned on the ground himself. It also reflects a little of the information he got from former Expedition
members like John Colter, as well as other travelers to this part of the West between 1806 and 1813.
Bear in mind that Clark knew the approximate latitude of the Three Forks, as well as the confluence of
the Yellowstone with the Missouri, but he didn’t take any astronomical readings during his trip between
those points, and he had nothing more than a feel for the longitude of either. He kept daily records of
compass bearings and estimated distances between landmarks along the way, but his distances were
overall so far off that he concluded the length of the Yellowstone from the Big Bend to the Missouri was
837 miles, when it was probably about what it is today, 438 miles.
For all its “mistakes,” by 21st-century standards, it also shows Clark’s extraordinary ability to observe
and remember details and to extrapolate from them generalizations about the terrain he covered. In
other words, Clark had a capacity for geographic memory and imagination that enabled him to feel the
earth beneath and around him. In comparison with the map he drew in 1810 (not shown here), which
was a preliminary compilation of his field sketches, the 1814 map also shows how his grasp of
Northwestern geography matured over time. With it, he gave a palpable shape to the land he had
traveled, which other travelers and explorers were to rely upon for the next 50 years.
CLARK’S 1814 MAP
Clark’s group descended the Yellowstone at
prodigious rates of speed. In ten days he
covered, by his own generous estimation,
nearly 650 miles, although it’s only 500 of
today’s miles. His exploration of the
“Rochejhone” was necessarily brief and
superficial. He was unaware that the lower
Yellowstone basin had been explored the
previous year by the French-Canadian fur
trader Françcois-Antoine Larocque.
On 25 July 1806 Clark climbed a massive
gray rock 25 miles east of today’s Billings,
Montana, dubbed it “PompeysTower” (little
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau‘s nickname and
now named Pompeys Pillar), and carved his
own name and date on its side. The etching
remains there today, the only surviving
physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition.
The captain saw so much game on the river, including American bison (the American buffalo), elk,
pronghorn, and wolves, that he found it “increditable” and resolved “to be silent on the subject
further.” But the next day he couldn’t refrain from remarking on the “emence herds” he saw. Once he
laid to for an hour to let buffalo cross the river. On 3 August 1806, he reached the Missouri. His
return through Montana from Travelers’ Rest, via the Yellowstone, took 32 days. The trip upriver
between the same two points in 1805, via the Missouri
River, had taken 134 days.
DESCENDING THE YELLOWSTONE
The Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center tells the story of the confluence of these
two mighty rivers and provides the same magnificent view that Lewis and Clark Expedition members
enjoyed when they visited in 1805 and 1806.
THREE FOR ONE STOP
Fort Buford State Historic Site preserves remnants of a vital frontier plains military post. Fort Buford
was built in 1866 near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and became a major
supply depot for military field operations. It is probably best remembered as the place where the
famous Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, surrendered in 1881.
Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the
most important fur-trade post on the Upper
Missouri River. Here, the Assiniboine and six
other Northern Plains Tribes exchanged buffalo
robes and smaller furs for goods from around the
world, including cloth, guns, blankets, and beads.
The fort has been rebuilt from contemporaneous
artists’renderings among them Audubon, Catlin,
and Paul Kane
After the Corps reunited in North Dakota they returned to the Mandan villages. Charbonneau,
Sacagawea, and Pomp remained while the others continued down the Missouri River. The Corps
returned to St. Louis on 23 September 1806 and disbanded. Descriptions of the journey, maps, and
collected specimens were sent to the American Philosophical Society and later the Academy of
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Lewis and Clark made their way east. They stayed at Locust Grove, the home of Clark's sister, for
three weeks before going to Washington, D.C. While in D.C. they met with President Jefferson to
recount the experiences of the Expedition.
Both Lewis and Clark received rewards for their work. Clark was appointed Indian agent at St.
Louis, and five years later became Governor of the Missouri Territory. President Monroe appointed
him Superintendent of Indian Affairs to establish and secure treaties with western tribes. He died in
St. Louis in 1838 and is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Lewis became Governor of the Louisiana Territory. He had difficulty in this role, most notably in the
public perception of how he spent official government funds. In 1809 he was traveling to
Washington, D.C., to account for his use of funds. On 11 October he died en route from two gunshot
wounds - one to his head, the other to his chest. It is commonly believed that he died by suicide. He
was buried near Grinder’s Stand along the Natchez Trace Parkway near today’s Hohenwald,
Tennessee, where a monument stands in his honor.
AFTER THE YELLOWSTONE
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