Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had originally planned to camp west of the Mississippi River during the winter of 1803-04, but Carlos Dehault Delassus, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis, had not received formal notification of the Louisiana Purchase and would not permit the expedition to cross the river. In the middle of December 1803, Clark led about twenty-five men to a winter camp on the American side at the mouth of the Wood River, then 1.25 miles southwest of this site. At Camp River Dubois, Lewis and Clark gathered supplies, compiled information, and trained their men. The camp originally included nine Kentuckians, fourteen soldiers, two French watermen, one hunter-interpreter, and Clark's Negro servant. They were energetic, healthy individualists who did not accept discipline willingly, and during the winter Lewis reprimanded several men for refusing to obey orders, failing to perform sentry duty, and making hunting or other business a pretext for visiting a neighboring whiskey shop. Additional recruits enlisted for the first part of the trip through hostile Indian country, and in the spring three boats loaded with provisions, ammunition, and merchandise were prepared for the long journey from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean and back. On May 14, 1804, Clark and about forty-five men set out at 4 o'clock P.M. in the presence of many neighboring inhabitants and proceeded under a gentle breeze up the Missouri.
