Lewis and Clark Trust, Inc.

Lewis and Clark Trust, Inc. Telling the story and preserving the entire Trail in cooperation with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
(1)

08/16/2026

in 1804

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Otoe (Jiwére) which were always a small tribe, moved across Iowa and settled with or very near the Ioway (Báxoje) Nation in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. Around 1798, the Missouria (Nutachi) people joined the Otoes and the two tribes were thereafter regarded as one. Speaking the same Siouan language as the Ioway and the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), the Otoe-Missouria were primarily farmers and hunters.

Around sunset on Thursday, August 2, 1804, an advance group of Otoes and a few Missourias arrived at the Corps’ camp which sat up on a bluff on the west side of the Missouri River. With them was a trader known in the journals as “Mr. Fairfong.” Six lesser chiefs were greeted by Lewis and Clark and presented with some to***co and provisions, and an invitation to return the next day for a council. The Corps’ soldiers were put on alert once Fairfong explained that the full Otoe-Missouria party included an estimated 250 men.

On Friday morning, the keeled boat’s sail was set up as an awning and after breakfast the chiefs of the tribes were seated in the shade, first to watch the Corps parade in uniform and demonstrate U.S. military prowess. The main event was the long speech, probably delivered by Meriwether Lewis, followed by more gift giving of flags, medals, and clothing. The chiefs were then given the opportunity to speak, and a pipe was smoked among the two groups. After presenting the chiefs with a canister of gun powder and a bottle of whiskey, Lewis demonstrated his Girardoni air rifle, which according to Clark, “astonished those nativs."

The camp was initially named “Handssom Prarie” by Clark but would be better known as “Council Bluff.” This would be the first of many meetings with Tribal leaders throughout the West.

The site of this meeting would later become Fort Atkinson, one of the first U.S. Army posts west of the Missouri River. Today, it is a Nebraska state historical park, just outside Fort Calhoun. Learn more here: https://outdoornebraska.gov/location/fort-atkinson/.

Image: “Exchanging Greetings,” a painting by Robert “Buffalo Bob” Rickards. Used with permission.

Image Description: The oil painting shows Fairfong, gesturing with his right hand in the air, leading a small group of Otoe-Missouria men (some on horseback, some walking) as they enter the Corps’ camp. Some of the soldiers are standing in the foreground each carrying their gun. The boat’s sail is draped over the branch of a dead tree to form an awning. On the far right, the keeled boat is seen below on the river.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1520007940169581&set=a.749223780581338
07/10/2026

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1520007940169581&set=a.749223780581338

When Meriwether Lewis received his training from Andrew Ellicott in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he learned it was relatively easy to establish the latitude of a specific location. All that was needed was the ability to see the sun or any bright star, a measurement of the height from the horizon, and a printed table, which was carried on the journey. With a few calculations, the latitude was determined. Probably not as accurate as your current day cell phone, but remarkably close.

But calculating longitude was a different matter. It required precise instruments and higher mathematics. Lewis was trained by Ellicott to follow a method based on measuring lunar distances – using the moon’s movement around the earth as a clock, with the moon serving as the hand or index, and the sun, planets, and stars serving as the markers.

A sextant, a very common and widely used device, was required along with an accurate timekeeper – a chronometer. But in the early 19th century, watches or clocks were rare and expensive.

Unfortunately, no chronometers were manufactured in the United States at the time, so the only option was to purchase an English-made timepiece that was sold in Philadelphia. The gold-cased chronometer, or “Arnold’s Watch,” cost Meriwether Lewis $250 plus an additional 75 cents for the winding key. It was purchased from Thomas Parker and cost more than all the other Expedition’s “mathematical instruments” combined.

Because he knew this expensive timepiece was fragile, Lewis took it to Henry Voigt, a German-born clockmaker who cleaned and adjusted the chronometer. Voigt then built a protective mahogany case, which suspended the device to lessen any jarring impact along the journey. The total bill was $7.37 ½ .

Despite the quality and the protective case, Lewis found the chronometer to be finicky and less-than-reliable. As such, Lewis did his best to calculate longitude, and more often made observations based on dead reckoning. What data Lewis provided was submitted to the War Office upon the Corps’ return and Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, an instructor of mathematics at West Point, attempted to adjust the longitudes through additional calculations, but ultimately gave up. Fortunately for us today, William Clark had a keen ability to document the approximate course of the journey simply by dead reckoning and his maps, especially the one published in 1814, give us a detailed and remarkably accurate picture the American West.

While there’s no information regarding what Lewis’ chronometer looked like, it could possibly have been similar to this timepiece in the collection of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Image: Chronometer from National Museum of American History

Image Description: A chronometer in a protective wooden box. The lid is open so the face of the instrument can be viewed.

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