In addition to leading the nation’s first exploration to the West Coast, Lewis and Clark are credited with being among the first Americans to celebrate Christmas in what would become North Dakota. The Corps of Discovery, a brainchild of third President Thomas Jefferson, sent the expedition to places on which the fledgling United States had never before officially tread. By purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France, Jefferson had doubled the size of the United States.
Lewis and Clark’s rugged trek to the Pacific Ocean became one of the most significant highlights in American history. When the explorers reached present day North Dakota in 1805 they famously met and mingled with the Mandan and Hidatsa Native Americans. Moreover, they constructed their headquarters called Fort Mandan, named for their new friends. They spent their winter in the frosty and frigid high plains.
The congregation of explorers included English and French speakers. There was York, Clark’s man servant and slave; Seaman, Lewis’ Newfoundland dog; Sacagawea, the legendary Shoshone, along with her husband, Charbonneau. Rounding out the mixture of personalities was Sacagawea’s baby son Jean Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp.
This week in 1805, the Corps of Discovery celebrated the Christmas holiday. A winter snow blanketed the ground that morning. The temperature hit 20 degrees by mid day.
Christmas was a much more modest affair than today. Captain Clark gave the men a mix of rum and water called taffia and permitted celebrational cannon fire at flag raising. Clark wrote “Some men went out to hunt and the others to dancing.”
One Corps member wrote: “We had the best to eat that could be had and continued firing, dancing and frolicking until 9 o’clock.”
The two other holidays observed by the men of the expedition were News Years Day and Independence Day.
Christmas Day became an official U.S. holiday 65 years later in 1870.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Stark
Source:
Lewis and Clark journals
