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Missouri Department of Natural Resources historian Jim Denny has graciously provided a summary of Meriwether Lewis's journal entries for Nov. 25-26, 1803. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Vol. 2 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1986). Vol. 1, the Atlas, contains two sketches by Clark of the Miss. River in the Tower Rock vicinity.
The men had come westward on the Ohio River and were headed up the Mississippi to a camp near St. Louis, before exploring the northwestern United States.
- Apple Creek in Missouri is the dividing line between Cape Girardeau and Perry County.
- The Big Muddy River, in Illinois, empties into the Mississippi well south of Murphysboro, and just north of the community of Wolf Lake.
- The jutting bluffs are near Trail of Tears State Park, north of Cape Girardeau.
- Pierre Menard's home is north of Chester, near Kaskaskia Island, Illinois' first capital.
- Larboard is the port (left) side of a ship as you face forward. Starboard is the right.
- Lewis & Clark and mapmaking
November 25, 1803: to a point on the larboard side just above Grand Tower. Lewis´s estimate for total miles traveled was 9 miles [actual mileage closer to 16.7 miles]. Lewis thought the land on the larboard side of the river that he was now viewing was even higher than the uplands he had seen the day before.
In many places there were sheer cliffs that rose straight up from the water´s edge; in some places the bluffs even projected forward. The rocks seemed the same as those he saw November 24, except that there was more flint; it seemed to lay in strata layered with limestone. All the bedrock he had observed appeared to lay in horizontal layers except where the strata were carried from their original beds by the eroding action of the river current.
The party continued to work its way upstream past high country on the larboard side, with a few small stretches of bottom, and land on the starboard side that seemed low and subject to overflow. How far inland these low bottoms flooded was a subject Lewis had not informed himself about. After passing several insignificant creeks, the party noticed a small creek on the larboard side (today´s Indian Creek). Above this creek was a cluster of Shawnee huts and tents.
A few miles farther upstream, the party encountered the mouth of Apple Creek on the larboard side. They stopped here while Lewis took meridian altitudes of the sun. He noted the usual error in the sextant. Lewis considered Apple Creek to be the largest stream he had yet seen on the Mississippi. Just below the mouth of the creek was a large flat rock, now visible, but concealed during high water.
Indian creek was once known as Table Creek because of a projecting rock on the south side of that creek that resembled a table. Rivermen called the rock the “Devil´s Tea Table”. The large flat rock that Lewis describes as being just below Apple Creek was probably just below Indian Creek.
On this date, very little water from Apple Creek found its way to the river, although when the water was high the creek could be navigated for several miles. Lewis noted that Apple Creek was similar to other small to medium sized creeks along the Mississippi in appearing to be smaller at their mouths than they really were. The mouths of such creeks were constricted and virtually cease to flow as a mud-depositing eddies formed at the point where their feeble currents came up against the powerful waters of the Mississippi.
Eddies on these streams deposit thick layers of mud that can extend back several miles. When the Mississippi dropped, only a small channel could cut its way through the deposits of mud in order to reach the Mississippi. This trickle presents the appearance of a much smaller flow of water than the stream actually had.
In any event, Apple Creek extended a good distance back into the country, 40 or 50 miles by Lewis´s estimation, where it headed with the waters of the St. Francis River.
Lewis recorded that a Shawnee village was located 7 miles up Apple Creek. He did not know how many Shawnees resided in this village, but he knew enough about the village to know that this settlement of Absentee Shawnees deserved the name “village” more than any other Indian settlement in the region. In the same year Lewis was making his observations, Nicholas de Finiels described the Absentee Shawnee villages, of which the one at Apple Creek was the largest, as systematically and solidly constructed, far above the norm for Native American construction, and surrounded by cleared fenced land. The Spanish land claim at the mouth of Apple Creek belonged to Pierre Menard, the well-known Kaskaskia trader, who hoped to build a Indian trading house at the mouth of Apple Creek.
Opposite the mouth of Apple Creek, on the east shore of the river, Lewis noticed a island (known as Big Muddy Island). Concealed behind this island was stream that Lewis said was known as Muddy River, and alternately as Cow River, or River Avaise (it is today´s Big Muddy River). According to Lewis, this river could be navigated for 30 or 40 miles in high water. He understood Muddy River to head into extensive plains with tributaries of the Ohio and Great Wabash Rivers (the Saline and Little Wabash Rivers, respectively).
