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IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
Missouri river, is clear and the place may be readily identified from the early 
descriptions of Lewis and Clark and those who followed them later. This 
evidence may be briefiy stated as follows: 
In the account of the journey up the Missouri river the Clark Journal states* 
that Camp No. 9 was located 10 miles above the “Platt River,” and that in 
ascending the Missouri river from this point the party traveled 15 miles on 
July 27th (p. 91); 10% miles on July 28th (p. 93); 10 miles on July 29th 
(pp. 93, 94); and 3% miles on July 30th, — to Council Bluff, — making a total of 
49 miles. This carries “Council Bluff” about 27 miles beyond the city of 
Council Bluffs (i.e., to the north). Some discrepancies occur in the distances 
reported in different parts of the Journals, but these do not materially affect 
the result. Thus in the Original Journal of Private Joseph Whitehouse** 
the distance from “the Great River Platt” to the first camp above (Camp 9) 
is given as 12 miles (p. 44); and the subsequent distances are given re- 
spectively as 15 miles (p. 46), 10 miles (p. 46), lli^ miles (p. 46), and 4 
miles (p. 47), — making a total of 52% miles. However, in his “Distances and 
Latitudes,” p, 189, Whitehouse gives the distance along the river to the 
“Mouth of Plate River” as 632 miles, and to “Council Bluffs” as 682 miles, 
making the distance between these points 50 miles. The distances as given 
on the return trip, September 5th to 8th, 1806,*** will give 49% miles as this 
distance if the “5th” is substituted for the “4th” (a manifest error) of August 
on page 379. As noted these slight variations do not affect the general conclu- 
sion, and it^is evident that the Council Bluff was not located near the present 
city of Council Bluffs. 
No fluctuations in the course of the Missouri could account for the great 
difference in distance, and moreover, the Lewis and Clark record of courses 
and distances has made it possible to retrace the old course of the river, and 
this further confirms the conclusion that in that part of the Missouri river 
here under discussion the changes have not been sufficient to account for 1;he 
difference between the distance from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the Platte river, 
and that from Council Bluff to the same point as recorded by Lewis and Clark. 
Further corroboration is found in the fact that it is noted in the Original 
Journals**** that on the 29th of July it was observed that on the S. S. (i.e., the 
starboard side, here the east side) of the Missouri “a creek comes in called 
Boyers R.,” and on the following page it is noted that at 1% miles from that 
day’s starting point the party “passed Bowyers R,”***** This is the Boyer 
river of today, and it now empties into the Missouri at a point about 12 miles 
above the city of Council Bluffs, but the Lewis and Clark record shows that the 
Boyer was then 37 miles from the Platte, hence beyond the site of Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, and that Council Bluff was about 12 miles still farther north. 
It is thus certain that the Council Bluff of Lewis and Clark is north of the 
Boyer, whereas Council Bluffs, Iowa, is several miles south of that stream. The 
*See the Thwaites edition, volume I. Unless otherwise stated the quotations from 
the Lewis and Clark Journals are taken from the ThWaites edition as this is an exact 
cppy. The editor of the Coues’ edition took greater liberties with the original Journals,, 
and that edition is therefore less reliable. . 
** Volume VII of the Original Journals. 
***See- Original Journals, volume V, 376-380. . - ; 
****Volume I, p. 93. ' •. 
*****This stream is also called Boyers River in the Original Journal of Sergeant ’ 
Charles Floyd, Original Journals, Vol. VII, p. 22. 
