While wintering with the Hidatsa Indians at Fort Mandan in 1804-1805, the Indians informed Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of waterfalls on the Missouri River. But little did the captains know that those waterfalls would number five in total and form a twenty-one mile stretch of rapids and cascades that would necessitate an 18-mile portage.

On June 13, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and a small advance party travelling overland were, in the words of Lewis, greeted “with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arise above the plain like a column of smoke.” A short time later, Lewis reached the Great Falls. From his vantage point, he described this “sublimely grand specticle” as a waterfall approximately 300 yards wide and 80 feet high. And, “from the reflection of the sun on the spray or mist which arrises from these falls there is a beautifull rainbow produced which adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery.”

Exploring upriver the following day, Lewis discovered what are today called Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, and Black Eagle Falls. At the final waterfalls, Lewis saw an amazing site:

“below this fall at a little distance a beatifull little Island well timbered is situated about the middle of the river. in this Island on a Cottonwood tree an Eagle has placed her nest; a more inaccessible spot I believe she could not have found; for neither man nor beast dare pass those gulphs which separate her little domain from the shores. the water is also broken in such manner as it decends over this pitch that the mist or sprey rises to a considerable hight.”

On June 16, Lewis reunited with the rest of the Corps and discussed with Clark his discoveries and the survey of the portage route. The men immediately set to work preparing for what would be one of the most arduous tasks of the entire expedition—the portage of the Great Falls of the Missouri.

Credits and Sources:

Information derived from: The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark: From Fort Mandan to Three Forks, edited by Gary E. Moulton. Photos provided by the Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.