There’s no physical proof that the knife did come from the Corps of Discovery, Striker said. “There it sat until (Gross) came in and said, ‘Do you know what you have?’ ” “We never have the people or the budget,” Striker said. Officials removed the knife from display and placed it in the archives until it could be tested. Ken Karsmizki, an archeologist digging for evidence of the Corps’ winter fort at the memorial, had noticed the knife and asked permission to study it, he said. “It was on display as a random artifact, not identified specifically,” Striker said. The hand-forged knife had once been displayed in the memorial’s visitors’ center. Records show the Sacajawea Museum in Spaulding, Idaho, had traced the knife’s ownership from the Nez Perce chief who had accepted it from Lewis and Clark. It was purchased in 1961-for $20-from an Idaho museum.
#LEWIS AND CLARK CORPS OF DISCOVERY FORT ARCHIVE#
The knife had been sitting unnoticed in the museum’s archive for years. “I came to the conclusion at 4:15 and I was (at Fort Clatsop) at 4:30, asking permission to go into the archives,” he said.
The caption said the original knife was in the Fort Clatsop archives. In a book on historic knives and weapons, Gross found a crude sketch of what he was looking for. Gross, a former college professor who lives in Astoria, started to research the appearance of the knives when he set out to create replicas to sell during the upcoming bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Presumably, the knives disappeared into tribal folklore. The Corps gave at least two knives to the Nez Perce during the expedition, Gross said. Nez Perce Indians also helped the explorers find their way back across the Bitteroots on their return trip. The village agreed to trade food and other provisions with the Corps, and also promised to care for the group’s horses while the explorers wound toward the Pacific Ocean on the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers.
Warriors might have killed the white men and seized their arsenal, but instead a Nez Perce woman talked the village into taking pity on the explorers, according to historian Steven Ambrose. In 1805, the crew crossed the rugged Bitteroot Mountains in what’s now Idaho and emerged cold, hungry and exhausted, according to Fort Clatsop documents. Some other well-known figures such as Sacagawea, Toussaint Charbonneau, and Sheheke-Shote were met at this location, and visitors will have the opportunity to fully dive into learning about these important connections.And the Nez Perce Indians twice saved the expedition, said Don Striker, superintendent at Fort Clatsop. Within this fort, there are both self-guided and interpreter-led tours, with experiences focused on the Corps time spent at the fort as they built relationships with the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples. The interpretive center is primarily self-guided, however a short drive away from the center stands a replica of the actual Fort Mandan that Lewis and Clark resided in. The center is the perfect location to learn about the lives of the Native peoples of the area and all of the accompanying experiences they lived through. Today, visitors can experience exhibits, period artifacts, art collections, and interpreters who will tell stories about the Lewis and Clark Expedition right in the place where the corps themselves once stood. Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (North Dakota)ĭuring the winter between 18, the Corps of Discovery resided at Fort Mandan, a location in central North Dakota.
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