Sulfur Spring

Non-Native arrivals in the West often followed the example of Indigenous peoples and used mineral sp

Archival Photographs from the University of Montana

Quick Facts

Significance:

Sacagawea drank from these springs when she was sick while traveling with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Amenities

4 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Trailhead

When the Lewis and Clark Expedition had almost reached her Shoshone family, Sacagawea got sick. Really sick.  

Her French-Canadian husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, volunteered her for this American military mission. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark knew that they would need to trade for horses with Shoshone people—who Sacagawea had lived with for over a decade—to cross the mountains.  

She had her infant son, Jean Baptiste, with her. He was only four months old at the time.  

What was it like to be so sick? Did her husband rock the baby to sleep while she laid in the shade of the pirogue? 

Clark and Lewis took all measures to help Sacagawea. They needed her. They could not get over the Rocky Mountains without her help. They needed her to live. 

Clark bled Sacagawea for a few days (a popular treatment in Western medicine at the time), but it likely only made her symptoms worse. He also gave her salts, bark, and opium. 

A week into her illness, the expedition reached a sulfur spring. Indigenous and non-Native people across the continent drank from sulfur springs to help heal a range of maladies.  

Soon after Sacagawea drank from the spring, she felt better. It may have been that the illness just ran its course, but regardless, she recovered and helped the group through the Great Falls portage a few days later.

Was Sacagawea still weak in those days after she drank from the spring? Could she hold her baby without feeling faint? She must have known how desperately the American men needed her—did that give her solace or add pressure to her recovering body and mind? 

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

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