On or near this date, Lewis and his flotilla travel between Maysville and Augusta, Kentucky. Thomas Rodney notes ferry crossings and extensive settlements on this stretch of the Ohio River, and he describes Augusta.[1]Because of the gap in Lewis’s journal, his exact location on this date is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas Rodney’s … Continue reading
Stately Homes near Augusta, Kentucky
Derived from the original by Nathan Jeffries July 2024, available at Google Maps.
Ferry Crossings
[W]e passed a long stoney sand bar in the middle of the river but rather nearest the Kentucky shore, and a fine settlement on that shore just below the bar, and a ferry over from that settlement opposite on the NW shore; and from the appearance of the road on the Kentucky side it is a highway much used.
—Thomas Rodney, 4 October 1803[2]Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 95–96.
Extensive Settlements
. . . we came to a large sand barr on the Kentucky shore extending half a mile or more down the river; and half way across it at the lower end is a short ridge of mountain on the Kentucky side [which] runs one end of it down to the river just at the uper end of this barr; and pretty extensive settlements on both sides the river along the bar . . . .
—Thomas Rodney, 4 October 1803[3]Ibid., 96.
Augusta, Kentucky
A little before sundown we cast ankor opposite to a large brick house in the town of Augusta. This little town contains about 20 houses has one of the most pleasant situations that we have seen on the Ohio . . . . The Major and Shields went on shore and got soap, candles, and whiskey while I was dressing and returned to tea.
—Thomas Rodney, 4 October 1803[4]Ibid., 97.
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Plan a trip related to September 25, 1803:
Notes
| ↑1 | Because of the gap in Lewis’s journal, his exact location on this date is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas Rodney’s journal of his similar trip down the Ohio and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that Lewis stopped for the night at Augusta near this date. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 95–96. |
| ↑3 | Ibid., 96. |
| ↑4 | Ibid., 97. |
