Morgan Episode 53 L and C

The transcription is a conversation between two hosts of a podcast called "Illiquid History." They talk about their day and discuss the hardships faced by explorers Lewis and Clark during their expedition. The hosts mention that the explorers built a fort called Fort Clatsop and traded with a local tribe for food. They also mention that the explorers made candles, boiled ocean water for salt, and made clothing from elk hide. The hosts discuss how the explorers estimated their journey using cartography and documented new animal and plant species. They mention that the explorers eventually returned home and faced difficulties trading for goods on their way back. Lewis, one of the explorers, struggled with his mental health during the journey. Click. Recording. And it's going, right? Okay. Okay. Third time's the charm. Hands away, Emily! That was a pose right there. I guess I'll do like a previously on really, really quick. Okay. Previously on Illiquid History. Travel. I meant to say like adventure, but travel came out. And then they went to the beach. Let's hang out here for a few months. And then they went home, and it was great. I'm going to put it in our blooper reel. All right. Let me know when you're ready to start. Okay. Welcome to Illiquid History. Thank you. This is a podcast where two crazy ladies talk about events in history. I'm Morgan, joined by my wackadoodle co-host, Emily! My brain, you are a wackadoodle, and my brain is going like faster than the speed of light for some reason. I don't know what's going on. That's exactly what it's doing. Please tell me what you did today. Mmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You were inside the car, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it was May, June, July, August, September. Seven months since anyone had heard from them. No one even knew if they were still alive or not. So... Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not like anyone would know where to find you either. You could be in the Rockies. You could be in Canada. Like, you could have fallen prey to an aggressive Native tribe. Like, there was no telling. They really did. They really, really did. Oh, that's a spoiler alert. That was a spoiler. Right, but I was going to say, like, on their way back, that was the only man who had died this entire... Oh, okay. Well, let's restate it. Oh, whatever you want to do, I'm sorry. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's really wild to think about. So they ended up building another fort named Fort Clatsop after the local tribe near what's now present-day Astoria, Oregon. They built, like, a pretty sturdy wooden fort. The captains handed out the last of their tobacco rations to those that used tobacco, and to everyone else that didn't use tobacco, they handed out silk handkerchiefs as Christmas presents. Yeah. And they had no more booze because they drank it all on July 4th. So this is what we got. Yeah. I have no clue. Mm-hmm. From what the documentary said, and I'll get into it a little bit later, but there's almost no physical evidence left of their expedition. So I don't know if any of the forts still remain. It was over 200 years ago, and it was just wood, and especially Fort Clatsop, it just rains constantly. So I don't know if there's any more evidence of the fort. Okay. There you go. They probably used the replica in the documentary because they had, like, reenactments and stuff. Yeah. It's really good. Mm-hmm. Great. Yeah. Where was I? So while they were at Fort Clatsop, it rained every day for four months. I think the documentary said it only didn't rain for, like, four days. It rained almost every single day, and all they had to eat was elk for breakfast, lunch, dinner, no salt. You get red meat. But they were able to trade occasionally with a local Clatsop tribe for some salmon, some roots, but really it was just elk. But the men honestly, like, stayed in relatively good spirits. Like, it was hard for sure, but they were just like, okay, we just got to wait out this winter, and then we can go home. Right. I know, and all the roots, and, yeah, it was wild. And so while they were there, they made candles from, like, the rendered fat from the elk. They boiled ocean water for salt. Like, they had a whole operation. They made, like, 20 gallons of salt probably for trade because they were like, we have nothing left to trade, so maybe we can trade for salt. I don't know. Yeah, right. Yes. And they made leather out of all the elk hide. So they are, like, they're making new clothes from the salt because, again, like, their clothes basically rotted away. I don't know if I mentioned this, but when they were having to circumvent all those waterfalls, and it took, like, a month, they were walking over, like, cactus and prickly pears, and they had to replace their shoes, like, every two days because they were just falling apart. Yeah, it was really bad. So they were, like, stocking up on leather and everything they would need to survive the trip back. So Clark was, while, like, they were waiting out, he, Clark was, like, finishing up his cartography of their travels, and he estimated they had traveled, like I said earlier, like 