Entering the Yellowstone Valley

In July 1806, Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 led a party of eight men, his enslaved attendant York, and interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau, Charbonneau’s Shoshoni wife Sacajawea, and their child down the Yellowstone River. Traveling with 50 horses southeasterly from present-day Three Forks, they followed a winding course over the Gallatin and East Gallatin rivers and other creeks dammed by beaver. Following a well-beaten buffalo road, they camped on Kelly Creek about four miles west of present-day Bozeman and crossed this pass about one mile north of here, while Clark commented on the abundance of beaver dams on all streams.

Montana · United States