Feast and Famine on the Lewis and Clark Trail

Abstract

The Lewis and Clark Journals (1804-1806) provide the first reliable documentation of diversity, relative abundance, distribution, and harvest of large animals in the upper Missouri plains and Columbia River corridor regions between Fort Mandan and the Pacific Ocean. The Upper Missouri plains served as a living dynamic entity with a biological diversity that was nurtured and sustained by the main arterial stem of the Missouri and its extensive network of perennial tributaries. From the Lewis and Clark Journals daily entries, I provide summaries of kills oflarge wild game by the Expedition by geographic region. I also present these summaries of game kills in context of Merriwether Lewis' 24-hr ration-unit requirement for the Expedition's personnel providing a reasonable picture of animal protein availability along the travel route through a variety of physiographic regions. East of Traveler's Rest, to the Montana-North Dakota border, the accumulation of surplus daily ration units averaged well above the daily requirement. The geographic region between Traveler's Rest and Fort Clatsop provided an average daily ration unit of one-half the needed requirement on the outward and return trip.