Equipping the Expedition - Klondike Park - near Matson, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 35.033 W 090° 49.347
15S E 689667 N 4272849
This waymark includes a list (sampling) of the supplies taken west by the Corps of Discovery
Waymark Code: WMNYMA
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/25/2015
Views: 2
County of marker: St. Charles County
Location of marker: hiking trail, Klondike Park, near Matson
Marker erected by: St. Charles County Parks Department & Lewis & Clark Trail Foundation
Marker text:
Equipping the Expedition
Once named by President Thomas Jefferson to head the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis began preparations for the long trip ahead. Much of that preparation involved education: in the months prior to his departure, Lewis would learn astronomy, botany, navigation, medicine and biology, among other scientific disciplines. In addition, Lewis spent his time accumulating all the supplies that the expedition was going to need: He wrote list after list of provisions, which included guns, ammunition, medical supplies and scientific instruments. While still on the East Coast, Lewis accumulated almost two tons of goods using the $2,500 Congress had allocated for the expedition.
Clothing
• 45 flannel shirts
• Coats
• Shoes
• Frocks
• Woolen pants
• Blankets
• Knapsacks
• Stockings
Mathematical Instruments
• Surveyor's compass
• Hand compass
• Quadrants
• Telescope
• Thermometers
• 2 sextants
set of plotting instruments
chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)
Medicine and Medical Supplies
• 50 dozen Dr. Rush's "Rush's Pills"
• Lancets
• Forceps
• Syringes
• Tourniquets
• 1,300 doses of physic
• 1,100 doses of emetic
• 3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
drugs for blistering, salivation and increased
kidney output.
Presents for the Native Americans
• 12 dozen pocket mirrors
• 4,600 sewing needles
• 144 small scissors
• 10 pounds of sewing thread
• Silk ribbons
• Ivory combs
• Handkerchiefs
• 130 rolls of bright colored cloth
• Tomahawks taht double as pipes
• 288 knives
• 8 brass kettles
• Vermillion face paint
• 33 pounds of assorted colored beads
Camp Supplies
• 150 yards of cloth
• Pliers
• Chisels
• 30 steels for striking to make fire
• Handsaws
• Hatchets
• Whetstones
• Iron corn mill
• Two dozen table spoons
• Mosquito curtains
• 10½ pounds of fishing hooks and line
• 12 pounds of soap
• 193 pounds of "portable soup" (a thick paste concocted by boiling down beef, eggs and vegetables)
• Three bushels of salt
• Writing paper and crayons
Traveling Library
• Bartons Elements of Botany
• Antione Simon Le Page Du Pratz History of Louisiana
• Richard Kirwan's Elements of Mineralogy
• A Practice Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
• The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Emphemeris
• Tables for finding longitude and lattitude
• Map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River
Arms and Ammunition
• 15 prototype Model 1803 muzzel-loading .54 caliber rifles
• Knives
• 500 rifle flints
• 420 pounds of sheet led for bullets
• 176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
• 1 long barreled rifle that fired bullets with compressed air, rather than gunpowder