Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 27, 1804

On July 29 the captains sent the Missouri man to the Oto camp with a companion: a French engagé the journals write as le Liberty, la Liberty, LiBerty and once Jo. Barter, a Frenchman who could speak the Oto language. His errand was to invite the Oto to meet the boats on the river above for a treaty. One entry for the day ends plainly: Liberty never returned, leaving the captains at a loss to know what had become of him. Gary Moulton's edition notes that, as an engagé and not a soldier, he quit rather than deserted.

What the plaque says

Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 27, 1804 At the camp established near here Captain Clark wrote about the "butifull Breeze from the N W. this evening which would have been verry agreeable, had the Misquiters been tolerably Pacifick, but thy were rageing all night." Clark may have exaggerated when he noted that the mosquitoes were as big as house flies. They would continue to plague the explorers until winter. That evening Clark and Reubin Fields "walked on Shore with a View of examoning Som mounds." Although the mounds were probably natural features, Clark noted that the Oto Indians formerly lived there. Lewis and Clark had been trying to contact Indians who lived in the area. On July 28 one of the hunters "brought in a Missouri Indian who resides with the Otteauz, this Indian & 2 others were Hunting in the Prarie their Camp is about 4 miles off." On August 3 the explorers met with the leaders of the Oto and Missouria tribes at a site they named "Council Bluff," near present Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 1.8 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 4.7 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 6.8 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.
• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 7.4 mi
  The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri, a garrison town of more than a thousand people on Council Bluff from 1820 to 1827, rebuilt on its own foundations.

More markers nearby

• The Bank of Florence — 1.5 mi
• Winter Quarters — 1.7 mi
• Shipley Cemetery — 1.7 mi
• Potter's Field — 2.7 mi