4,162 miles. He was only off by 40 miles. He didn't have GPS. He didn't have a map. They made the map. Yeah, I'm sure he had, like, sextants and gyroscopes and all that, but still, like, he was, they, in the documentary, one of the historians said, by dead reckoning, he was only off by 40 miles, which is wild to me, I know. Nope. Yeah, I thought that was extremely impressive. And also, while Clark is doing his thing, Lewis is going back and getting into more detail on the plants and animals they had encountered. On their trip, they discovered 122 new animal species and 178 new plant species that had never been documented before. Yeah. Or, like, even just thinking about, like, buffalo or prairie dogs or, like, all the, I don't know what, I know reptiles are more, like, in the desert, like the Death Valley, but I'm sure they encountered, like, crazy amounts of wildlife. Well, yeah, 122 new animal species. So, time to go home. Yep, let's go back. On March 16, 1806, Lewis cataloged everything they had left for trade, and everything they had left could fit into two handkerchiefs. Yeah. And they encountered several tribes on the way there, like, many, many, many, more than I described in my retelling, like, all throughout their journey. But they did have a lot of lead and powder left in rifles, and they had paper and ink. So, that was really all they had left. And the four months between November and March, while they were, they were still close to the Columbia River. They weren't right on the coast, but they were still close enough that every single day they looked for a trading vessel of some kind. Not one showed up in, like, five months. Not a single trading vessel showed up. I'm not sure. I know it did happen, because the western U.S. had been mapped, like, up to 100 miles, because, like, Mount Hood had been discovered. So, there was trade with the tribes in the area. Like, the tribes all had, like, European goods, like, hats and rifles and stuff like that. So, there was trade that did happen in that area, but it may just not have happened in, like, the cold winter months. So, they're like, all right, well, we tried. We're just going to start going back home. So, by the end of March, they started getting ready to make the trek back home. So, they get back on the Columbia, and it's much harder this time, because now they're going against the current, and the river is flowing into the ocean. So, there's a very strong current. They're having to go against, like, the tidal current and all that. So, it's very, very slow going, and food was very difficult to come by. So, they're going back through the Chinook tribe territory. They're having to trade for goods, and things were extremely expensive. They could barely afford anything, and they reported that some of the people there were stealing from them, like, out of their hands. And it got so bad, apparently, this isn't funny, but Lewis, like, slapped some boys or some men, which was very against his character. Like, Lewis was not an aggressive person. And, again, well, Lewis already, like we talked about in the last episode, he really struggled with his mental health, and he was able to kind of keep it manageable on the way there, because everything's, like, it was hard. It was laborious, but the thrill of discovery and adventure was new, and he was able to keep it manageable. But on the way back, like, he was very irritable. He was not as able to keep his mental health as manageable on the way back. And he even stole a canoe from someone, which, again, was, like, it went against the nature of their expedition. Like, there was no, like, their motto was do no harm. And I saw this in a couple different things. I'm not entirely sure how it came out, but I reported that Lewis's dog was stolen as well. I've heard that he was able to get it back. Most evidence points to yes, but nothing is definitive because he didn't write about his dog very often. So I'd say there's, like, an 85% chance he got his dog back. Yeah. And then, like, again, Lewis, you know, he was irritable. He started lashing out at his crew a lot, and he got really, really depressed. So it was a little harder to manage. By May, they were back with the Ninipuu tribe, and the Ninipuu, they had become really good friends, and they treated them very kindly. They gave them free food. I think the documentary said gave them horses to eat. I don't know. You do what you can, I guess. Yeah. But they were playing games together. Like, each culture was, like, teaching each other their own games. They danced. They really did, especially after being just in rain for months and months and months. And, yeah. And then the tribe elders of the Ninipuu tribe pledged peace with the U.S., and they said, we will never go to war with the U.S., and they never did, even with all the bullshit that was going on with the fucking, I don't, yeah. Like, the Trail of Tears is what went through the southern U.S., but, like, there were things that happened. Yeah, like the Indian Removal Act. Like, that was such bullshit. And if you think back to it, like, they originally, when the Lewis and Clark expedition were making their way through, they were like, yeah, let's, like, kill them and