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other supplies included 1 bag candle wicks, 2 boxes candles, 1 box soap, Viewing Point:
knives, tools, cooking utensils, and medicines. Measuring instruments 1. Okobojo Point. Take SD Highway 1804 about sixteen miles north of
included a sextant, chronometer, transit, and compass. The soldiers were Pierre. After you pass the signs for Cow Creek and Spring Creek on the
armed with single shot, muzzle-loading guns. A hunter could kill a deer left, go north about two more miles. Turn left at the sign for Okobojo
at about 100 yards. Supplies for guns consisted of flints, gunpowder, lead Lake Access. Continue west to what is called Okobojo Point. From here
balls, and powder horns. Bales of Indian presents, such as: medals, beads, one can see a panoramic view of Lake Oahe and the backwaters of the
combs, arm bands, twists of tobacco, and clothing were placed on board. Oahe Dam. Near this point, both Cow Creek on the left, and Okobojo
Quantities of each of the trip’s supply items were distributed among the creek on the right flowed into the Missouri River.
keelboat and the two rowboats, in case one of the vessels sunk. A second famous expedition also camped near this point. Sixty-nine
Before leaving on the trip, the men were divided into messes of about years, after Lewis and Clark spent the night here; General George A.
seven men each. Each mess, headed by a sergeant or one of the men, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry camped here on May 23 & 24, 1873. The
cooked their evening meal over a campfire on shore. One mess consisted Seventh Cavalry consisting of 800 men, 700 horses, and numerous supply
of Captains Lewis and Clark, and Clark’s servant. Cooking utensils and food wagons were marching along the east bank of the Missouri on their way
were taken off the boats to the camping site. The only meat on board to Bismarck.
was fifty kegs of salt pork; however, the meals en route usually included
antelope, elk, deer, or buffalo shot by one of the hunters. Usually each
mess prepared enough food so there would be leftovers for the next Afterword
morning’s breakfast and noon lunch. The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific coast on November
Lewis and Clark began their journey up the Missouri River at its mouth 14, 1805. On their return trip to St. Louis, they camped in the timber
near St. Louis on May 14, 1804. More than three months later on August above Oahe Mission on August 25, 1806. At 8:00 a.m. August 26 they
21, 1804, they arrived at the mouth of the Big Sioux River in what is now passed Snake Butte and at 9:00 a.m. the mouth of the Bad River. That
South Dakota. A month after that, on September 22, 1804, they camped night they camped at the mouth of Dry Creek in Lyman County. They
on the north side of the Missouri River at the mouth of Chapelle Creek. reached St. Louis at noon, September 23,1806.
(The creek is located twenty-two miles east of Pierre, SD, intersecting
Highway 34, just east of the DeGrey Lakeside Use Area.) Mission Statement:
It is the mission of the Pierre & Fort Pierre Historic Preservation
Commission to increase public awareness of historical and archeological
properties. Publications are an educational outreach that raise public
consciousness of our cultural sites fostering the protection, evaluation,
and enjoyment of these resources. This publication achieves the
heritage tourism, public outreach and historic waterfront preservation
goals outlined in our preservation plan. Publications engage residents
in historic preservation and assist in forming partnerships between
citizens and their local governments by relating our common history and
by working together to protect it. The commission strives to encourage
the identification, evaluation, and documentation of historical and
archeological properties in the Pierre & Fort Pierre area.
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