The Other Side of the Coin

Lewis & Clark accomplished their mission and returned home to the east coast as heroes. It was a wonderful achievement involving a lot of nitty gritty hard work, good judgment, tenacity, and....   What was it? Luck? Pluck? Divine Intervention? A flip of the coin? Some other explorers have not fared so well.

Ferdinand Magellan, the first captain to circumnavigate the world (1521), ended up dead on a beach in the Western Pacific, after he offended the natives there. The same thing happened to Captain James Cook, probably the most famous sea explorer of all time. During his third voyage around the Pacific he died on the west coast of the Big Island in Hawaii. He, too, was involved in a beach fracas with the natives.

In 1845 Sir John Franklin (already a certified hero) was sent by the English Admiralty with a ship and over 200 men to "finally" find—after 300 years of on and off attempts—the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the top of Canada. Franklin and his ship entered the maze of seaways, islands, and ice above Canada and was never seen or heard from again.  Over ten years he was the subject of the biggest manhunt in history. (Side note: Franklin disappeared about the same time the Donner Party was trapped in snow at the top of the Sierra in 1846-7. Have of the party died.)

Englishman, Robert Falcon Scott, raced Norwegian Roald Amundsen to be the first man to reach the South Pole. Amundsen won (December 1911) and returned home a hero, like Lewis and Clark. Scott came in second to the Pole (in January 1912) and he and his entire party of five died on their return march across the polar plateau toward their ship anchored on the edge of Antarctica.

It's more than a little difficult to distill a lesson or two from these slices of history. The only thing for certain is that coins seldom, if ever, land on their edges.

What Now?

What thoughts flickered through Merriweather Lewis's mind as he looked west from the crest of the Rockies? Despair? Anger? Disappointment that God had let him and his men down? Fear? He had struggled westward from St. Louis for a year and a half only to reach the Continental Divide short of supplies, horses to replace his canoes, or Indians that could guide him across the endless mountain ranges he saw before him. He couldn't go westward; he couldn't go eastward back down the Missouri River; and it was August and winter was in the air. Prospects were bleak. All his slogging had been for naught.

So what happened? Lewis picked his way westward down from the crest about 12 miles and suddenly encountered a small party of Shoshone Indians. He persuaded them (in sign language) to take him to their main camp. There he met the chief, Chief Cameahwait. After lengthy negotiations, the Chief and fifteen of his people accompanied Lewis eastward, back over the crest and downhill until they ran into Clark and the rest of the L&C expedition, including Sacagawea who had been a member of the L&C party since February. A conference was arranged for the same afternoon (August 17, 1805). At the conference, Lewis used Sacagawea as an interpreter. She immediately recognized Chief Cameahwait as her (long lost) brother. (She had been kidnapped from the Shoshones five years earlier by plains Indians.) One thing led to another and Lewis was able to buy horses and hire a guide to take the L&C party westward downhill from the Rockies. L&C finally reached the Pacific Ocean via the Snake and Columbia Rivers on December 7, 1805.

What message, if any, can we take home from this slice of history?

Over the Top and...

So you slog along, step by step and finally you are almost there to the crest or to the top of the peak. You pause to breathe in and out for a minute or so before you take the final steps and can suddenly see the other side. What are your expectations in those fleeting moments?

In 1803 Meriweather Lewis & William Clark had been sent by President, Thomas Jefferson to “find a water passage to the Pacific.” L&C and a small team left St. Louis in early 1804 and worked their way 3,000 miles northward and then westward on the Missouri River. They found their way across completely unknown land. As they approached the heart of the Rocky Mountains (in what is now western Montana) in July and August 1805, the river they were navigating in their canoes turned south. For weeks they canoed onward to the south seeking a water passage that would take them west to the Pacific. The endless wall of the Rockies was on their right.

The Missouri became more and more shallow and narrow. They finally reached the headwaters of the Mighty Mo at Three Forks, MT. Supplies were low. They were a long way from home...or anywhere. The mountain air at 3,000 feet in elevation was turning cold at night.  L&C searched in vain for a waterway west or Indians who could guide them over the ridge of the Rockies, sell them horses to transport their remaining supplies to the Pacific, or help in any way. Neither a waterway nor Indians were found.

On about August 8^th, in desperation, Lewis took three men and headed directly west, up hill, on foot. He told Clark and the remaining men (plus Sacajawea who was a member of the party) that he would “find Indians if it takes a month.” They had to have help or parish. And there was no way for them to either a) turn around and go back down river to St. Louis before winter, or b) survive the mountain winter where they were.

Lewis and his men slogged up and up toward the crest. In their hearts they probably had hopes that when they reached the top, they would peer over and see the Pacific Ocean glimmering on the horizon. Finally, on August 12, 1805, they did made it to the top of the Rockies. The picture above is what they saw.

From today’s Lemhi Pass at 7,373’ all Lewis could see to the west was… in his words: “We proceeded on to the top of the dividing range from which I discovered immense ranges of high mountains still to the west of us, with their tops partially covered with snow.” Winter was coming.

Stay tuned.