Lewis and Clark Campsites, August 23, 24, and 25, 1804

On August 23, 1804, Joseph Field, sent out to hunt, came back to the boat to report a bull buffalo killed on the plain ahead, the first bison taken by any member of the party, as the University of Nebraska edition of the journals notes. Clark wrote once that he took 8 men to bring it in and once that he took 12. Two elk swam the river close by the boat and were wounded but got away, and wind lifted sand off the bars so thick the men could scarcely see across.

What the plaque says

Lewis and Clark Campsites August 23, 24, and 25, 1804 The men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition saw many natural curiosities during their trek to the Pacific Ocean. On August 24 Captain Clark described "a blue Clay Bluff of 180 or 190 feet high... Those Bluffs appear to have been laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot for a man to bear his hand in the earth at any debth." The bluff came to be known as the Ionia Volcano. Not until about 1900 did scientists learn that the heat was generated by the oxidation of shale. The bluff has since eroded into the Missouri River. On August 25, from their camp due north of here, Lewis and Clark left the expedition briefly to view a conical hill, which according to Indian legend was "a place of Deavels... they are in human form with remarkable large heads and about 18 inches high." This hill, called Spirit Mound today, is located about eight miles north of Vermillion, South Dakota. Nebraska State Historical Society National Park Service

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Music Museum — 8.2 mi
  One of the great collections of musical instruments in the world, on a college campus in a prairie town, built around a band teacher's thousands of horns, fiddles and curiosities.
• Ponca State Park — 12 mi
  Oak ravines and bluffs at the downstream end of the Missouri's last unchannelized reach in Nebraska, with a three-state overlook and the river's resource and education center.
• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 14 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.

More markers nearby

• The Ionia "Volcano" — 3.2 mi
• Grand Officers — 7.7 mi
• First Permanent Schoolhouse in Dakota Territory — 7.7 mi
• Andrew Lee — 8.0 mi