steal all their stuff. And there was one woman that was there. Let me find her name. I want to make sure I get it right. Wat Kuis. She was like, no, like, let's not attack them. Let's be friends with them. And they're like, okay. And then they were, like, best friends. Yay, Wat Kuis. Yeah. So, and I didn't, they didn't mention it in the documentary, but I saw in other sources where they were with the Nimipoo tribe, and they were wanting to go ahead and start getting over the Bitter Rock Mountains, which is the area of the Rocky Mountains in, like, Montana. But there's too much snow, and they couldn't make it, so they had to double back and, like, wait a week or so for more of the snow to melt. And that was the only time they had to, like, backtrack in the entire expedition. I don't think so, either. And it was only a week. Like, that's, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that, as bad as it could have been. And by June, the Nimipoo helped them navigate back over the mountains. So, I don't know if you have the skit up with the pictures. I'm just going to reference the map. So, do you see on the purple trail is their return trip? And you see where, like, in the Oregon country, it splits where Clark goes south and then Lewis goes north. So, it's here where there's a fork between the Columbia and the Yellowstone River. I believe it's the Columbia and Yellowstone. Things were kind of going back and forth on that. But they decided, okay, since we kind of missed all of this on our way up, because, like, they travel through just marsh, basically, and, like, the source water for the Missouri River. They're like, okay, did I say Columbia? I meant Missouri. I apologize. The Missouri and the Yellowstone River. Clark was like, okay, we're going to, they separated into, like, four separate groups. So, Clark and Lewis went their separate ways. And then they had groups that, like, Clark and his group, like, traveled on horseback. Well, one of their, they had a group that traveled along the river to kind of keep all their stuff. And then Lewis had the same thing, where he had some people that went on horseback and then another little group that stayed on the river. And they just kind of, like, took some more notes. They saw some more things. Clark and his group, and he had Charbonneau, Sacagawea, their son, and a few other people. They had a great time. They were chill. They saw some rocks. They saw some mountains. There was a mountain structure that Clark named Pompey's Tower, after Sacagawea and Charbonneau's son, who they called Little Pomp. And he actually carved his initials into the sandstone there. And it's still there. It's, like, one of the only physical, like, remnants of their expedition left. I know, right? Yeah, that's crazy. So, yeah, they were just chill. Lewis, on the other hand, they went up around the Marias River. And they were in Blackfeet territory. And the Blackfeet Native Americans were the leading power in the region. They were very aggressive. They weren't, you know, like, just all out at war. But there was a very strict power structure where they were on top. And a lot of the tribes that Lewis and Clark had encountered were below the Blackfeet. So Lewis and his party ran into a couple scouts from the Blackfeet tribe. And they met up and they're like, okay, you know, like we'll just keep an eye on each other, but we'll be cool. But then Lewis had to be like, oh, we're going to bring so much trade into the region. And the Shoshones and the Hidatsas and the Mandans, like, they're all going to have all this trade. It's going to be great. And then the Blackfeet were like, you guys want to disrupt our entire power structure and our entire economy. And he's just so, like, starry-eyed and just so happy. And he's like, these things are going to be great. And they're like, no, we don't want you to do that. So the scouting party at some point in the night tried to steal their rifles and their horses and a big brawl breaks out. I think it was Julliard. One of the men ended up stabbing a Blackfoot scout. And then Lewis shot another one of the warriors and they died. Yeah. And so the rest of the warriors left. Lewis and his group were like, we've got to get the fuck out of here. There's going to be a war party seeking revenge. Yeah, we got to GTFO. They rode for 24 hours straight without stopping. They're still on the river. There's, like, established rendezvous points that they were going to meet at. Because they knew where the fork was. Because, remember, they had made the decision, like, where to split up. But they didn't take the Missouri. They took the Marianas River back. And then, like, eventually that would lead into the Missouri River. But, yeah, they're on the river. They're sailing down. And I don't know, like, when they made it to the, like, his canoe party made it to the rendezvous point. At some point, Lewis got shot at some point. He was fine. But I think it was while they were hunting. But, yeah, he just got over it. But when they rode for 24 hours straight, they went 120 miles. In 24 hours on horseback. They got the fuck out of there. Yeah. The Blackfoot tribe, yeah. They were trying to put as much distance between them as