"WHERE IT ALL BEGAN"
LEWIS & CLARK
On October 4 or 5, 1803, Lewis pushed his boat
and pirogues back into the river and headed west for the falls of the
Ohio, some one hundred miles downstream. On October 14, he was at the head
of the falls, which were actually long rapids created by a
twenty-four-foot drop of the river over a two-mile-long series of
limestone ledges. At the foot of the rapids on the north bank, was
Clarksville, Indiana Territory. Louisville, Kentucky, was on the south
bank.
On October 15, Lewis hired local
pilots, who took the boat and pirogues into the dangerous but passable
passages on the north bank. Safely through, Lewis tied up at Clarksville
and set off to meet his partner, who was living with his older brother,
General George Rogers Clark.
The George Rogers Clark home site in
Clarksville has been designated by the National Park Service as an
official site associated with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
The home site is located on Harrison Avenue in Clarksville and is part of
the Falls of the Ohio State Park. This site is where Meriwether Lewis met
William Clark (younger brother of George Rogers Clark) and then they later
departed from here for their expedition to explore the west on October 26,
1803.
Today a replica cabin of Clark's home stands on the site and additional
developments for this site are in the works which are also part of the
Ohio River Greenway Commission.