Did Meriwether camp in your living room?

Use the aerial photograph of Missoula and the clues below to figure out a likely location for Lewis’ camp in Missoula. Be prepared to present your site and the evidence that supports it to the class.

Fact # 1

When the explorer Meriwether Lewis spent the night in a valley that would later be known as Missoula, he wrote about a place where the Cokahlar Ishkit River flows out of a canyon in a mountain range.

Fact # 2

When Lewis and Clark camped in what is present day Lolo, Montana, they described their location as near where Lolo creek flows into the Bitterroot River. The place where streams flow together is called a confluence.

Fact # 3

Meriwether Lewis woke up on the morning of July 3, 1806 at the camp site he called Traveler’s Rest. Traveler's Rest campsite lies on the west side of the Bitterroot River near the confluence of Lolo Creek and the Bitterroot. See if you can identify the location.

Fact # 4

According to his journal entry, Lewis left his camp at Traveler’s Rest Creek and walked north along the west side of the Bitterroot River. He passed a place where, “the East branch of Clark’s river [The Clark Fork River] . . . discharges itself in two channels.” He was describing the confluence of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers. Lewis noted that the Clark Fork flows into the Bitterroot in two separate channels.

Fact # 5

Just north of the confluence of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers, Lewis and his men crossed the Clark Fork River and began to head East. The next major place Lewis describes is the location where the Clark Fork flows out of the mountains through a narrow opening. As his team headed toward this landmark, they stopped to camp about five miles before reaching it. Use this image to continue tracking Lewis through Missoula.

Fact #6

Historians are not sure exactly where Lewis’ July 3^rd campsite was. They have only these clues from Lewis’ journals:

After crossing the Clark Fork River, Lewis writes:

Seven miles through a handsome level plain to a point where the Cokahlar Ishkit River enters the mountains, or where the hills close it in on both sides. We halted five miles short of this place on a little stream . . .we encamped. Sent out the hunters. They killed three deer. Gave the Indians half. The mosquitoes troublesome. Built fires for our horses.

Lewis also mentions that their camp was near a Native American road that led to the Clark Fork River. Historians have found that Mullan Road roughly follows an ancient Native American road that led through the Missoula Valley.

You can read more of Captain Lewis’ entry from July 3, 1806 in his own words here.