Two centuries ago an American epic unfolded as Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery mapped the lands, described the natural wonders, and encountered the peoples of western North America. In their own words, recorded in the famous journals of Lewis and Clark, they tell their story with an immediacy and power missing from secondhand accounts. Illustrations. Maps.

Volume 2: From the Ohio to the Vermillion covers the first year of this grand adventure.

The second volume begins the actual journals of explorers whose epic expedition still enthralls Americans. It covers the period from August 1803, when Lewis left Pittsburgh to join Clark farther down the Ohio River, to August 1804, when the Corps of Discovery camped near the Vermillion River in present South Dakota.

Volume 3: Up the Missouri to Fort Mandan

Volume 3 consists of the journals during the expedition's route from the Vermillion River to Fort Mandan, North Dakota, and their winter encampment there. It describes their encounters with Sioux, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa Indians, including considerable ethnographic material on these tribes.

Volume 4: From Fort Mandan to Three Forks

The fourth volume begins on April 7, 1805, when Lewis and Clark set out from Fort Mandan, traveling upriver along the Missouri. For the first time they entered country never explored by whites. With the help of the Shoshone woman Sacagawea, they hoped to make friendly contact with her people, then cross the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific..

Volume 5: Through the Rockies to the Cascades

The expedition now enters perhaps the most difficult part of its route, from the Three Forks of the Missouri River in present-day Montana, over the Bitterroot Mountains, and to the Cascades of the Columbia River on today's Washington-Oregon border. They encounter Shoshone, Flathead, Nez Perce, and other Indian tribes, some of whom had never before met white people.

Volume 6: Down the Columbia to Fort Clatsop

This installment of the journals was written during winter encampment in Fort Clatsop at the mouth of the Columbia and is consequently very detailed. It offers more ethnographic and natural history materials, including sketches, than any other volume.

Volume 7: From the Pacific to the Rockies

The seventh volume of Lewis and Clark's journals begins as the expedition turns homeward. On March 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery left Fort Clatsop, their winter quarters on the Pacific Coast, for the long return journey to the United States. Although they were largely retracing their outbound route, their journals were still filled with descriptions of the country and its people, and new discoveries were yet to be made.

Volume 8: Over the Rockies to St. Louis

Volume 8 continues the return of the expeditionary party from their base at Camp Chopunnish on the Clearwater River in the country of the Nez Perces, back to Saint Louis, including accounts of their side explorations and the revisiting of native tribes they had encountered on the outward journey.

The Lewis and Clark Journals: Journal of Sgt. John Ordway
Journal of Sgt. Charles Floyd

Volume 9: Journal of Sgt. John Ordway
       (May 14, 1804 - September 23, 1806)
Journal of Sgt. Charles Floyd
       (May 14, 1804 - August 18, 1804)

The bulk of this volume contains the fullest of the enlisted men's records, the journal of John Ordway. As senior sergeant, Ordway was in command when the captains were absent from the main body of the expedition. He was also the sole member of the party never to miss a day in his journal; for several portions of the crossing, his is the only extant account. Ordway's journal has never before been published with the other records of the venture. Charles Floyd's journal is tragically short, ending with his death near present-day Sioux City, Iowa, on 20 August 1804. Floyd was the only member of the party to die en route, and his journal-adding several details absent from the captains' records-indicates that the record of the journey is poorer for his loss.

Volume 10: Journal of Sgt. Patrick Gass 
      (May 14, 1804 - September 23, 1806)

Volume 10 contains the journal of expedition member Sergeant Patrick Gass. Gass was promoted to sergeant on the expedition to fill the place of the deceased Charles Floyd. His journal was subsequently published and proved quite popular: it went through six editions in six years. A skilled carpenter, Gass was almost certainly responsible for supervising the building of Forts Mandan and Clatsop; his records of those forts are particularly detailed and useful. Gass was to live until 1870, the last survivor of the expedition and the one who lived to see transcontinental communication fulfill the promise of the expedition.

Volume 11: Journal of Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse
May 14, 1804 - April 2, 1806

Volume 11 contains the journals of expedition member Joseph Whitehouse. His journals are the only surviving account written by an army private on the expedition, and he is one of the least known of the expedition party. Following the expedition, Whitehouse had a checkered army career, and he disappeared after 1817. His capabilities have been unfairly slighted by previous commentators, despite his narrative skill and evidence that he was a man of a lively and curious mind. His extensive journal entries contribute to our understanding of the epochal journey and of the unusual group of men who undertook one of the defining events in our history.

Volume 12: Herbarium of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Volume 12 contains the most complete listing of the plant specimens cataloged by the Lewis and Clark expedition. All but one of the plants were collected by Meriwether Lewis, the most skilled botanist among the expedition's members. The collection, however, was nearly lost over the years due to its scattering among various botanists who intended to catalog the expedition's scientific discoveries. Fortunately, for many years the specimens have been in the care of major ins