On the trail of Lewis and Clark

The Jefferson and Madison Rivers converge at Three Forks, the headwaters of the Missouri

The Gates of the Mountains as seen by Lewis and Clark

As we drove away from Glacier National Park we realized that we had started our travel toward Great Falls, and closer to Lewis and Clark country. As we traveled near Two Medicine (close to the picture below), Gary told me this story:

Lewis and Clark had separated, and Lewis was watching for signs of the Blackfeet Indians. His party encountered them, and they camped together for the night. Lewis told the Blackfeet that trading posts would probably be set up. This was not good news to the Blackfeet, as they wanted to control trade and stay in the driver's seat with the Canadians from whom they had already obtained firearms. Early the next morning Lewis and another expeditioner caught the Indians stealing horses. One of Lewis' party stabbed and killed and Indian and Lewis shot another one escaping. Return fire came so close to Lewis that he felt the air move close to his body. Lewis and his party beat a quick retreat south.

We had learned that the Blackfeet were warrior Indians. This was the tribe that camped on the east side of Missoula and picked off other Indians (the Salish) as they came through the pass coming West. This gave the name to the canyon .... Hell's Gate Canyon, as to go through it was "like entering hell."

Traveling east on US 89 we came to Browning, and stopped at the Museum of the Plains Indians. It was really interesting, and their craft work was beautiful. We were to see more of this in Cody, Wyoming.

Our target was Great Falls, and when I read in the AAA book that a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center was there, we really wanted to stop. It was a very well done visitor center.

As we drove into Great Falls, we crossed the Missouri River, and drove along its bank in the rain.

Inside, we saw a beautiful map of Lewis and Clark's route.

There was also a beautiful reproduction of a dugout canoe, and a depiction of how they portaged the canoes up the steep banks of the Great Falls of the Missouri. There actually were a series of falls they encountered here, including Rainbow and Coulter Falls.

You may remember Sacajawea was the Shoshone woman who had been kidnapped from her tribe and brought near Mandan, ND, where she married the Canadian trapper, Charbonneau. She had an infant, Pomp, when she met Lewis and Clark, and she told them that they would be able to buy horses from her Shoshone people when they neared the headwaters of the Missouri. She told them her people lived near Beaverhead Rock. Gary and I had both seen this spot, but never could see the head of a beaver in it until we looked at this exhibit in the interpretive center.

Of course, the story of Sacajawea reconnecting with her people was beyond extraordinary. You can read it on the panel below, and then see the beautiful painting depicting that incredible moment when Sacajawea was reunited with her brother.

In another exhibit, we were shown the complex web of communication between Lewis and Clark and the Shoshone. Below are cut outs of the players; and then the exhibit asked you to figure out how the talk would start and ultimately reach its intended listener.

Captain Lewis would start in English and speak to Francois Labiche who spoke French, English and a number of Indian languages. Then Labiche would speak the message in French to Charbonneau (Sacajawea's husband), who could speak Hidatsu. Then Sacajawea who understood both Hidatsu and Shoshone spoke to her brother Camealwait in Shoshone. You wonder how much was "Lost in Translation."

Gary and I are very interested in Lewis and Clark, and someday would really love to devote a trip (and possibly a Columbia River cruise!) to tracing it more precisely. And this Interpretive Center really piqued our interest even more. We were happy to get Liz a Sacajawea dollar pendant. I have loved these coins for a long time, and in fact, for the first 10 or so teeth she lost, Liz got 5 Sacajawea coin dollars!

We wanted to make it to Three Forks that evening, so we moved along after about an hour's visit, but it really was a highlight ..... as was the very artistic bison!

As we drove away from the Interpretive Center were were able to pull over and get a good look at the Great Falls, now dammed up.

From Great Falls we picked up Interstate 15 (again!) and headed south to Helena.

Through the afternoon and evening we drove through beautiful canyons leading to The Gates of the Mountains, labeled by Lewis and Clark (see photo above). They could see that rather than coming to the Pacific Ocean at the headwaters of the Missouri, they were going to head into some major mountains.

It was saddening to see the destruction from the Pine Bark beetle. Along this valley we saw rows and rows of dying pine trees.

Soon we saw Helena in the valley below.

Orginally it was pronounced He-LAY-na, but the good 'ole boys (miners, trappers, etc) who founded the town in Last Chance Gulch felt that pronounciation sounded too feminine, so they changed it to put the emphasis on the HELL .... HELL-ay-na!

As we neared Three Forks another Burlington

Northern rolled toward us.

We were excited to make it to Three Forks, where the Madison, Jefferson and the Gallatin Rivers come together to form the Missouri!

We had seen signs for Montana Wheat, and ended up camping within a mile of it .... so we wandered in the next morning and were happy to see their delicious pastries and coffee. Gary exhibited prudence with a lemon poppyseed muffin, but Liz and I went all out with the pecan and cinnamon buns.

Then we set out to see why they call it Three Forks. We headed down I90 (there was some construction), and had to back track a bit to get to Missouri Headwaters State Park.

We drove to the first overlook and to our right we saw the Jefferson River.

Then we looked over toward the horizon and saw the Madison River joining the Jefferson. Right at the convergence point, there was a sign with President Jefferson's directive to the Lewis and Clark Expedition (picture at top of blog).

We stopped at some exhibits and were reminded about John Coulter. It's a dramatic story as you can read below.

Just a ways down the road, about two miles I think, we saw the Gallatin River pass under the road bridge.

And then just beyond the bridge, we saw the Gallatin join the already merged Jefferson and Madison, completing the Three Forks. It was beautiful. Lewis and Clark decided to take the Jefferson River further west, and this led them to Beaverhead Rock, where Sacajawea recognized her Shoshone tribe.

Here is the picture of the headwaters of the Missouri .... the three rivers converged and flowing as the mighty Missouri.

We really enjoyed what we saw of the Lewis and Clark story .... but we would really love to see and experience much more. I'm sure this will be a theme of a future trip ..... tracing more of the Lewis and Clark trail!

We motored on down to Red Lodge after a stop at the Madison Buffalo Jump (see Montana blog), our goal to travel over the Beartooth Highway. Lewis and Clark didn't get to see that gorgeous pass .... we're the lucky ones!

Talk to you soon,

Julie, Gary and Liz