Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/337



With the departure of the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark, sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson, from Wood River or River Dubois on Monday, May 14, 1804, a new era began for that part of the United States northwest of the Mississippi River.

Prior to this time few white men had penetrated into this practically unknown land. A few trappers and fur traders had wandered into the country, but this was the first organized effort to explore the hitherto inaccessible territory west of the Rocky Mountains. From the members of this expedition we have our first record of the Multnomah or Willamette River. Both Capts. Lewis and Clark kept journals of this trip, and records were kept beside their official diaries.

Sergeant Charles Floyd kept a record of the trip from the start until Aug. 18, 1804, two days before his death which occurred Aug. 20, 1804, near the present Sioux City, Iowa.

Sergeant Patrick Gass's was the first record of the trip printed and was published in 1807, and it was not until seven years later that the Biddle edition of Lewis and Clark came out.

Sergeant John Ordway also kept a journal of the full