By Lotte Govaerts

(This post was originally published on the Rogers Archaeology Lab blog on November 14, 2017. You can see the original post archived here.)

This is the second post in a blog series on my recent trip to North Dakota. Check my previous post for photos from Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. The second stop my friend Mat and I made on this trip was at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, North Dakota. It was snowing when we arrived there and the wind had picked up more, but the museum was open and we even got to tour the reconstructed Fort Mandan in the snow. Both are run by the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation.

Scan of the full map. Rivers and mountain ridges are highlighted. — “A map of Lewis and Clark’s track, across the western portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean: by order of the executive of the United States in 1804, 5 & 6.” (Image Source: Library of Congress G4126.S12 1814 .L4.)

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

After the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the government immediately set out to establish a presence in the area, explore, map, and attempt to find a river route to the Pacific. President Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition into the new territory. He and William Clark, along with their “Corps of Discovery” traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean (at the mouth of the Columbia River) and back again, between May 14, 1804 and September 23, 1806.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center has exhibits illustrating different aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition, as well as ones that illustrate local Native American and fur trade history. These exhibits include many archaeological artifacts, very similar to ones you may have seen in our various posts about our collections work.

Below are a few examples of exhibit cases at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center:

Straight-on view of bone and ceramic artifacts attached to a vertical display with text explanations. They include a bison scapula hoe, a bone flesher and shaft wrench, bone awls, a bone pendant and game piece, and ice glider, a pipe bowl, an elk tooth pendant, and a rim sherd. — Display of bone and ceramic artifacts at Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (Photo Lotte Govaerts)

A display case with whole objects as well as partial objects. The larger whole objects have signs with explanations next to them. They include a metal kettle, a musket with some musket balls, and a trade axe. The lock for a flintlock also has a sign. Below those objects are bits of metal and broken tableware, at least one of which appears to be made into a game piece. There's also a few metal thimbles among the smaller objects at the bottom. — “Trade objects” display at Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (Photo Lotte Govaerts)

The scapula hoe is attached to a wooden handle with a bunch of string. The wooden handles of other tools are also visible, but the tool parts of those are out of frame. These objects are all sitting on the floor in a corner, presumably to be used for educational activities. — A bison scapula hoe with wooden handle attached, sitting among other replica tools used for educational purposes. If you’ve been reading our River Basin Surveys collections posts, you might know that in archaeological contexts, we don’t normally find those with the wooden handles still attached, so our photos look a bit different. (Photo Lotte Govaerts)

A small room with shelves on the walls and a counter. Hanging on the walls are hats, scissors, axes, and strings of beads. On the shelves are folded pieces of cloth, string, bottles, and various other objects somewhat in the shadows. On the counter are bits of cloth with smaller objects spread out. THese iclude beads and possible jewelry, but it's hard to tell in this photo as that area is a bit washed out. — A reconstruction of what a trade room would have looked like, showing many of the items that were traded on the Upper Missouri in the 19th century. (Photo Lotte Govaerts)

Fort Mandan Reconstruction

Fort Mandan is the name of the fort Lewis and Clark (and the Corps of Discovery) constructed near the Mandan villages, where they stayed the winter of 1804–1805. The replica Fort Mandan (originally constructed by the McLean County Historical Society) is not in the exact location of the original Fort Mandan. That is because the site of the original Fort Mandan was never found. It is likely in/under the Missouri River now, as the river frequently shifted channels, and does not flow in the same place now as it did when the Corps of Discovery passed through.

Because of the uncharacteristically warm temperatures the area had seen in the days just before our arrival, ice and snow had melted inside the fort and then re-frozen. This made it impossible for the ranger who gave us the tour to open some of the doors and show us all the different rooms/exhibits, but we still got to see most of the fort. The blizzardy conditions seemed kind of appropriate for a winter fort visit.