You think you have a hard time packing, can you imagine how Lewis & Clark must have felt. Their keelboat was loaded with thousands of pounds of supplies, equipment, food and trade goods. Blue glass beads, brass buttons and cooking kettles were among the most coveted trade items that they carried. The Cultural Heritage Museum in Pierre, SD has a replica of a Jefferson Peace and Friendship Medal which the explorers often presented
to the tribal leaders that they met on their trip.

The expedition's first lady, Sacagawea, accompanied the Corps of Discovery from Fort Mandan, ND to the Pacific Ocean. She was the only woman to make the trip and she took her baby son along. Six years after their return, Sacagawea died at Fort Manuel near Kenel, SD. A monument to her overlooks the Missouri River near Mobridge.

The Missouri River was the expedition's "highway" along the whole trail. Each day they rowed, towed or sailed the keelboat up the river and each night they camped along its shores. At the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area near Yankton, SD, you can rent a boat and explore the waters of Lewis and Clark Lake, one of the Missouri River reservoirs. At night you can set up camp along the water just as Lewis & Clark did.

In October of 1804, the expedition spent several tranquil days with the Arikaras, who farmed the land along the upper Missouri River. The Arikaras lived in earth-lodge homes made with cottonwood logs, willow branches and grass. You can see a replica of one at West Whitlock Recreation Area near Gettysburg, South Dakota.

Follow in their footsteps and make your own adventure along the Nebraska Lewis & Clark Trail. Highway markers keep you on the right road, Nebr. Highway 12.
There are a series of interpretive panels to tell the expedition's story along the way.
One such panel is 7 miles north of Lynch, NE overlooking the Missouri River and Old Baldy.

NOTES OF INTEREST
There is a painting of "Old Baldy" in the Joslyn Art Museum at Omaha, NE. The painting was done by Karl Bodmer in 1831 when he accompanied the German Lord, Maximilian, on a trip up the Missouri River from St. Louis, Missouri to North Dakota. Bodmer painted hundreds of pictures for Maximilian on that trip. The paintings of Bodmer's were found in a German castle after the second World War and they were returned to the United States to be placed in the Joslyn Art Museum.


Some Prehistory
Aug 25, 1960
Lynch Herald Enterprise

Earl H. Bell, Anthropologist, and a group of University of Nebraska
students unearthed three levels of primitive early native
American villages beneath the shifting sands of an ancient desert that once existed in Boyd County, Lynch, NE.
The location of the prehistoric cities are northwest of Lynch, a short
distance from our High School. It shows an agricultural people lived here 500 years ago and even from one to two thousand years ago. Prior to this discovery the scientists had thought that no agricultural people had lived in Nebraska more that 500 year ago.
Dr. Bell's reasoning for the location of this early civilization was that the hunting grounds provided by the highlands to the north and the productivity of the lowlands, that are irrigated by springs from the hills along the Ponca Creek, provided a excellent food source for the Native Americans. This digging at Lynch was the first time that Northeast Nebraska was worked by archaeologists and this work was undertaken after reports from George Wilcox, former Superintendent of Lynch Schools, stated that countless arrowheads were on top of the hills there. This digging showed three strata of ancient culture. The first one showed up near the surface of the soil extending down as much as a foot below the ground.
The second civilization appeared as much as five feet below the ground. The third and most ancient is a foot or more below this second one. The third stratus produced only flints and no pottery or other remnants which would indicate a more advanced people.
The trenches around this ancient city ranged from 2 to 9 feet in depth and have a top extending down five feet to a sandy soil believed blown in here from the west during centuries of desert climate. Below this top layer is a black and hard packed colored soil on which these ancient people trod.
The top 5 feet of sandy soil indicated the great age of these early
inhabitants. Among valuable remains uncovered were: abundant variety of vegetables, including carbonized ears of corn, beans and squash; pottery, pieces large enough to hold more than a half bushel of produce and early man-made tools. The site also contained a type of house hitherto unknown. These early people also killed and ate buffalo, deer and elk and were clearly an
agricultural people.