Lewis knew there were fine coal pits along this stream; one was close to the mouth and boats could ascend to it in high water to be loaded with coal for transport to the Saline settlement on the west side of the Mississippi, Kaskaskia on the river´s east side, and to other locations; the coal was to fuel the forges of pioneer blacksmiths and artisans.
Two-thirds of the way through the day´s journey up the Mississippi the party paused above the mouth of Apple Creek on the larboard shore so that Lewis could take meridian altitudes. Across the river was Big Muddy Island, which concealed the entrance of Muddy Creek on the east bank.
The party got under way again and passed another island that was close to the mainland (Tower Island). The land continued to be high and bold on the larboard side and low and flood prone on the starboard side. He continued to see cliffs of limestone rock covered with a scattering of pine and cedar, with some oak and hickory.
At a little before sunset, the party arrived at Grand Tower, the large isolated mass of rock that stood in the river close to the larboard shore.When the Mississippi was at a low stage, it was possible to pass near to the Grand Tower as the party did that evening when it rounded the rock close on the east side on their way to make camp immediately above. The party pulled ashore on the larboard side just upstream from the famous Mississippi River landmark. Lewis reported that the watermen of the Mississippi regarded Grand Tower in much the same way that sailors did the tropic or “equanoxial” line. The tradition was that rivermen who had never passed Grand Tower before were compelled to either furnish spirits to drink or be dunked.
Lewis noted that above Tower Rock the highlands approached the river equally on both sides (he was seeing Fountain Bluff on the starboard side). A mile and a quarter below Grand Tower on the larboard side was a bank of silica that Lewis thought would make excellent “Spanish Whiting” (this area was later known as the “Silica Mines”), despite containing a considerable quantity of grit.
Although the sun was setting as the party pulled to shore, Lewis took the opportunity to examine closely Grand Tower. Lewis was rowed to the base of the rock, where he got out and climbed to the top. Here he measured the height of the rock from the southeast side with a cord. He found Grand Tower to be 92 feet high. He noted a small cavern 25 feet up on the west side of the rock. Like most of the exposed rock Lewis had seen, Grand Tower was composed of limestone with a considerable portion of flint. While on top of the rock, Lewis also took a series of compass bearings of the river basin. Later, Lewis took time to prepare a detailed prose description of Grand Tower while Clark prepared two maps of the area around the landmark.
A 200-foot high ridge bordered the river on the larboard side. Directly across the Mississippi River was a large mass of hills of equal height (known today as Fountain Bluff). Lewis also noted isolated masses of rock, including Grand Tower, and a “Sugar Loaf,” or mound-shaped hill on the larboard shore due south across a channel from Grand Tower. Lewis also noted another large rock that was detached from the Grand Tower and the Sugar Loaf. This rock was a 120 yards in circumference, and 40 feet high with perpendicular walls too steep to be climbed without artificial aid. All of these hills, bluffs, and rocks, Lewis could plainly see, had once formed a connected and uninterrupted landform before the Mississippi River had broken its way through.
When the Mississippi was high, the sugar loaf created deadly currents around Grand Tower that were feared and avoided by all experienced watermen. The currents of the raging river set in against the west side of the tower with great violence. Here the channel was squeezed by the point of steep hills that crowded the eastern bank. The waters then roared through this narrow passage between the tower and the sugar loaf with great impetuosity and struck the river currents sweeping down the east side of the tower. This clash of waters was so violent and powerful that an immense and dangerous whirlpool was formed. According to Lewis: “No boat dare approach in that state of the water; the counter courent driving with great force against the E. side of the rock would instandly dash them to attoms and the whirlpool would as quickly take them to the botom.”
Lewis ascended to the top of the Sugar Loaf. The isolated hill stood 60 feet higher than Grand Tower and offered a beautiful and commanding view of the tower, the Sugar Loaf point, and the low surrounding country on the starboard side. He thought the view of the river to be particularly beautiful and he admired the range of hills several miles to the east that stretched in a south to north direction, parallel to the river.
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