Lewis in Steubenville

This 1793 map shows Delaware and Shawnee towns along the Ohio River.

John Filson, "A Map of Kentucky" (London: J. Stockade, 1793).

Quick Facts

Location:

120 S 3rd St, Steubenville, OH 43952

Significance:

Meriwether Lewis stopped in Steubenville in 1803 on his westward journey.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

MANAGED BY:

Historic Fort Steuben

Amenities

10 listed

Benches/Seating, Entrance Passes for Sale, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Junior Ranger Booklet Available, Parking - Auto, Restroom, Trash/Litter Receptacles, Water - Drinking/Potable

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

“Stewbenville a small town situated on the Ohio in the state of Ohio about six miles above Charlestown in Virginia and 24 above Wheeling—is small well built thriving place  has several respectable families residing in it, five years since it was a wilderness”—Meriwether Lewis, September 6, 1803 

On this date, Meriwether Lewis and his small crew arrived at the American town of Steubenville.  

There had been an American fort at the site, Fort Steuben, built in 1787. It was named after Baron Von Steuben, the Prussian military leader who helped American troops during the American Revolutionary War.31 Von Steuben wrote Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, which was the U.S. military’s conduct manual at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

The fort burned down in 1790, and by 1797, settlers formed a small village near the site of the fort. In 1803, Ohio was admitted to the union as a new state. 

“Five years since wilderness.” Lewis meant that it had been five years since White American settlers started coming here. Black families, who were enslaved by the White families, were often forced to join them. Many Shawnee, Delaware, Haudenosaunee, and Cherokee people lived in the multicultural Ohio River Valley, as did folks of French, Spanish, and African descent. It was a place of commerce, a bustling highway full of traders and travelers. If a wilderness was a place with no humans, this was far from that.  

For Lewis and others of his background in that era, “wilderness” meant any place without European-style settlements.  

Steubenville was one link in the chain of America’s westward expansion.