Sergeant Charles Floyd, born in Jefferson County, Kentucky sometime between 1780 and 1785, was one of the outstanding members of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. His father and uncles had served with George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War, and Floyd joined Lewis & Clark at the Falls of the Ohio as one of three sergeants in the handpicked expedition. After ninety-eight days of travel up the Missouri River, he became violently ill on August 19, 1804. Lewis and Clark diagnosed his condition as “Beliose Chorlick” (bilious colic), though modern medical authorities believe it was a complication of appendicitis. Unable to save him, the party landed on the east bank at the southern edge of present Sioux City, Iowa, just before noon on Monday, August 20, 1804, where Floyd said, “I am going away…” and died. His comrades buried him with full honors of war on the highest nearby bluff, with Captain Lewis leading the service and a red cedar post marking the grave. Floyd was the first U.S. soldier to die west of the Mississippi River and the only member of the expedition to lose his life; the bluff and a nearby stream were named for him. When the expedition returned two years later, the grave was found disturbed, perhaps by wolves, and was refilled and remarked. By 1857, Missouri River erosion had nearly destroyed the grave, so citizens of Sioux City moved Floyd’s remains 200 yards east of the original site. Renewed interest followed the 1894 publication of Floyd’s recently discovered journal, and his remains were exhumed again, reburied in sturdy urns, and marked by a large marble slab. The Floyd Memorial Association then sought a permanent memorial, aided by Congressman George D. Perkins; Congress appropriated $5,000, the State of Iowa matched that amount, and private citizens contributed matching donations. The cornerstone was laid on August 20, 1900, the anniversary of Floyd’s death, and Captain James C. Sanford and Captain Hiram M. Chittenden of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supervised the monument’s design and construction. Floyd’s remains were placed in the concrete core of its lower courses in his fourth burial, and the monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1901. The monument is a white sandstone Egyptian obelisk 100 feet high, with a solid concrete foundation reinforced by 32 lengths of railroad irons; the foundation weighs 278 tons and the total monument 717 tons.