Lewis and Clark State Historic Site — Hartford, Illinois

Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1803-1804 near where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi. They built a fort near the River Dubois (Wood River) where they trained and gathered supplies.

No evidence of that camp has been found. A few miles to the south, the state of Illinois has built a reproduction based on Clark’s rough sketches and the design of other forts they built later in the journey. There’s also a visitor center with displays on their time in the area. As we walked in, a guy told me I could take as many photos as I wanted because, “The only things that are real in this building are you and me.” I found this surprising, because my wife was standing right next to me, but perhaps he knows something I don’t.

The museum was mildly interesting. It’s chief feature was a reconstruction of the keelboat the Corps used during the first summer of the journey from Camp River Dubois to the Mandan villages in what is now North Dakota. I had no idea the craft was this large. The back side is cut away so we could see inside the cabin and storage areas. Forty-some men crowded in this boat to sail and paddle upriver against the current. Most of them slept on shore each night. To get upstream against the flow of the Missouri, the Corps had to edge along the bank and deal with sandbars and snags and heat. It sounds like a lot of work.

It was about 900° out, with 400% humidity, but we braved the conditions and walked out to the reproduction of the camp. Of course, this being Illinois, it was padlocked.

There is also a granite monument to Lewis and Clark on the site, but, this being Illinois, it was closed. (OK, to be fair, the river was very high and the monument might have been under water, but still … ) We drove along the levy for a bit, and I took another shot of the camp.

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