Letter
Lewis’s Letter to Jefferson from Fort Mandan
Lewis's detailed letter to President Jefferson sent back with the keelboat from Fort Mandan, providing the first comprehensive report on the expedition's progress since leaving Camp Dubois nearly a year earlier. The letter accompanied a shipment of scientific specimens, maps, and Native American artifacts.
This letter accompanied the keelboat returning from Fort Mandan with a crew of soldiers, traders, and the Arikara chief. Lewis described the expedition’s encounters with Native nations, the geography of the Missouri River, and plans for continuing westward. The shipment included plant and animal specimens (including live prairie dogs and a magpie), Clark’s maps, Lewis’s statistical tables about Native nations, and ethnographic objects. This was the last communication the expedition sent to the outside world until their return in September 1806.
