In 1819, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun authorized an expedition to the American frontier. Calhoun’s goal was to establish a military outpost at the mouth of the Yellowstone River in present-day North Dakota.
There was a hint of scandal right from the start. Calhoun awarded the contract for transportation and equipment purchases to James Johnson, the brother of Congressman Richard Johnson. Richard was chairman of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War. He had considerable influence over financing the adventure. Perhaps influenced by the potential to make a handsome profit, James purchased inferior equipment and then sold it to the expedition at an inflated price.
The expedition was led by Colonel Henry Atkinson and Major Stephen Long. They hired a crew of specialists in zoology, geology, cartography, journalism, art, and botany to accompany the expedition. It was the first government-funded expedition charged with mapping, studying, documenting, and exploring the vast area of uncharted land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
An advance party set out in 1818, establishing a winter encampment near where Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, stands today. The rest of the expedition was scheduled to set out in March 1819. The departure was delayed because Johnson had difficulty providing the supplies needed for an expedition numbering about 1,100 participants. Johnson finally provided five steamboats, and the expedition set out.
The expedition slowed to a crawl as the steamboats made their way up the Missouri at an agonizingly slow pace. On this day in 1819, the steamboat Western Engineer was finally approaching Fort Lisa, a trading post owned by William Clark about twenty miles north of present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa. Atkinson decided to establish encampments and spend the winter there.
It did not go well. The men suffered over the winter, and one of the encampments was flooded in the spring. Calhoun then ordered Atkinson to abandon the attempt to reach the Yellowstone. One writer called it “an unqualified failure, if not a huge fiasco.” Many observers thought it would have been better to use mules rather than attempt to get steamboats up the notoriously challenging Missouri River. It wouldn’t be until 1832 that a steamboat would reach the Yellowstone River.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- Missouri Encyclopedia. “Yellowstone Expedition of 1818-1820.” https://missouriencyclopedia.org/events/yellowstone-expedition-1818-1820Accessed 8/22/2026.