possible. And this next part, this would be, you would see this in a movie, and you'd be like, no, no, that's unrealistic. Literally, as Lewis and his party are riding up to the river, they see Clark's canoe party rounding the bend towards the rendezvous point. Like, at the same time. It happened. Like, Spain tried twice, which I'll get into a little bit. But Spain tried this twice and couldn't do it. But somehow the expedition was able to do this. Yeah. They made great time. And literally, like, they rounded the bend in their canoes, and they're like, go, go, go. They literally ditched the horses, got into the canoes, and they're like, let's go, let's go, let's go, onto their canoes down the river. Yeah. So, they, Lewis and Clark and all of the men, they meet up at the rendezvous point. And no, they don't meet up at the rendezvous point. They meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. And they meet up at the rendezvous point. They meet up at the rendezvous point. And now, they're back on the Missouri River, and they are traveling with the current. So, now they are, these men are so ready to go home. They are hauling ass. So, about, give or take, their journey up, they average about 14 to 15 miles a day, because they are traveling against the current of the Missouri River. Right. Like, they have the, I can't remember what it's called. I keep wanting to call it a towboat. It's not a towboat. But they have, like, a bigger boat and, like, some canoes. And they're on the canoes traveling with. They're averaging 70 miles a day. Yeah. And they're just so ready to get home. So, by August, they reach the Mandan tribe, which I think before it had taken them, like, four months to get between the Nimipu and the Mandan tribe, where this time it took, like, a month, maybe two. So, they are hauling ass. So, they get there, and John Coulter, who is part of the expedition, he parts ways. He's like, I don't want to go back home. The wilderness calls to me. So, he joins some American fur trappers. Yeah. I think one source I was reading, I don't remember which source it was, but they said that John Coulter would be terribly lonely in St. Louis. So, I know. And I don't know what that meant. I assume that means that he didn't really have anyone waiting for him back home. So, he just was like, all right, I'm just going to keep being in the wilderness. Yes. Yes. So, he went with some fur trappers. Chardonnay, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste, who is her son, also rejoined the Mandan tribe, parted ways, and they agreed that Jean Baptiste would go live with Clark in, like, a year. I guess so he could be raised in, like, quote, unquote, proper society. I don't know. It's, yeah, it is weird. But that was just the agreement they came to, and Clark was like, yeah, he will be in my ward, I guess. And a Mandan chief and his family joined them on the way back. So, it looked a little exchanging here and there. He was like, we want to go to the U.S. Yeah. So, now they only spent three days in the Mandan tribe this time, because they were ready to go. And they're on their way. And eventually they encounter the Teton Sioux, or the Lakota. And remember on their journey up, things were very tense. They did not really get along. Things didn't turn violent, but things could have. And Black Buffalo, who is one of the chiefs that ended up diffusing the situation the first time, he was, like, calling them or hailing them. And literally Clark gets up and was, like, yelling at him from the canoe, like, F you. You guys suck. Y'all are assholes. We're not stopping. And they didn't stop at all. Like, they just kept going. And then Black Buffalo is, like, shrugging, like, what? I saved y'all's asses last time. But, yeah. So, but they didn't stop. They just kept going. And, like I mentioned, I kind of spoke a little bit earlier. So, remember the last episode, Spain was, like, no, these guys aren't navigating the Western Americas. Like, they're going to infiltrate Spanish territory, and they're going to want to conquer Spanish territory, because Spanish territory went all the way up to, like, Montana. And so Spain is trying to send intercept teams to, like, stop the expedition. So they missed the first time by, like, a week. Or, yeah, I think it was a month. I think you're right. It was, like, a month. They tried again, and they missed them again. Which, like, it's, like, trying to hit, it's, like, trying to hit, like, a speck of dust by, like, Mars. Like, with a bullet. You know, like, it's no way. It's impossible. They are, the bond between them is stronger than anything on any force of nature. So on their way back, they're, again, they're booking it. The only real stop that they made besides to, like, camp for the night was at Floyd's grave. And Floyd was the man who had passed away from presumably appendicitis on the way up. And he is the only person that passed away in this entire expedition. And it wasn't even from, like, starvation or, like, exposure or from, like, another tribe or anything. It was from most likely appendicitis, which no one could have stopped. Yeah. But you couldn't have planned for that. And even if he was, like, in a city in the U.S., like, I doubt he could have been treated effectively. