Having hurried ahead of the main body of the expedition,
Meriwether Lewis and four men arrive at the Great Falls of the
Missouri River, confirming that the explorers are headed in the
right direction. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had set out
on their expedition to the Pacific the previous year. They spent
the winter of 1804 with the Mandan Indians in present-day North
Dakota. The Hidatsa Indians, who lived nearby, had traveled far
to the West, and they proved an important source of information
for Lewis and Clark. The Hidatsa told Lewis and Clark they would
come to a large impassable waterfall in the Missouri when they
neared the Rocky Mountains, but they assured the captains that
portage around the falls was less than half a mile. Armed with
this valuable information, Lewis and Clark resumed their journey
up the Missouri accompanied by a party of 33 in April. The
expedition made good time, and by early June, the explorers were
nearing the Rocky Mountains. On June 3, however, they came to a
fork at whic