During their exploratory expedition, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped near this area and noted two stones resembling human figures and a third like a dog at Stone Idol Creek, a stream Clark named on October 13, 1804, after recording that the Indians ascribed great virtue to a nearby stone. Known as Pond River in accounts by Sergeants Patrick Gass and John Ordway, the creek once flowed southeast of here through an area called The Lakes before Oahe flooding, and the stones on its banks inspired an Arikara tradition of a man and woman forbidden to marry and a dog that mourned with them, all gradually turning to stone, while the woman still held a bunch of grapes; when passing these stones, the Arikara paid reverence and left votive offerings. On October 8, 1804, Clark prepared camp while Lewis and interpreter Joseph Gravelines visited the first and lower of three Arikara villages on an island southwest of here, the expedition's first contact with the Arikara. The next day, after cold and windy weather, the three Arikara village chiefs came into camp to arrange a formal council. On October 10, Chief Kahawissassa, Chief Pocasse, and Chief Piahe assembled under an awning near the expedition's boat, where Lewis and Clark delivered a speech, presented clothes and flags, and fired an air gun that astonished the chiefs before the meeting ended amicably. On October 13, 1804, the expedition halted west of here for two hours to administer the court martial of Private John Newman for mutinous expressions; he was sentenced to seventy-five lashes and disbanded from the party, and the expedition then continued on to make camp for the last time in South Dakota between the former townsites of LaGrace and Vanderbilt.