More on the Red Pirogue

Photo: Flowing in from the far left, the Marias River meets the Missouri. University of Montana 

Once the Expedition returned to the river in the spring of 1805, and the keelboat departed for St. Louis, the two pirogues were loaded with all supplies and materials. While the white pirogue made it to the foot of the Great Falls, the red pirogue only made it as far as the mouth of the Marias River, in mid-Montana, in June 1805.

Hidden in the woods of an island near the Marias confluence, the red pirogue likely decayed over the winter of 1805-06. When the Corps returned in the spring of 1806, they found it beyond repair and abandoned it. They removed its nails and other iron components, then proceeded down the river in the white pirogue and five dugout canoes.