July 26, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland
Lewis & Clark Museum, Great Falls, MT
We were back at the Lewis & Clark Museum when it opened today.
 
Back in 2010, I flew the Missouri River, following Lewis & Clark's path.   Link.  Great Falls International Airport is right on the Missouri River so I had to get a transition through their Class C airspace to follow the river.  I only took a picture of one of the five falls -- Great Falls.  I was unaware they had this great Lewis & Clark museum or I would have stopped.  Instead I stopped at Fort Benton -- before Great Falls -- which had a small museum on the river.
   
They have a nice facility, right on the bank of the Missouri River.
   
 
   
This dog is the same type that Lewis & Clark had on their expedition.  A docent brings him to the museum a couple of days a week.  The dog loves greeting visitors and gets a lot of attention.  He doesn't mind being petted.
   

The expedition's dog was Seaman, a large black Newfoundland owned by Meriwether Lewis.

Seaman joined the expedition in 1803 and went virtually the entire route with the Corps of Discovery. The Journals of Lewis and Clark mention him several times—hunting, guarding camp, warning of animals, and even being stolen briefly by Native people and recovered. He reportedly helped by warning of buffalo and grizzly bears, hunting small game and retrieving waterfowl, guarding camp at night and swimming rivers alongside the party.  Newfoundlands were ideal expedition dogs—huge, strong swimmers, cold-tolerant, and excellent working dogs.
   
The Great Falls area played a significant part in the Lewis & Clark expedition's saga.  In its natural state, the Missouri River had five waterfalls here, and the expedition ended up have to portage their canoes and gear around them an incredible 18 miles!  It took them 31 days, arguably the expeditiion's hardest ordeal..
   
 
   
A diorama of the expedition hauling a canoe up a ravine side.
   
 
   
 
   
A docent talks about the firearms the expedition used.  The firearms were essential equipment, of course:  for hunting and for defence.
 
It always has amazed me that the expedition planned their trip so well that they never ran out of gunpower and ammunition the entire trip of two and a half years.  One of their techniques was to bury supplies in the ground.  They would dig up their cache on the return trip.
   

Meriwether Lewis carried a unique air gun, pictured at top with the bulbous stock.  It was a Girandoni repeating air rifle, a remarkably advanced compressed-air gun that could fire about 20 shots before reloading.  The Girandoni was astonishingly ahead of its time—almost like an 18th-century repeating rifle.

Lewis often used it less as a combat weapon and more as psychological theater—demonstrating it to Native nations the expedition encountered. It could fire repeatedly without smoke or the normal muzzle-loading routine, which made a huge impression. Clark even wrote about demonstrations of “the air gun.”  Many historians think the air rifle may have been one of the expedition’s most effective “diplomatic tools.”
   
The Corps of Discovery departed St. Charles, the last outpost along the river, on May 14, 1804.
 
The museum covered the entire expedition in great detail.  The following pictures only capture a fraction of it.
 
On the right is the "Keelboat", essentially a large barge with sails.  Because they were going upriver, they would have to row, pole, be towed, or sail.  The two smaller boats on the left are "Pirogues" which were shallow, float-bottomed, plank boats.
   
Model of the Keelboat.
   
This painting depicts a famous incident that happened near the Great Falls in June 1805. Lewis had shot at a buffalo and realized—too late—he had forgotten to reload his rifle when a grizzly charged him. He ran into the river and, with nowhere else to go, turned and faced the bear with his espontoon (a spear-like half-pike the officers carried). According to Lewis’s journal, he leveled the spear to make a last stand—and the grizzly suddenly veered off and retreated.
   

“Explorers at the Portage,” created by Montana sculptor Robert Scriver, one of the West’s best-known wildlife and frontier artists.  The sculpture includes Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea carrying baby Jean Baptiste (“Pomp”), York and Seaman the Newfoundland dog.  It’s often admired because it shows the expedition as a team, not just two heroic captains. That was very intentional. Scriver wanted the sculpture to honor the full Corps of Discovery, including figures long overlooked—especially York, Sacagawea, and even Seaman.

People love it because of the symbolism:  Lewis and Clark are shown in a leadership stance, studying the route.  Sacagawea represents guidance and survival.  York symbolizes the often under-told story of the expedition.  Seaman represents loyalty and the living spirit of the journey.
   

Artists conception depicting Meriwether Lewis at Rainbow Falls on June 14, 1805.

Lewis wrote:  "I overlooked a most beautiful and extensive plain.... immense herds of buffalo are feeding ... on its warty bosome vast flocks of geese which feed at pleasure in the delightful pasture on either border."
   
An artists conception of the expedition entering the "Gates of the Mountains" on July 20, 1805.  The canyon pass is about 40 miles down river from Great Falls.
   
