Lewis & Clark
DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL EPISODE 5
In April we introduced a revised and expanded version of Michael
A Dinosaur, Plesiosaur and Prairie Dogs
H
ow would you go about capturing a prairie dog to send to the President of the United States? And why would you want to do it in the first place? Many readers who have tried to catch a mole in their lawn or garden will get a kick out of what Lewis and Clark did. By August 1804, Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery had made their way up the Missouri River to present day South Dakota. While French trappers had been in the area for at least 75 years, the Corps of Discovery members were the first Americans to see the vast expanse of the Great Plains, which was a virtual Garden of Eden. Every time they saw a new animal, they shot at least one so Lewis or Clark could make the detailed examination needed to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s instructions to document unknown plants and wildlife they encountered. In the first four months of their journey, they had seen many new species of animals, including the coyote, magpie, gray wolf, mule deer, pronghorn (often wrongly called an antelope), and prairie dog. Prairie dogs fascinated Lewis and Clark, and they saw a staggering number. Some biologists believe there were 5 billion prairie dogs at that time, while 200 years later they were candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act. As late as 1905, a government scientist found a village
Perry’s popular series. In the new book, Dispatches from the Discovery Trail, edited by Hal Calbom and excerpted below, CRRPress includes an in-depth author interview and new illustrations and commentary.
covering an area the size of West Virginia and housing an estimated 400 million prairie dogs! Flush them out!
Lewis was so intrigued by the prairie dog that he decided to catch a live specimen to ship to Washington, D.C. Clark wrote “near the foot of this high Nole we discovered a Village of an annamale… which burrow in the grown. The Village of those little dogs is under the ground a considerable distance. We dig under 6 feet thro rich hard clay without getting to their Lodges.” Patrick Gass reported “Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke with all the party… took with them all the kettles and other vessels for holding water in order to drive the animals out of their holes by pouring in water; but though they worked at the business till night they only caught one of them.” According to Clark, “Some of their wholes we put in 5 barrels of water without driving them out, we caught one by the water forceing him out. The Village of those animals Covs. about 4 acrs of Ground on a Gradual decent of a hill and Contains great numbers of holes on the top of which those little animals Set erect make a Whistling noise and whin alarmed Slip into their hole. A bit of arsenic ought to do it
Earlier, Clark had written of a close call Lewis experienced: “by examination this Bluff Contained Alum, Copperas, Cobalt, Pyrites; a Alum Rock Soft & Sand Stone… also a clear Soft Substance
which… I believe to be arsenic. Capt. Lewis in proveing the quality of those minerals was Near poisoning himself by the fumes & tast of the Cobalt which had the appearance of Soft Isonglass. Copperas & alum is very pisen, Capt. Lewis took a Dost of Salts to work off the
effects of the arsenic.” Three days later, Lewis was still suffering: “Capt. Lewis much fatigued from heat the day it being verry hot & he being in a debilitated State from the Precautions he was obliged to take to prevent the effects of the Cobalt, & Minl Substance which had like to have cont. page 9
… they only caught one of them ... Spending most of September 7, 1804, digging and flooding their tunnels, the crew managed to catch just one prairie dog. Lewis had a cage built for it with the intention of shipping it back to Washington D.C. for President Jefferson to see firsthand. Lewis loaded the caged prairie dog onto the keelboat and fed it every day in an effort to keep it alive. The crew would continue up the Missouri until the end of October when they reached the Mandan Indian villages near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. Seven months after it was captured, the live prairie dog was loaded onto the keelboat, along with various plant and animal specimens, for the trip back to St. Louis. While it took more than five months to travel from St. Louis up to the Mandan villages, the return trip took just a month and a half. From St. Louis, the cargo was put on another boat and sent down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Another ship took the cargo through the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and up the coast to Baltimore. In August 1805 (almost a year after it was captured), the prairie dog arrived in Washington, D.C., alive! However, Jefferson was
Michael Perry enjoys local history and travel. His popular 33-installment Lewis & Clark series appeared in Columbia River Reader’s early years and helped shape its identity and zeitgeist. After two encores, the series has been expanded and published in a book. Details, page 2.
still at Monticello, and did not arrive in Washington until October 4, 1805. Jefferson then shipped the prairie dog to a natural history museum in Philadelphia, where it lived until at least April 5, 1806.
O. P E R R Y
dispatches MICHAEL
from the
No mere barking squirrel, he.
Discovery Trail with
HAL CALBOM DEBBY NEELY
by woodcut art
A LAYMAN’S
K
LEWIS & CLAR
Columbia River Reader / August 15, 2021 / 7
