Heart of the Monster
iNaturalist Observations
Heart of the Monster
On September 20, 1805, Lewis and six others departed from the Bitteroot Mountains into now referred to as the Heart of the Monster, which was owned by the Nez Perce villages. At this point, the whole group was worn out and starving. The Nez Perce tribe greeted them and exchanged in a trade. The Nez Perce offered food while Lewis offered some clothing as mentioned in Lewis' journal entry. "Some dried Salmon beries & roots in different States... they also gave us the bread made of this root all of which we eate hartily, I gave them a fiew Small articles as preasents, and proceeded on with a Chief to his Village 2 miles in the Same Plain, where we were treated kindly in their way and continued with them all night" Lewis and Clark reunited with the Nez Perce many times during the expedition and held an appreciation and special bond for one another.
In their departure, Lewis references the oxbow in the Clearwater River, "we then set out and proceeded along the ridge on which we had encamped, leaving which at 11/2 we passed a large creek running to the left just above it's junction with another which run parrallel with and on the left of our road before we struck the creek; through the level wide and heavy timbered bottom of this creek we proceeded about 21/2 miles when bearing to the right we passed a broken country heavily timbered great quantities of which had fallen and so obstructed our road that it was almost impracticable to proceed in many places"