Artists conception of Meriwether Lewis at the Missouri headwaters on July 27, 1805.  Here at a place now called Three Forks, the Missouri splits into three rivers:  Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin.
   
A map of the expedition's travels through Montana.  Great Falls was still on the Great Plains.  Soon after leaving Great Falls, the expedition entered the Rocky Mountains at the appropriately named "Gates of the Mountains".
   
Another, more colorful, map of Montana.
   
There were many different Indian tribes in North America at the time.  In particular, the Shoshone provided the expedition with the horses they needed to cross the Bitteroot mountains.
   
An interesting map showing the expedition's journey through through the mountains after leaving the headwaters of the Missouri.
   
The expedition followed the Snake and Columbia Rivers to their final destination on the Pacific Coast.
   

The expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805, arriving two weeks later.  They constructed Fort Clatsop on the south side of the Columbia River where they spent a tough winter.  On March 23, 1806, the journey home began.

This is a replica of Fort Clatsop.
   

The expedition split up on the return trip.  William Clark came back via the Yellowstone River, while Meriwether Lewis came back via the Missouri River.  They rejoined at the confluence of the two rivers near Williston.

Here is an artists conception of William Clark ascending Pompey's Pillar on July 25, 1805 which is on the Yellowstone River.
   
 
   
A replica of Clark's signature on Pompey's Pillar.
   
DDD1
   
The five falls:  Big Falls (the Great Falls), Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, Black Eagle Falls.
   
AAA The Great Falls, back in the day.
   
AAA Another shot of Great Falls of the Missouri, back in the day.
   
Ryan Dam and what is left of the Great Falls.  Ryan Dam was completed in 1915.
   
Crooked Falls, back in the day.
   
Crooked Falls remains undammed today.   It is just downstream from what's left of Rainbow Falls which you can see at upper right.
   
Rainbow Falls, back in the day.
   
Rainbow Falls Dam and Falls, present day.  The dam was completed in 1910.
   
Rainbow Dam and what is left of Rainbow Falls, present day..
   
Looking northeast down the Missouri River.  Crooked Falls is just right of center but you can't really see it.
   
Colter Falls, back in the day.  It is now submerged.
   
Black Eagle Falls, back in the day.
   

Black Eagle Dam, present day.  The dam was built in 1890.

 
   

Another shot of Black Eagle Dam, present day.
   
Behind the museum, Joe looks out over the Missouri River.
   
Looking up river.
   
Just down river was Giant Springs State Park which had a fish hatchery we visited.
   
We haven't had too much luck touring fish hatchery the last few years but this one was open!
   

Trout egg survival in the wild is very low, while in the hatchery, egg survival is close to 90 percent.  That's pretty good!

A bowl of trout eggs and milt are mixed with a feather..
   
 
   
Everything you wanted to know about a fish hatchery was explained here.
   
The circular show pond.  Trout here range from one to five years old.
   

Trout are raised in these raceways until they are big enough for distribution.

The water source is the nearby Giant Springs.  The water is always 54 degrees.  17,758 gallons of spring water flow through the raceways every hour, throughout the year.  The flow prevents the water from freezing so they can grow fish the entire year.
   
When the appropriate size they are stocked into lakes, rivers and ponds.
 
Giant Springs State Fish Hatchery distributes about 650,000 Rainbow and Brook Trout every year in lakes, rivers and reservoirs all across Montana.
 
People who like to fish should like fish hatcheries!
   

Then it was time to hit the road.  Today's destination:  Medora, North Dakota.   It's about a six and a half hour drive, 1/4 on Highway 87, 1/2 on Highway 200 and the last fourth on Interstate 94.

The terrain was very flat, as you can see.
   
We stopped for lunch at Harry's Place in the little town of Lewiston, Montana.
   

We had a nice lunch here; a good stop.   Sadly, Harry's Place was put up for sale and closed a few months after our visit.
   
Yes, this is flat country.
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
We began seeing railcars on tracks next to the highway.  They obviously hadn't moved in quite some time as weeds were growing up around the wheels.  The cars continued for mile after mile.  A little research on "The Internet" revealed the line of railroad cars was 20 miles long!
   
We finally come to the last railcar.
   
We reach Medora and find our lodging:  the Bad Lands Motel.  We were here to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit) and Medora is the closest town to the park.  Only a mile or so from the entrance, actually.  I pictured Medora as a sleepy little town and the Bad Lands Motel as some cheap, dated motel.  It turns out Medora is fairly upscale and clearly trying to appeal to tourism, with multiple nice restaurants and bars.  The Bad Lands Motel was huge with probably hundreds of rooms, which were very nice.
   
We had a nice dinner at the Boots Bar & Grill.
   
All right, Boots!
   
 
   
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