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Fort Mandan

The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Mandan-Hidatsa Indian villages on the Upper Missouri River on October 25, 1804. They found the Mandan people very hospitable and decided to remain at this wintering site until the spring thaw when they would resume their up-river journey. On November 3, William Clark made a simple entry in his journal, "We commence building our cabins." These cabins formed part of an enclosure that was christened Fort Mandan in honor of their hosts. As it turned out, Fort Mandan was occupied longer than any of the three winter posts used by the expedition. At Fort Mandan Lewis and Clark met Sakakawea, the Indian woman who would be essential to the success of the expedition. For more than five months, Fort Mandan was the site of considerable activity. During this time, preparations were made to head west to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark interviewed Indians who had been west and sketched maps. This was all critical to the next leg of their journey. The Mandan-Hidatsa villages were a center of intertribal trade and this figured into Lewis and Clark's efforts at diplomacy. Reconstructed Fort Mandan rests in the riparian forests of the Missouri River. The refurnished rooms of this full size replica depict the equipage of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and provide the realistic setting for a grand learning experience. On-site interpreters provide programs and year-round tours of Lewis & Clark's 1804-1805 wintering post. The Headwaters Fort Mandan Visitor Center, inspired by a Mandan earthlodge, provides modern restroom facilities, a welcoming orientation area, gift shop and classroom Center complements the cottonwood bottomlands near Fort Mandan.

Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center

The North Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center provides an overview of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, with special emphasis on the time spent at Fort Mandan during the winter of 1804- 1805. The displays include Native American artifacts, a buffalo robe visitors will be able to try on, as well as a "cradle-board" much like the one Sakakawea may have used to carry her baby. An authentic wood canoe carved from the trunk of a large cottonwood tree demonstrates the winter preparations the Expedition made while at Fort Mandan. After Lewis and Clark left to continue their journey west, the rich history of this area continued to grow, with the establishment of Fort Clark in 1830. Built as a trading post of the American Fur Company, Fort Clark soon became a cultural and diplomatic center for the early Americans and the neighboring Mandan and Arikara tribes. The latest addition to the Interpretive Center - the Fort Clark Exhibit in the Sheldon Gallery - presents the history of the mighty steamboats, frontier trade and Native American culture that saturated this region. The Interpretive Center's Bergquist Gallery, one of only four galleries in the world to house a complete collection, rotates the prints of Karl Bodmer on a seasonal basis. Bodmer's watercolors and Maximilian's written descriptions are considered the most complete and reliable eyewitness account of the Upper Midwest Indian cultures.