April, 2009 on Highway 2, crossing Two Medicine River just before East Glacier and Marias PassHad the expedition taken the left-hand fork, it would have arrived at Glacier National Park in the vicinity of present East Glacier. It would have gone over the Continental Divide at Marias Pass- the route that the Northern Pacific Railroad later used, and still uses today. That would have put the expedition in the Columbia River drainage-down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River to the Flathead, then south until eventually making a junction with the Clark's Fork, running north to the Columbia. As the crow flies, this would have been the shortest route, but it would have taken the party through an incredible jumble of mountains and whitewater, without horses. At the least, the odds would have been against the men and their captains.
Excerpt from Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West ,
by Stephen E. Ambrose
4 comments:
Ah, isn't Undaunted Courage incredible!!! Ambrose did a great job. I must confess..... I have never been to Glacier. Isn't that awful! This is a beautiful picture, I love seeing your neck of the woods!
A book I would love to read someday! Glad for the travel comforts we have now-a-days, and the good ol' GPS! I guess we can thank Lewis and Clark for making the first maps.
Did I ever tell you the story about the bear sighting along this stretch of the road???????
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou dear! You ABSOLUTELY MADE MY DAY! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
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