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. We just traveled back in time 20 years. All right. We're going to fast forward to 2024 and then backtrack to 1886. You need to put the glasses on. So, the expedition, they're still making their way back. They start encountering more traitors. And they're still making their way back. And they're still making their way back. And they're still making their way back. And they're still making their way back. And they're still making their way back. And they're still making their way back. They start encountering more traitors on their way back. And the traitors are giving them, like, free supplies and goods and booze just for information. Because they just traveled all this way and they're like, hey, what do I need to know? And they're like, oh, yeah, like, there's grizzly bears and friendly tribes and not friendly tribes. And they're like, here's whiskey. Thanks. Bye. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Worth a bunch of whiskey, apparently. And they're also, like, talking with the traitors. And they're like, oh, yeah, like, everything's your dead, you know. And they're like, but we're not dead. So, like, they are, like, getting closer and closer. Like, they're just like, we've got to get home. They are booking it. They literally start traveling nonstop. They don't even stop to hunt at this point. They're like, we've got a couple snacks. Let's keep going. They traveled 120 miles in one day. Yeah. Like, not even 24 hours, like, on horseback. In, like, one daylight cycle, they traveled 120 miles. They are, it is, like, August, September. So, I don't know specifically when. And then, finally, they see a cow. And they're like, we are in domestic civilization. A cow. They literally start cheering. They are so excited. They're like, we're home. And, like, they enter into St. Louis. And everyone that can see that they're coming in gathers around and starts cheering as they pull into port in St. Louis. Huge celebration. Huge party. So, this is what's crazy. And I did the math. When they left on their journey back in 1804, it took them six months to get from St. Louis to the Mandan tribe. It took them one month to get back. Oh, yeah. But they're in handmade canoes from, like, cottonwood trees. And these men, and these men, they are haggards. Like, they have not bathed in, like, two years. Their beards are probably by their knees. They're in, like, handmade leather that they hunted themselves. They're probably all skinny as hell because they've only been eating elk for, like, a year. It is crazy. But they make it back home. Yes. So, my next section is titled Just Rewards. We're getting close to the end. So, everyone fucking partied, especially the expedition. They, you know, they were done. They completed. They completed in this amazing expedition. So, on their way back, so they're traveling from St. Louis to Washington, D.C. And every city they stopped in threw, like, the biggest fucking party for them. Like, senators and government officials and, like, town leaders were just, like, fucking party. And they did. One senator said that it was as if they had returned from the moon, which is super ironic because in the PBS documentary I watched, they kept comparing this expedition to, like, the moon landing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, they get to D.C. Congress is like, y'all did such a good job. We're paying you double, which was great. And all of the men were rewarded 320 acres of land for farming and stuff. I assume. Like, if. Go to Montana. No, I think it was, like, if there were 320 acres to claim, they could claim whatever land they wanted. Because one guy went to, like, New Hampshire, I think. And then Lewis and Clark each got 1600 acres because they were, like, the captains and the leaders and stuff. So, they get back. And Lewis, who, again, is Jefferson's personal secretary, they meet up. And no one really knows what happened in this meeting. Neither of them wrote about it. And it's not like there's video cameras. But there's one report that they got, like, they were on their hands and knees on the floor looking at, like, maps and stuff. And Lewis was, like, explaining everything. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, after they get their rewards, everyone goes their separate ways. John Ordway, who his journals were used a lot in the documentary I watched, he went to New Hampshire, got married, settled his land. Happy life. Joseph Whitehouse, he was another man who had a journal that was used extensively. He reenlisted in the Army for the War of 1812, but then deserted and disappeared forever. Don't know what happened to him. Yeah. Several other crew members went back out west, but three were killed by Blackfeet natives, including George Julliard. And Coulter, who, remember, like, separated at the Mandan tribe, he narrowly escaped being killed in this specific attack, wandered hundreds of miles naked and alone and stumbled onto what would be known as Yellowstone. Yes. And he was in the wilderness. Maybe his clothes fell off. Maybe he ate them. I don't know. I don't know. But he was found naked, and he had to