Clark had surveyed and staked out an 18-mile portage route during June 17-20, 1805. On June 22, Lewis, Clark, and a contingent of the expedition began transporting the first load of equipment, including the components of Lewis’ iron frame boat. The next day they arrived at the site selected for their upper porÂtage camp, along a stretch of the Missouri River marked by three islands they named White Bear Islands. Lewis began the assemblage of his experimental boat, while Clark directed the portage endeavor. All supÂplies had been moved to the upper camp by July 2, but efforts to make the iron boat river-worthy continÂued until July 9 when Lewis finally “relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat and ordered her to be sunk in the water, that the skins might become soft in order the better to take her in pieces tomorrow and deposit the iron fraim at this place as it could probably be of no further service to us.” Putting the failed experiment behind them, Clark and ten men traveled 14 miles upstream and fashioned two cottonwood dugout canoes. By July 13, the entire expedition relocated to the “Canoe Camp,” and finally, on July 15, resumed their journey up the Missouri.
The Great Falls Upper Portage is one of two discontinuous segments of the Great Falls Portage NHL, separated by the intrusion of Malmstrom Air Force Base. It includes the upper portage campsite and the southern portion of the portage route. Great Falls Upper Portage is under mixed private ownership, but there is a public parking area with interpretive wayside exhibits and expansive viewshed of the portage route landscape located off of 40th Avenue.
On June 13, 1805, the Great Falls Portage presented Lewis and Clark with one of the most challenging ordeals of the Expedition. The Corps needed to find a way around the falls – a journey that would require all equipment and supplies to be carried 18-miles overland. Progress was slow. The crudely-made wagons required almost constant repair. They trudged through intense heat, and prickly pear cacti tore through their moccasins. Lewis described his men’s condition:
“. . . They are obliged to halt and rest frequently for a few minute. At every halt these poor fellow tumble down and are so much fortiegued that many of them are asleep in an instant. In short their fatiegues are incredible; some are limping from the soreness of their feet, others faint and unable to stand for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue, yet no one complains. All go with cheerfulness . . .”
On July 15, after a month of portaging around the Great Falls, the explorers set out upstream, eager to locate the Shoshone Indians. Only a short time remained to cross the Rocky Mountains before winter and there were many great obstacles ahead.
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