The Blacksmiths

Photo: NPS

Several of the men of the Corps were qualified blacksmiths, including Privates Alexander Willard and William Bratton.

But John Shields was considered the “chief” blacksmith as he was the most skilled. His exceptional abilities and resourceful ingenuity were much appreciated by the Captains. Meriwether Lewis wrote about Shields in June 1805, “without having served any regular apprenticeship to any trade, he makes his own tools principally and works extreemly well in either wood or metal, and in this way has been extreemly servicable to us.”

Not only did the blacksmiths make and repair items for the other men of the Expedition, they provided services to many of the Native peoples in return for food and other items. Captain Clark wrote at Fort Mandan in February 1805, “the blacksmiths take a considerable quantity of corn today in payment for their labor… the Indians are extravegantly fond of sheet iron of which they form arrow-points and manufacter into instruments for scraping and dressing their buffaloe robes.”