wander, like, hundreds of miles, like, just surviving off the land. And when he was found, he was talking about, like, this land that was covered in smoke and steam and pillars would, like, jut out at you. And it was very hostile. And people were like, oh, LOL, this crazy man. We'll call this, like, Coulter's Hell or whatever. But it was Yellowstone. Like, he was telling the truth. He wasn't just, like, shell-shocked from surviving in the woods for months. I actually don't know. I've never been to Yellowstone. So if we go, we need to look at and see if there's any memorial or statue for Coulter. Because, oh, my God. I can't imagine, like, stumbling into Yellowstone with not even a shirt on your back. Like, people die. Like, people still die there. Like, there's very specific trails you have to walk on. If you fall off, you will die. Like, you will boil alive. Your skin will fall off. You'll be eaten by bacteria, whatever. Well, you have to stay on the path. Yeah. And be clothed. Yeah. Don't fall off the path. Alexander Willard, who was another person, he went off to California. Another guy named Patrick Gass, he was another, he was pretty young. In expedition, his journal was used a lot as well. He lived until 1870. He was 99 years old when he died. Yeah. He did. He lost an eye in the War of 1812. And I just thought this was, like, super patriotic. When the Civil War broke out, because, again, he's alive. When the Civil War broke out in 64, 65, when he was 90, he volunteered for the Union Army because he wanted to fight for his country. I know. You're 90. You don't have to fight anymore. You already lost an eye in 1812. Yeah, you're good. So this one has some mixed feelings. So York, who was enslaved by Clark, he continued his life as an enslaved man for several years after the expedition. He kept asking Clark over and over and again. He was like, come on, man. I literally went with you that whole way. I survived everything that you did. Don't I deserve my freedom? And Clark was like, but I need you. Like, I can't let go of you. You know, just all that kind of stuff. So not monetarily, no. Like, he didn't get the payment from Congress. He didn't get, yeah, he really didn't get anything. A few years later, I think it was like five years later, Clark finally did say yes, and York was freed. He went into business in, like, the Tennessee and Kentucky areas, but nothing is really known about him after that. It's suspected he may have died from cholera about 20 years later. But I don't know how old he was. Because, yeah, like begging another person to not be property anymore. Yeah. Sacagawea. She remained with Toussaint Charbonneau, who's her husband, and traveled to St. Louis with him whenever they did that. In 1812, she gave birth to a daughter, but unfortunately succumbed to fever shortly thereafter. So she passed away not long after. And then Clark took custody of Sacagawea's children. Like, sort of adopted them? I don't know. He did translations. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. But Clark took their children as his wards, and he married Judith Hancock, who he had, when they were discovering all these new rivers and stuff, named a river after her. So, yeah, he had been sweet on her for a while. So they got married. They had some children, and they kept Jean. Yeah. After he got married, they moved to St. Louis, and he continued as a liaison between Native tribes and the U.S. government, and was so good at his job, in 1822, he was given the official title Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Basically, yeah. Because he, before he even left on his expedition, he had a lot of really good relationships with Native peoples, and they got better during the expedition and continued to get better afterwards. So he was really good friends with a lot of Native peoples, and even petitioned for better treatment of Native Americans as U.S. settlers were starting to travel west and conflicts were starting to arise of settlers taking over land that had already been claimed by tribes, you know, all of that. And he was so good at his job, he continued to be reappointed in this position by every successive president until Clark died. Right. So William Clark died September 1, 1838, when he was 69 years old, in the home of his oldest son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, which I thought was just, like, really sweet that his oldest son was named after his best friend. Yeah. Yeah, that's a perfect name. You should do that. Morgan Corey Farah Lou. Yes, do that. That's the perfect, most beautiful name I've ever heard. All right, this next part we're going to get into is a bummer. There's going to be a trigger warning for self-harm and suicide. So if you do not feel like listening to this, you can skip forward a few minutes. Yes. Yes, please, if you feel like you need help. It's not you're not a burden. People want to help you. So please take advantage of that resource. So please take advantage of that resource. So after everyone got back, Lewis, his mental health really started to worsen. He was given a new position of governor of the Louisiana Territory. Like, all of this unexplored territory, he was made governor of it by Jefferson, which