The Lewis and Clark Expedition Across Missouri Marker in North Kansas City

This historical marker is located at a place where Lewis and Clark's team pulled their boats through several challenging portions of the Missouri River during their 1804 expedition. Rather than battle the strong current and eddies in this part of the river, the expedition physically towed their boats and gear through this part of their journey. The famed expedition began in May of 1804 and lasted until September, of 1806 as the explorers traveled along the Missouri River on a mission to chronicle the lands in the interior of the North American continent as they searched in hope of finding a water route to the Pacific Ocean. In June 1804, the team arrived in what would later become Kansas City where they battled weather, sandbars, mosquitoes, and rattlesnakes. However, they also observed and documented natural wonders, including birds that are now extinct. 

On June 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition moved along the Missouri River towards modern-day Kansas City and the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, which Capt. William Clark calculated as a little more than 366 miles from the mouth of the Missouri River. The expedition attempted to traverse the river on a keelboat and two narrow canoes, but the current proved too strong for the boat crews to row, pole, or sail. Thus, the team put down their oars and resorted to pulling the boats with a towrope through challenging sections of the river. Towing the boats proved arduous because of the scorching sun and oppressive summer, as well as the difficult footing created by the timber growing to the edge of the bank. 

In addition to complex currents and poor footing, the expedition dealt with sandbars, and they had an encounter with a rattlesnake. The group endured a brutal passageway on the Blue River, or Blue Water River, entering its south side where large swirling eddies and a narrowed stretch made the route tricky. After successfully making it past the demanding portion of the river, the party saw and killed a large rattlesnake on the bank -- an all too common experience for Louis and Clark's team throughout their trip to the Pacific. In the afternoon, the men confronted a bad sandbar near the site of present-day Case Par. The crew had to overcome their tow rope breaking twice, leading to an exhausting endeavor. 

But, typical of the expedition, the journey provided opportunities to witness and document the natural wonders. Just before sunset, Clark noted that the party saw a flock of Carolina Parakeets, the first recorded sighting of these colorful and once plentiful but now extinct birds along the Missouri River. The team eventually rested on land in present-day Wyandotte County, Kansas, near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers; they remained there for two days. 

Barth, Gunther, ed. The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Selections from the Journals Arranged by Topic. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1998.

Fischer, William Jr. "The Lewis and Clark Expedition Across Missouri." The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. December 16, 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=67770.

Kansas Historical Society. "Lewis and Clark in Kansas" Kansapedia. kshs.org. Accessed April 6, 2022. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/lewis-and-clark-in-kansas/12129.

Soldier, Lydia Whirlwind. "Lewis and Clark Journey: The Renaming of a Nation." Wicazo Sa Review 19, no. 1 (2004): 131–43.