Lower Portage Staging Area

The Lower Portage Staging Area provides interpretation and views of the steep ascent from Belt Creek that the Expedition used to move the heavy dugout canoes and all their equipment to the plains above the Missouri River. From here, the portage route continued about 18 miles.

On June 13, 1805, the Great Falls Portage presented Lewis and Clark with one of the most challenging ordeals of the Expedition. On June 16, 1805, the expedition consolidated at Lower Portage Camp, about one mile below Belt Creek (named Portage Creek by Lewis and Clark). While encamped, they surveyed a suitable portage route, constructed wagons to haul canoes and supplies, and undertook the arduous task of moving their equipment 18 miles overland to the Upper Portage Camp.

By June 28, the last load was transported away from the lower camp, and the remaining supplies were cached in place. The white pirogue was left there and retrieved on the return trip in July 1806.

Progress was slow. The crudely made wagons required almost constant repair. They trudged through intense heat, and prickly pear cacti tore through their moccasins. Lewis described his men’s condition:

“. . . They are obliged to halt and rest frequently for a few minute. At every halt these poor fellow tumble down and are so much fortiegued that many of them are asleep in an instant. In short their fatiegues are incredible; some are limping from the soreness of their feet, others faint and unable to stand for a few minutes, with heat and fatiegue, yet no one complains. All go with cheerfulness . . .”