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Lewis/Clark Expedition Journals

Lewis/Clark Expedition Journals: English promotional poster
Thematic illustration. The artistic route diagram is not a geographically accurate reference map.

About this series

Between 1804 and 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an expedition up the Missouri, across the Rocky Mountains, and down to the Pacific, before returning by partly separate routes. This series follows the journals through navigation, hunger, illness, negotiation, natural observation, mistakes, and cooperation. Rivers, camps, and encounters provide the settings for complete stories.

North America was already inhabited, travelled, and understood by many peoples. The expedition’s records preserve valuable observations alongside their writers’ assumptions and prejudices. We distinguish what the diarists witnessed, what they heard, and what remains uncertain; Indigenous knowledge, trade networks, and the work of people beyond the two captains remain part of the account.

Editorial adaptation and complete English rendering: Shitu, with AI assistance. The stories are contemporary works based on public-domain records, not the original diary text, newly discovered writings, or personal submissions by expedition members. Sources, dated entries, and the boundary between evidence and editorial interpretation appear at the end of both language versions.

Read the published stories

3 published · 24 topics in the initial plan

  1. 1. The Afternoon They Departed
  2. 2. Mudbanks and First Encounters
  3. 3. A Flag and a Peace Pipe

Planned contents

The initial outline contains 24 story topics. When evidence and narrative warrant more space, a topic may become two instalments, I and II (上 and 下 in Chinese). Splitting is optional, so the final instalment count may change. Unpublished titles and chronology will be checked before each story; these groups are editorial themes, not daily journal chapters.

Departure and the Missouri

  1. 01The Afternoon They DepartedPublished
  2. 02Mudbanks and First EncountersPublished
  3. 03A Flag and a Peace PipePublished
  4. 04Floyd’s Last DayPlanned

The Plains and Fort Mandan

  1. 05The Beasts of the PlainsPlanned
  2. 06The Villages of the MandanPlanned
  3. 07Building Fort MandanPlanned
  4. 08Sacagawea Crosses the RiverPlanned

The Falls and the Continental Divide

  1. 09Two Rivers, One Way WestPlanned
  2. 10Thirty Days before the Great FallsPlanned
  3. 11The Shoshone HorsesPlanned
  4. 12Across the Continental DividePlanned

Toward the Pacific

  1. 13Hunger in the BitterrootsPlanned
  2. 14New Guides by the ClearwaterPlanned
  3. 15The Rapids of the ColumbiaPlanned
  4. 16The Pacific Was Not the EndPlanned

Coastal Winter and the Return East

  1. 17Winter at Fort ClatsopPlanned
  2. 18The Coast, the Whale, and the TidePlanned
  3. 19Breaking Camp for the ReturnPlanned
  4. 20Snow at the Mountain PassPlanned

The Homeward Journey

  1. 21Morning with the BlackfeetPlanned
  2. 22When the Expedition SplitPlanned
  3. 23Reunion on the YellowstonePlanned
  4. 24Return to St. LouisPlanned

Source texts

The principal text is Project Gutenberg ebook 8419, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804–1806. Its transcription omits much course, distance, astronomical, and editorial material and may contain OCR errors. We check individual dated entries rather than treating this as a complete critical edition.

The 1814 expedition history is a later edited narrative, used when needed for comparison, not substituted silently for dated journals. Each story lists only the sources actually used.

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