124 2nd Avenue N.W. ~ PO Box 469 ~ Browning Montana 59417 ~ 406-338-2344 ~ Fax 406-338-2605
Camp Disappointment
Lewis & Clark's Camp Disappointment is located approximately 12 miles northeast of Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation with the mountains of Glacier
National Park in the background.
This historic site is marked by a monument and sign at milepost 233 on US Highway 2 between Browning and Cut Bank, which is four miles directly south of the actual camp site reached on July 23, 1806. (Access by permission from private landowner only).
|
"The monument on the hill above was erected by the Great Northern Railway in 1925 to commemorate the farthest point north reached by the Lewis & Clark Expedition. 1804-1806. Captain Meriwether Lewis, with three of
his best men left the main party at the Missouri River and embarked on a side trip to explore the headwaters of the Marias River. He hoped to be able to report to President Jefferson that the headwaters arose north of the 49th parallel, thus extending the boundaries of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.
The party camped on the Cut Bank River in July 22-25 1806 in a "beautiful and extensive bottom". Deep in the territory of the dreaded Blackfeet the men were uneasy. Lewis wrote, "game of every description is extremely wild which induces me to believe the Indians are now, or have been lately, in this neighbourhood."
Lewis could see from here that the river arose to the west rather than to the north, as he had hoped. Disheartened by this discovery by the cold rainy weather and the shortage of game Lewis named this farthest point north Camp Disappointment, the actual site of which is four miles directly north of this monument."
Two Medicine Fight Site
The Two Medicine Fight Site struggle on July 27, 1806 was the only violent conflict between the Corps of Discovery and Native Americans and resulted in the only two Indian casualties of the Expedition. Furthermore, it marks the first meeting and conflict between any representative of the American government and the Blackfeet Nation.
"Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, accompanied by three of his men, explored this portion of the country upon their return trip from the coast. On July 26, 1806, they met eight Piegans (Blackfeet) who Lewis mistakenly identified as Gros Ventres and camped with them that night on the Two Medicine Creek on a point northeast of here. Next morning the Indians by attempting to steal the explorers' guns and horses precipitated a fight in which two of the Indians were killed.
This was the only hostile encounter in their entire trip from St. Louis to Pacific and back. Lewis unwittingly dropped a bombshell on the Piegans with the news that their traditional enemies the Nez Perce, Shoshone and Kootenai were uniting in an American-inspired peace and would be getting guns and supplies from Yankee traders. This threatened the Blackfeet's 20 year domination of the Northern Plains made possible by Canadian guns."
Copyright © 2004-2013 Town of Browning
, Montana. Design by CCC.
| | | | |
