Winter Holidays on the Lewis and Clark Expedition December 1804 - January 1805

Illustration by Ralph Waldo Smith

The holiday season of 1804 was celebrated at Fort Mandan near present-day Washburn, North Dakota. On Christmas Eve, many different expedition members noted the upcoming Christmas celebration.

According to Sergeant Patrick Gass’ journal, “Flour, dried apples, pepper and other articles were distributed in the different messes to enable them to celebrate Christmas in a proper and social manner”. Multiple other journals noted the same thing of this preparation to celebrate.

Christmas Day came along and the celebrations continued. There was drinking, eating, and a lot of dancing. Private Joseph Whitehouse wrote, “Capt. Clark presented a glass of brandy to each man of the party. We hoisted the american flag and each man had another Glass of brandy. The men prepared one of the rooms and commenced dancing at 10 oC”.

The New Year was rung in by two shots, “fired from this swivel, followed by a round of small arms, to welcome the New year”. Sergeant Gass also noted in his journal that, “Captain Lewis then gave each a glass of good old whiskey; and a short time after another was given by Captain Clarke. About 11 o'clock one of the interpreters and half of our people, went up, at the request of the natives, to the village, to begin the dance”. Overall, the day was filled with a lot of celebration.