Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 202, Lewis and Clark Part 2. Last time out, we got into the background

of the Lewis and Clark expedition, introducing both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark into the narrative.

We let them encamped on the eastern side of the Mississippi during the winter of 1803, 1804, and we pick up the story in May, 1804, when they finally started moving westwards up the Missouri River.

To keep the narrative straight in your middle map, I'll try to locate places in their current US states.

So this departure essentially marks the expedition leaving Illinois and moving into Missouri. Also, before we get going, I want

to talk a bit about how I'm going to describe rivers. I'll mention a lot of rivers, but because Lewis and Clark are travelling upstream,

I'm going to describe the rivers as going in that direction. It makes the most sense for the

journey, and I'm hoping this should help keep you oriented as we describe what direction we're

travelling in. However, I know technically this

is backwards. The river is flowing downstream, not upstream. So if I mention that the

expedition reached a bend in the river and it turned northwards, in reality the river came

from the north and is going southwards and when when it reaches the bend, it turns eastwards,

which is the direction from which Lewis and Clark were travelling.

But that's really confusing, so I'm just going to say the river bended northwards.

Okay, now that we've got that cover, let's begin.

The early expedition was tribbled by bad weather.

Clark remarks on heavy rain on the 14th of May, which I'm sure would have been a bit depressing

in its own right, but had more negative consequences for the river.

The speed of the river increased, banks collapsed, and on the 24th of May, there was a particularly

rough patch as they navigated a section of the river known as the Devil's Raceground.

The boat ran aground on a sandbar and spun around multiple times, but they were eventually

able to pass through. It wasn't all bad though. Clark mentions seeing

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