The Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1805-1806 on the Helena National Forest

On a sweltering hot July day in 1805, Captain Meriwether Lewis came upon what looked to him like a gate in the Missouri River. From his view, the limestone cliffs seemed to block the path into the mountains. As party slowly approached, it struck him that they were entering what he described in his journal as the “Gates to the Rocky Mountains”. The name stuck and the view hasn’t changed.

The Gates of the Mountains are one of the special places along the Lewis and Clark trail located on public land. This segment is managed by the Helena National Forest. It is open to everyone and is a place where people can still travel the route of Lewis and Clark. Here, you can experience a landscape that looks much the same as it did 200 years ago.

When Lewis arrived here on July 19th, he was behind schedule and frantically searching for the Shoshone Indians, which he and William Clark referred to as the “Snake Indians”. He needed horses to carry the 33-member party over the mountain divide that he knew lay ahead. Without horses, the success of the journey was threatened, perhaps forcing the Expedition to return home.

The portage around the Great Falls took weeks instead of days. Sacajawea, the Shoshone wife of the interpreter Charbonneau, was gravely ill. The iron boat that Lewis had placed so much hope in was scrapped and valuable time was lost building canoes to replace it. This delay created great anxiety. The commanders knew that the days of plenty were behind them. Leaner rations lay ahead in the mountains.

As soon as the expedition left the Great Falls, finding the source of the seemingly endless Missouri River was paramount. Using setting poles and towlines, the men strained against the constant current. Lewis and Clark walked on shore as much as possible to lighten the load. As they moved south, they named several prominent landmarks. Fort Mountain, now called Square Butte was a feature that guided them on their return trip. They passed the confluences of the Smith River, which they named for Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy, and the Dearborn River, named for Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War. Seeing only abandoned Indian shelters made them anxious for a meeting.

Near present-day Holter Dam, William Clark and three men ventured overland following a well-worn trail. Clark traveled ahead of the expedition in hopes of finding the Shoshone Indians before they were frightened off by the hunters’ guns. The trail he followed was likely a route used by American Indians for thousands of years between Canada and Mexico. Clark found abandoned lodges but no Shoshone. He also found peeled ponderosa pine trees, now referred to as “scared trees." Sacajawea told him that her people did this to “obtain the soft part of the wood and bark for food."

Along the banks of the Missouri, currants grew in abundance and Lewis declared them as good as could be found in the East. He wrote in his journals that sunflowers were particularly plentiful and that the Missouri River Indian tribes parched the seeds of the plant and ground them into flour.

Passing through the Gates, the heat was suffocating, the cliffs ominous. Lewis wrote, ”this evening we entered much the most remarkable cliff that we have yet seen….the towering and projecting rocks in many places seem ready to tumble upon us..”

Today, tour boats and private crafts float leisurely by a shoreline graced with ancient pictographs. The painted images, which were recently radiocarbon dated and found to be about 1280 years old, tell tales of people who lived here long before Meriwether Lewis visited this spectacular canyon. Ancient people painted their visions and dreams on the rock walls that tower above this rugged stretch of the Missouri River. These sites are sacred to Indian today. Help preserve these pictographs by viewing from afar.

A hundred years after Lewis and Clark passed through here, the Helena National Forest was established. The Helena Forest provides access to those who want to experience history and enjoy recreation. These public lands offer a legacy to all those who want to follow the Lewis and Clark adventure. The picnic area is named after Captain Meriwether Lewis and the campground is named after John Colter, a member of the expedition who later became a legendary mountain man.

Plants and animals that flourish here are protected within the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. An extensive network of trails provide opportunity to travel through lands as wild today as when Lewis and Clark passed by.

As Lewis struggled against the river’s current and Clark trekked the adjoining hills, they both came across promising evidence, but no Shoshone were spotted. Each saw a column of smoke on July 21st Smoke was often used to warn that outsiders had been spotted.

Sacajawea, was the crucial link between the expedition and her native people. Much to the relief of Meriwether Lewis the country, around what is now part of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, began to look familiar to her.

On July 24th, near sunrise, Meriwether Lewis came upon “a remarkable bluff of a crimson colored earth.” The Crimson Bluffs, managed by the Bureau of Land management are a touchstone to that July morning. York’s Islands, several miles upriver, are managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Both of these sites offer public access and a connection to the expedition.

The Three Forks, the headwaters of the Missouri River offered the exhausted travelers a short reprieve. The men hunted, fished and worked skins into leather for clothes and moccasins. The captains took map readings and scouted ahead. For Sacajawea, this was the place where she had been captured and taken to the Mandan village. Recognizing her homeland and assuring them that her people were near, boosted the men’s spirits.

The expedition did eventually find the Shoshone and obtained horses, thanks in large part to Sacajawea. After several more months of strenuous travel through the mountains and down the Columbia River, in November 1805, they finally reached the Pacific Ocean.

Our story picks up again when Lewis and Clark arrived at Traveler’s Rest on June 30, 1806. Traveler’s Rest, near present day Lolo, Montana, is now a state park. Here the expedition split forces to further explore the Yellowstone and Marias Rivers.

Clark and a portion of the men, including York, Sacajawea, and Charboneau, returned to where the canoes had been cached. A portion of Clark’s party was sent in canoes and another portion by horseback to the Great Falls. The remaining members set out with Clark to explore the Yellowstone River. They planned to meet up with Lewis where the Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri River.

Lewis lead his group back across the mountains on a shorter route to the Great Falls. The route taken the previous year from the Great Falls to Traveler’s Rest was over 700 miles. This shortcut, recommended by the Nez Perce was only 187 miles. Lewis planned to explore the Marias River to see how far north it drained, hoping to extend the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase.

Lewis followed the Blackfoot River, on a well-worn Indian road, known today as the “river of the road to the buffalo”. Wary of the Blackfeet Indians, they traveled fast. On July 6, 1806, the expedition camped near the confluence of Beaver Creek and the Blackfoot River, two miles west of present day Lincoln. They saw 32 abandoned Indian lodges. In their trek up the Blackfoot River, Lewis and his men observed many beaver dams. Today, moose, elk, and deer can still be seen near Aspen Grove, a Forest Service campground on US highway 200, located near the Lewis and Clark trail and on the Blackfoot River.

On July 7th , Lewis and his men crossed over the pass that led them back to the buffalo country of the plains. Although no grizzly bears were spotted as they crossed what is now called Lewis and Clark Pass, this segment of the trail is the only place on the trail where you can still see grizzlies today.

In the distance, Square Butte stands as a beacon just as it did for Meriwether Lewis. When he saw it, he knew exactly where he was and where he was headed. Located along the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, Lewis and Clark Pass lies within the Helena National Forest and offers another place where people can walk in the path of history. Today people can reach the pass by taking a short-1.7 mile hike from the Alice Creek Trailhead.

On July 13, 1806, Lewis and his party reached the portage camp above the Great Falls. Lewis and three men went to explore the Marias River. Nothing about this part of the trip turned out well. After a fatal encounter with a party of Blackfeet Indians, the men made a frantic retreat back to the Missouri River. The moment they arrived at the river they had a lucky rendezvous with the men who had portaged the canoes around the Great Falls. They headed for the anticipated meeting with Captain Clark at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.

Today, on the Helena National Forest, travelers can encounter some of the same wildlife and still follow the ancient Indian route used by the famous explorers. Much of the landscape looks similar to how it looked 200 years ago when Lewis and Clark saw it. Taking care of the natural and cultural resources on public land will ensure that generations of future visitors can conjure up the excitement of one of our Nation’s greatest adventures.

For more information on the Lewis & Clark Expedition, visit the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center website.