Accidental Shooting at Brunot Island

Brunot's Island is pictured here in an 1881 map.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Quick Facts

Location:

Brunot Island

Significance:

Meriwether Lewis and his crew disembarked on Brunot Island on their westward journey in 1803.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

Visitor Centers (shown in orange), High Potential Historic Sites (shown in black), and Pivotal Places (shown in green) along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Three miles downriver from Pittsburgh was a large island, right in the middle of the Ohio River. It had been a stopping place for centuries.  

In 1797, Dr. Felix Brunot, a Frenchman who had come to the continent to serve with the French Army during the American Revolutionary War, arrived in Pittsburgh and started a medical practice. In 1800, he purchased the 129-acre island three miles downriver and started a farm.20 Blaise Cenas (related to Brunot by marriage) lived there, along with several other settler families. Meriwether Lewis knew Cenas and some of these other men through the Pittsburgh Freemasons. 

When Lewis and crew stopped at the island in 1803, they docked their keelboat and pirogue and came onshore—perhaps to say goodbye to their acquaintances, or maybe to pick up a few extra supplies. Whatever the reason, they stopped and chatted for a while.  

One thing led to another, and they asked Lewis to show off his air gun—maybe he couldn’t help but mention it so soon after purchasing it. Lewis had bought this specialty gun mostly to impress and intimidate Indigenous people along the way—a muscle-flexing icebreaker, rather than as a tool for hunting. 

However it came up, Lewis brought out the air gun and showed it around. Lewis shot it several times himself (“with pretty good success,” he later bragged in his journal). He then passed it to Cenas, who did not have as much success. Cenas shot a woman who was watching (perhaps a relative of his) in the head. 

She ended up being fine, but it was maybe a little too eventful for a friendly visit. Lewis and crew packed up and headed downstream.  

About this article: This article is part of a series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”