Lewis & Clark Portage Route

The panel's man-killing labor had its worst afternoon on June 29, 1805. Clark walked up toward the falls with York, Charbonneau, Sacagawea and her infant son, Jean Baptiste, when a black cloud broke into rain and hail. York had gone hunting; the others sheltered under shelving rock in a dry ravine a quarter mile above the Great Fall, and the water came down it in a body. Sacagawea had just time to snatch the baby as his netting went down the current. Next day only the large compass was found, in the mud.

What the plaque says

Lewis & Clark Portage Route June-July. 1805 + July. 1806 To avoid the series of waterfalls along the Missouri River north of this point. the Expedition portaged their canoes and several tons of baggage. crossing the highway right here. At the lower camp. some 12 miles NE. the crew made crude wagons. the wheels sliced off a cottonwood tree. The upper camp. named after the bears which inhabited the islands. was located some 5 miles SW. The portage was near man-killing. the men has to haul with all their strength wate & art Clark wrote.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Giant Springs State Park — 2.6 mi
  The spring William Clark called the largest he ever saw, and the 201-foot river a fifth-grade class got into the record books.
• C. M. Russell Museum — 3.2 mi
  The cowboy artist's house and log studio, and the story of Nancy Russell, who turned his bar-tab paintings into a career.

More markers nearby

• Malmstrom Air Force Base — steps away
• Black Eagle — 2.4 mi
• Coal Mines and Railroads — 5.1 mi
• Twenty-Eight Mile Station — 5.4 mi