I'm sure to Jefferson it was a huge honor, but I don't think Lewis could really handle it. So Lewis relocated to St. Louis. He really struggled with finding a partner. He tried several times to woo women, was unsuccessful, so he never married. He started getting into debt. And a big thing that kind of was a driving wedge between Jefferson and Lewis was Lewis was expected to write a manuscript about their trip, about their expedition, because everything was like in journals and notes and stuff. But Jefferson wanted like one kind of manuscript and book to where all the information was. So because there were like several journals that he had to use, all the notes and stuff. And Lewis was not able to do this. He procrastinated on it. He just really, really struggled with it. And Jefferson was getting really frustrated with Lewis and his lack of follow through. So that started, Jefferson started like pushing away a little bit, started withdrawing from the friendship, which didn't help Lewis's mental health. And Lewis really struggled with the responsibilities as governor. And there were disputes between, again, like settlers, between settlers and other settlers, between settlers and tribes. And he was ignoring these disputes. He was not working to settle these at all. Lewis started drinking very heavily. He started taking opium and morphine to treat symptoms of malaria that he had contracted. And his depression continued to get worse. And again, he had already struggled with depression and his entire family seemed to have a history of it. And it was just, it was really, really bad. And in 1809, there were starting to be allegations from Washington that Lewis was misusing funds. I don't know if it was like embezzling or inappropriate, like, like sanctioning. I don't know. I don't know what it was, but he was being accused of misappropriating funds. And so he was like, okay, well, I got to go clear my name. I got to travel to DC. Before he left, Lewis wrote out a will that he gave to Clark, which is kind of a red flag. Like he's just going to just like handle this dispute, but he's given his best friend a will. It's kind of a red flag. Yeah. So Lewis is on a boat. I think he may have been with a couple of friends. I'm not sure exactly who was on this boat, but while on this boat traveling down the Mississippi, Lewis attempted suicide. He was stopped. He, like the crew members intervened. They kept him under watch. And he eventually made his way to the Natchez Trace, which is in Tennessee to start his travel to DC. He ended up at a small inn outside of Nashville. I think it's called the Grinder Inn. Mrs. Grinder, who is the proprietor, said that she heard him arguing with himself in his room, like loudly arguing with himself and like pacing the floors back and forth. And then at some point he just stopped and he sat on the front porch and watched the sunset. And other accounts say that he kept saying that Clark was going to be there. Clark was going to show up. Clark was not going to be there. So at one point that evening after the sunset, he asked one of his friends to lay down a buffalo robe. I don't know if that's like a robe made out of buffalo skin or if it's just like a big piece of pelt. I'm not sure. And told people that Clark would be coming soon. And that evening, Lewis died by two gunshot wounds, one in the head and one in the chest. It is highly suspected it was by suicide, but it's not 100% sure because there's two. But based on what the historian said, it looks like maybe in one hand he held a gun to his head and then another one to his heart and maybe pulled him at the same time. Yeah. Very, very unfortunate. And Meriwether Lewis died that night outside Nashville, Tennessee. And his grave is still there. It's in Hovenwald, Tennessee. So Lewis never left that area. His grave is still there. And bringing it back to his dog, again, no one really knows what happened to the dog. There are some rumors that his dog was with him that night and, like, wouldn't leave his grave. I'm not sure. I just thought that was very sad. But there's no firm evidence that this happened. It's just a rumor. It's very sad. This is a very, very sad ending to everything. But I thought this is, like, my last little note. All in all, thinking about... So they originally expected this journey would take between 18 to 24 months. Lewis and Clark did. They completed it in 28 months. They were only off by four months! I know! The journey to the Pacific took 18 months. They spent four months waiting out the winter, and it only took them six months to get back home. They fucking booked it. But, yeah. And because of their expedition, people started making their way out west, manifest destiny and all that. Eventually, the rest is history, which we may cover at some point. The next several, like, the next hundred years is, like, bloody history, for sure. Yeah, it's not good. But it's still important. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. We try. Yeah, I will say my next episode is none of those things. It's going to be kind of a sad one. I know. I know. It was buzzing in my head, and then I heard it mentioned on one of my favorite podcasts. I was like, all right, I guess I'm doing it. It's my sign from the universe. