The expedition first camped in this area on its journey westward in July 1805. Exactly a year later, Sergeant Ordway and a party of nine men returned to this site while Captain Lewis and Captain Clark were traveling separately. Meriwether Lewis was following the Marias River and exploring with several of the men, while Captain Clark had taken his party, including Sacajawea and her son, to follow the "Rochejone" or Yellowstone River. They planned to meet at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers near the present-day border of North Dakota and Montana. Sergeant Ordway and his party found the canoes that had been sunk in a pond near Beaverhead River the prior year. One canoe had been damaged and was cut up so its wood could be reused as paddles. The party then headed to White Bear Island south of Great Falls to dig up items cached in this area and continue onward. This was the spot the expedition visited exactly one year apart, on July 17, 1805, and again on July 17, 1806.