Fort Clatsop or Bust

Day 6

Monday, Sept 15

Traveled a short distance today...about 100 miles. But, made a fairly major terrain change by moving into the prairie.

Started off by visiting yet another full-size Corps of Discovery keelboat replica (yes, Verne, there were a number built for the BiCentennial!) This one was supposed to be floating in the water at Blue Lake near Onawa, Iowa. It is in an Iowa state park and we found it sitting on a very large trailer. Was rather awkward looking up at a keelboat! We suppose they take it out of the water every winter.

We then drove about 20 miles up the Missouri to the south side of Sioux City, IA, to pay our respects at Sgt Floyd's grave. Sgt. Floyd was the only fatality of the Corps of Discovery. He expired, probably from appendicitis, and was buried on a high bluff west of the Missouri. In 1901, a large monument was built over his relocated grave. A native of Kentucky, SGT Floyd now rests in northern Iowa. As a US Army family, it is especially meaningful for us to recognize one of our fallen.

Stephen Ambrose writes:

Sergeant Charles Floyd had been desperately ill the past few days. Lewis had diagnosed his disease as "Biliose Chorlick," or bilious colic, and had nothing effective to treat it with -but, then, neither did Dr. Rush back in Philedelphia. On August 20, Floyd died, most likely from peritonitis resulting from an infected appendix that had perforated or ruptured.

Sergeant Floyd was the first U.S. soldier to die west of the Mississippi. The expedition carried his body to a high round hill overlooking an unnamed river. The captains had him buried with all the honors of war and fixed a red-cedar post over the grave with his name and title and the date. Captain Lewis read the funeral service over him. Clark provided a fitting epitaph in his journal; "This Man at all times gave us proofs of his firmness and Deturmined resolution to doe Service to his Countrey and honor to himself".

SGT Floyd's Monument, 100 feet tall.

The Missouri River viewed from Sgt Floyd's Monument.

We next drove into Sioux City. Along the waterfront is a restored and landlocked US Army Corps of Engineers riverboat named the SGT Floyd. The diesel riverboat was used for many years as a survey and inspection craft in the Missouri and Mississippi. It is now a museum about SGT Floyd and also has many models of various riverboats throughout history, many of them quite detailed.

1938 photo of the SGT Floyd, courtesy of US Army Corps of Engineers archives.

Mannequin of SGT Floyd, in the museum on the riverboat.

There is a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center operated by the state of Iowa next to the riverboat, but it is closed on Mondays. We walked around the front of Center where there are a number of well-done statues.

Lewis, Clark, and Seaman. Appears to be identical to the statue in St. Charles, MO.

Grizzly bear and elk statues.

Did very little mileage on Interstate roads today. Drove from Sioux City to Yankton, South Dakota, mostly through 2 lane roads in NE Nebraska. Nice little towns, immense fields of corn and hay on the rolling prairie. In a few places, there are remnants of prairie grass along the road.

We crossed the river, and drove along the Missouri to Yankton, a small city of about 13,000 souls. Glad to be in the Dakotas!

It snowed 3 days ago in western South Dakota, earliest snowfall on record. 7 inches at Mount Rushmore. It may get interesting in Montana and Idaho. However, warming is predicted. It is about 72 degrees right now in Yankton, SD.

Linda Adds: Towns are getting smaller in size with large farms filling the terrain. Good reminder to gas up when available. Enjoyed visiting SGT. Floyd's grave. He was a fellow Kentuckian and from Jefferson County, at that. As a Louisville grad and with lots of family in and from this area, it was good to be able to pay our respects. Many of the men on the expedition were from my home state.

Discovering the nuisance of black flies, which we in the mountains of North Carolina are not bothered by as much.