Battle Axes (Shields’s Fort Mandan Manufacture)

During the winter of 1804-1805 at Fort Mandan, expedition blacksmith John Shields and fellow smith Alexander Willard devised an ingenious economy: they cut a burned-out stove into small squares and forged them into battle axes and war hatchets, which they traded to the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples for badly needed corn. Lewis noted in his journal on February 5, 1805: “They are peculiarly attached to a battle ax formed in a very inconvenient manner in my opinion, it is fabricated of iron only.” The axes Shields produced were variations of the spontoon tomahawk form, with a spear-point blade. This type became known as the “Missouri war hatchet” and was highly favored by tribes of the Great Plains. This improvised manufacturing represents one of the most important examples of frontier adaptation on the expedition.