"we determin to delay at this Place"

On June 26, 1804, the U.S. Army expedition led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers and remained there for three or four days to make observations and recruit the party. During the stay, the men repaired their damaged pirogue, dried their supplies, and observed animals. The officers also addressed the first discipline problem since leaving St. Charles, Missouri, that led to a court martial, with one man receiving fifty lashes and another receiving one hundred lashes for becoming drunk on guard duty. The men built a small fort of logs and brush, called a redoubt, on the land between the Kaw and Missouri Rivers, now known as Kaw Point, for defense against a potential Indian attack. While passing through, the expedition saw buffalo for the first time, and Captain Lewis observed and described the Carolina Parkakeet [sic] for the first and only time during the journey.

Kansas City, Kansas · United States