Captain William Clark’s Yellowstone River Expedition! Location: “100 Paces From The Tongue River”

[00:00:00]Hey copper nerds, this is a Jefferson peace medal. This is a reproduction of the medal that Lewis and Clark handed out to the tribal leaders they encountered when they were on the core of discovery expedition to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. And today we explored one particular landmark which was from Clark's journals where he discusses seeing the Tongue River as it flowed within a hundred paces of the banks of the Yellowstone and then meandered around for a couple of miles till it met up which is where they camped. Let's jump into it.

[00:00:41]>> [music] >> So my son Jordan's a student at Montana State University Billings. He's doing an independent study to sort of formalize scholarly research behind what I have observed as the campsite of Clark's detachment of July 29th, 1806. [music] It's a location that I always knew existed but it never really been positively identified. So I've been digging into Clark's navigation log and journals. I've located what I believe to be the site and we're continuing to research it. One of the landmarks along the way is at two miles up river from where Clark and his detachment camped he observed the Tongue River coming within a hundred paces of the Yellowstone River before it meandered around >> [music] >> and then met up with the Yellowstone at its historic mouth. Since that time a lot of things have happened. The historic mouth has been abandoned. The place where the river came within that hundred paces has since broken through and is where the mouth sits [music] now.

[00:01:36]And then since that time they've built up a dike to protect the city from flooding and then there's been railroad lines that have been put through there and a lot of dirt and earthwork. So it's sort of hard to get that true line of sight that Clark would have had when he observed the river within a hundred paces but we're going to do the best we can and we did a little bit of research today on site. So I'm going to show you some footage that we shot today discussing both the uh 100 yards location as well [music] as the ultimate campsite. So, let's get into that.

[00:02:43]So, some of this is tough to visualize cuz so much has changed.

[00:02:46]But, uh we are standing at the point where when Clark was coming down the Yellowstone mouth of the Tongue River was not yet here. This would have been bank right here.

[00:02:58]What Clark saw keeping in mind that I'm standing on top of a man-made berm, a dike that uh protects the city from both the Tongue River and the Yellowstone River.

[00:03:10]But, the Tongue River used to meander back through there and then it came through where those trees are over there.

[00:03:17]So, that was where the Tongue River used to flow as Clark came along here, but again, he would have had direct line of sight because this dike that I'm standing on didn't exist.

[00:03:29]So, from down low he would have been looking out over this way and he would have seen the river coming through the trees over there. Now, the question is is that about 100 paces?

[00:03:41]And I mean maybe a little longer than that.

[00:03:47]But, not too far off. Let's see.

[00:03:50]Don't too far.

[00:03:56]Oh, there's a fence.

[00:03:58]So, it's about 15 paces for me to get from uh there to here.

[00:04:04]I could see him calling that 100 paces out there. Now, the the the Tongue River probably broke its banks occasionally, too, but not that time of year.

[00:04:12]Um where else could he have seen it?

[00:04:17]I guess I'm He would have been lower here, maybe looking out more across this way.

[00:04:27]I mean, this is sort of the natural bank, right? He would have been looking over that bank over to about Yeah, where those buildings are like right there.

[00:04:37]I mean, that is where the old river flowed through. Um basically, though, all of those trees are along the old Tongue River channel.

[00:04:49]So, uh yeah, we are standing at Clark's 100 paces described in his journal and navigation log.

[00:05:10]The river is since been straightened.

[00:05:13]And this second mouth formed naturally, best we can tell.

[00:05:19]Uh 1806 is when Clark's detachment was coming down the river here. And then they built Fort Keogh, it's called Army Fort. Um they initially set it up over here, but then they built the permanent fort here at the confluence of the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers, um which is how they found it like this in 1876.

[00:05:41]And then we [music] have an 1879 survey map that shows uh the Tongue River connecting to the Yellowstone both here and 2 miles down the way.

[00:06:01]And again, the refresher is Clark's coming down the river.

[00:06:05]This mouth is not here yet.

[00:06:08]He looks across and sees this river as it was meandering that way.

[00:06:12]And in 1806, its only connection to the Yellowstone was 2 miles down that way.

[00:06:18]So, Clark observes that he can see the Tongue River as it's going that way, and then he traveled another 2 miles down river before he got to the historic mouth of the Tongue where he found the water too muddy to drink, crossed over and stayed on the island that we have dubbed Clark's Island.

[00:06:35]And as you can see, we have paddlefish up here.

[00:06:38]Um they are an ancient big old fish that [music] you just catch with a giant treble hook and you snag them. They don't actually You don't catch them by a hook in their mouth. You end up just catching them somewhere on their body and dragging them in. And uh I guess we can check our fish weight right there. This is a newer setup. The paddlefish didn't come quite this far up back in the day, but they do now, which is cool. So, the end of the roads where we were just at, we are down to where the old river channel [music] used to be. So, when I was pointing at the trees in the distance, we are now out to the trees in the distance.

[00:07:17]And uh this is actually city-owned property. It used to be recreationally used for ATVs and things like that. That got shut down, but we're going to be reopening it for e-bikes for kids pretty soon.

[00:07:30]But uh since this is publicly accessible, we will walk on over and just yeah, we're standing in it right now. This would be the river channel approximately. There's been some dirt work done and stuff.

[00:07:45]But, uh we are right here where the river used to flow, which Clark would have seen again the 100 paces from the Yellowstone, the Tongue meandering through. But, there has just been I mean, there's railroad tracks going through it up there. You can see those cars.

[00:08:05]Yeah, right there.

[00:08:08]But, uh yeah. We're down We're down in it now. So, this is where he saw the river flowing within 100 paces of the Yellowstone, and then continued on for 2 miles to the mouth.

[00:08:42]So, those sheep are right where the mouth of the Tongue River used to be, correct?

[00:08:48]And then [music] Clark was going to camp just past the mouth of the Tongue, right there.

[00:08:56]And then, uh but the water was too muddy coming out of the Tongue, which no longer flows through here.

[00:09:02]So, he decided to cross the river and camp on an island, which is that island, but he would have camped on the gravel bar right here, almost certainly, with that attachment.

[00:09:40]>> So, as we're exiting the 200-acre state park, this is why people call what we're standing on an island, but uh you know, not really.

[00:09:56]We just have to work around to get off of this thing, but that's been part of the confusion is that when Clark said he stayed on an island, everyone was just like, "Oh, you mean that 200-acre [clears throat] landmass?"

[00:10:11]Uh uh 200-acre landmass that's surrounded by a tiny bit of water sometimes or the actual plain-as-day island that we've identified, which is uh certainly the correct spot, but tough to get out here without getting wet at least certain times of year, now being one of them.

[00:10:40]All right.

[00:10:43]This thing's super tippy.

[00:10:53]Ready?

[00:10:54]>> Yeah.

[00:10:55]>> And we're back to the trailhead.

[00:10:58]And uh this is where we're going to get some fresh signage that talks about the Clark expedition and their campsite.

[00:11:08]But uh for now, it's largely a nature preserve.