Lewis Chased by Grizzly

NPS

Meriwether Lewis took a small party of men with him and they explored upstream, ultimately finding the Great Falls of the Missouri. On June 14, 1805, Lewis assigned a variety of duties to the men and he took off on his own, with his gun and espontoon in hand.

He found beautiful waterfalls, calm sections of the river, vast numbers of geese, and immense herds of buffalo. Lewis decided he should kill one buffalo for fresh meat for his party. The process of killing the large animal distracted the Captain and he neglected to reload his rifle.

He also didn’t notice a grizzly had approached to within 20 paces of him. He raised his gun and quickly realized his error. Glancing around he found no trees for protection, and he knew he didn’t have time to load his weapon.

The bear moved at full speed, so Lewis took off on a dead run for the river – a distance of about 80 yards. His thought was to get into deep enough water so he could stand, but the bear would have to swim -- he could then use his espontoon to confront the animal. He made it into the water, and fortunately, the grizzly decided a battle in water wasn’t ideal and rambled away.

Once out of the river, Lewis quickly reloaded his rifle and returned to his solo journey.