Pickstown / Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark passed this site on September 8, 1804. The next day they had their first encounter with prairie dogs, which they called barking squirrels. They killed one and caught one alive by pouring a great quantity of water into its hole, then later tried to dig up a burrow but abandoned the effort after digging six feet and finding by use of a pole that they were not even halfway. Clark wrote that these little animals set erect, make a whistling noise, and when alarmed step into their holes. Nearby they killed a rattlesnake that had a young prairie dog in its stomach. They also passed the house of Trudeau, a French trader who had wintered there during 1796 and 1797, and saw herds of buffalo, elk, and deer, as well as turkey, beaver, and a fox squirrel. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, officially the Corps of Discovery, traveled through what is now South Dakota from August 21 to October 14, 1804, and from August 21 to September 4, 1806. During those visits, the expedition recorded numerous animals, plants, birds, and fish previously unknown to science, including the pronghorn antelope, which they called goats, and the prairie dog, which they called barking squirrels. Other discoveries in South Dakota included the mule deer, coyote, great gray wolf, prairie rattlesnake, northern jack rabbit, a different kind of porcupine, and the black billed magpie, which until then had been thought to exist only in Europe. They also met a number of Indian tribes, handed out gifts, and made speeches about the great white father in Washington; although there were a few tense moments, there were no battles with the tribes they encountered in present-day South Dakota.

Pickstown, South Dakota · United States