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So that was Lewis and Clark, the journey of the core of discovery. There's a Lewis and Clark website, lewisandclark.org. I got some stuff from. There's also lewis-clark.org. I got a little bit of information about the dog. There's an article by James J. Holmberg called Seaman's Fate, one of the suspected names of the dog, the seaman. There's also, like, Scannon or something. I don't know. And then I read an article from 1994 by Charles G. Clark from the Oregon Historical Quarterly called The Roster of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark, and that's where they're like, we don't know how many people were actually on this expedition, but this is our guess, and we think it's about 45, but we don't know. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it. I know. I was very surprised. I was like, wait, we haven't covered Lewis and Clark yet. It just popped in my brain. I was like, huh, I guess we'll do that now. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is. That's why we decided to do a history podcast so we would never run out of ideas. That was literally like when we were, because we came up with wanting to do a podcast before we nailed down what we wanted to talk about. We were just like, we just want more excuses to, like, hang out and, like, share how hilarious we are with the world. And I was like, maybe we could just, like, cover topics that are interesting to us and, like, we were just kind of figuring out. Emily was like, why don't we just do a history podcast and then we can talk about whatever we want because everything's history. And I was like, you are a genius. So, that's why. Yeah. And she came up with the name of the podcast. So, two for two, Emily. Oh, God. It was Eloquence History, and I was like, that hasn't been taken yet, right? She was like, and we were, like, Googling and, like, looking at other, because we had come up with a few and we were, like, as close to, like, an already existing history podcast. And I was like, this is perfect. And then it wasn't taken. We were like, yes. Mm-hmm. Was it that same night that we commissioned our theme song? Since, like, City, like, City Rock or City Pop or something, we really did. Because one of my really good friends, one of our really good friends, her husband has, like, he can write music and do all that stuff. And I was like, hey, could he write us a theme song? And I messaged him, and he was like, yeah, tell me what you want. And so, our initial thought was, like, like a do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Our initial thought was, like, like a do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. It was like a flute and, like, the stairs. And we're like, ah. Yeah, because we were listening. Yeah, because he was like, why don't you guys just, like, come up with some examples and send them to me, and then we can figure something out. And so, we, like, we're listening to those things. We're like, we don't really like that. And I don't even know how we got into this. I think it just popped up on YouTube. And we're like, let's listen to this. And we both listened to it. And we were, like, jamming. And we're like, we like this. And so, we sent him, like, four or five videos. Like, this is the sound we want. And he was like, really? I think so. I don't know. No, we did the music first. Because then we're, like, like, when we, we scheduled the photo shoot not for the podcast, but, like, we could also use this. Because the music turned out kind of 80s. And then, like, our photo shoot. Yeah, and we're like, hey, we could also use this for the podcast. Because that's just, yeah. We just wanted to do it. Yeah, like, Emily sent me a TikTok. She's like, let's do this. And I was like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're like, let's just do this. And I'm like, I don't even, I think, I'm sure you came up with the idea. And I was like, yeah. I'm coming into, I'm coming into town anyway. Yeah. Probably. Yeah, because I think I went, like, the next day. Because I was getting stuff for a Halloween costume. And I was like, oh, I also need to get a hat for the Indiana Jones photo shoot. And it turned out so good. I still love looking at them. So anyway, that's our backstory. Yes. Tango Studios for writing our intro and exit, intro and outro songs. We still like, I'm still jamming to our intro song every time. Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah. Tango Studios did an amazing job. Yeah, let's do that. Like, let's, we can stop talking about ourselves and end this thing. No. Look how smoothly I did that. I'm very proud of myself. Patreon.com. We may have another sticker coming out soon. Yeah. Leave reviews. Or 120. When you're really ready to get home. Yeah. Lemon squeeze. Or maybe just don't piss off native tribes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great skill to have. Not everyone has to know the thought that's in your brain all the time. I mean, if you feel for your safety, definitely lock your car. But while you're in the car with your doors closed. Oh, boy. Silly goose. Just goosen. Oh. Oh, man. K, bye!