Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/189



while the distance by river was more than eighteen miles. No large bodies of timber were mentioned as occurring along the river valley, until the explorers reached the mouth of the Great Sioux River. Few Indians were found, and large flocks of prairie chickens, geese, ducks and sandhill cranes were frequently seen.

At the mouth of the Great Sioux River they were assured by the interpreter, M. Durion, that the river was navigable for a distance of more than two hundred miles, where the great falls would be found. He also described a creek which emptied into it just below the falls, which he said passed through a bluff of red rock, out of which the Indians made their pipes. These pipe stone lands were by agreement among the Indians, far and near, declared to be neutral grounds, where hostile tribes often met peaceably upon the banks of Pipestone Creek to secure their caluments of peace.

The further progress of the expedition cannot be given here in detail, as the history of its great explorations fills volumes. It need only be stated that it was conducted with courage and judgment and was eminently successful in procuring a vast fund of information as to the character of our newly acquired possessions. The explorers ascended the Missouri River to its source in the Rocky Mountains and crossed the divide to the head waters of the Columbia, which empties into the Pacific Ocean in Oregon. They proceeded down this river, making friends of all Indian tribes they met, often procuring supplies of them.

On the 16th day of November, 1805, they pitched their tents on the shores of the Pacific Ocean at Haley's Bay. Selecting a grove of lofty pines below the mouth of the Columbia River, the party erected comfortable cabins and went into winter quarters for the second winter since leaving St. Louis. Game was plenty and large numbers of Indians visited them, exchanging provisions for goods, and thus they passed a comfortable winter in the remote