NORTH DAKOTA
LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL

North Dakota's premier museum, covering the state's history from prehistoric times through the present, with an especially strong Lewis and Clark Expedition gallery. Original expedition-era artifacts and displays are paired with the evocative artwork of Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, and Michael Haynes, who painted the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples in the decades following the Corps' visit. A sculpture of Sacagawea and her son Jean Baptiste stands just behind the museum, near the State Capitol grounds.

Ten miles north of Bismarck on a panoramic bluff above the Missouri River, this was once a major Mandan village occupied from approximately 1490 to 1785, encircling 158 known earth lodge depressions within two distinctive defensive ditches. When the expedition passed by in October 1804, they noted the village already lay in ruins — abandoned after smallpox and warfare had devastated the Mandan population, who had since relocated upriver near the Knife River. A sobering, beautifully preserved window into the world before the epidemics.

The reconstructed On-A-Slant Mandan Indian Village here represents the kind of earth lodge community the Corps of Discovery encountered further north at the Knife River. The park also preserves General Custer's quarters and the Fort McKeen blockhouses from the later Indian Wars era. Seven miles south of Mandan, the park offers a vivid sense of both the deep Native history of the Missouri River valley and the military era that followed Lewis and Clark's expedition by decades.

Bismarck's Heritage River Landing offers a full-scale operating riverboat — the Lewis and Clark Riverboat — for daily summer cruises along the same Missouri River corridor the expedition navigated in October 1804. The adjoining Keelboat Park features a replica keelboat for visitors to explore on land, providing a tangible sense of the vessel's scale before continuing to other sites in the area.

Located on the United Tribes Technical College campus, this center presents the art, culture, and history of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and other Northern Plains nations. The college hosts an internationally renowned powwow every September, drawing dancers and drum groups from across North America. Essential context for understanding the Native nations who hosted the Corps of Discovery through the brutal winter of 1804–05.

One of the most significant sites on the entire Lewis and Clark Trail. The expedition reached the mouth of the Knife River on October 27, 1804, finding a major agricultural trading center of five earth lodge villages shared by the Mandan and Hidatsa nations. It was here, among the Hidatsa, that the captains hired interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau — and through him, his wife Sacagawea, who would become indispensable to the expedition's success. Visitors can walk among the depressions left by family earth lodges, including the Awatixa (Sacagawea) Village where she lived. The visitor center, reconstructed earth lodge, and 11 miles of trails make this an essential, deeply moving stop.

The Corps of Discovery's winter home for nearly five months — the longest single stay of the entire expedition. Construction began November 2, 1804, with men felling cottonwood trees for a triangular fort with an 18-foot stockade. Here Sacagawea gave birth to her son Jean Baptiste on February 11, 1805. The Corps celebrated two Christmases and a New Year's here, with fiddle music and dancing alongside their Mandan hosts. They departed April 7, 1805, sending the keelboat back to St. Louis while the permanent party of 33 — including Sacagawea, Charbonneau, and baby Jean Baptiste — pushed west into uncharted territory. The fully reconstructed fort, plus a superb interpretive center with expedition-era artifacts, Bodmer and Catlin artwork, and exhibits on the medical challenges the Corps faced, make this one of the essential stops on the entire 4,900-mile trail.

Three 12-foot-tall steel statues of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Mandan Chief Sheheke greet visitors at the entrance to the Interpretive Center — a striking visual representation of the alliance between the expedition and the Mandan people who hosted them through the winter. Chief Sheheke would later travel to Washington, D.C. with the expedition's return party in 1806, becoming one of the first Native delegates to meet an American president.

A statue and overlook honoring Seaman, Meriwether Lewis's loyal Newfoundland dog who accompanied the Corps of Discovery the entire length of the expedition — through bitter winters, grizzly encounters, and the journey to the Pacific and back. The overlook provides sweeping views of the Missouri River valley near Fort Mandan, a fitting tribute point to the expedition's most loyal non-human member.

Named for 19th-century wildlife painter John James Audubon, this 14,000-acre refuge along Lake Sakakawea preserves the kind of prairie wetland habitat that supported the abundant wildlife the Corps of Discovery documented throughout their winter in North Dakota. Excellent birdwatching and wildlife viewing in a landscape that echoes the natural richness Lewis and Clark described in their journals.

New Town is the modern home of the Three Affiliated Tribes — the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation — descendants of the very peoples who hosted the Corps of Discovery through the winter of 1804–05. The MHA Interpretive Center preserves and presents their combined heritage and culture, offering essential present-day context for the nations whose hospitality made Fort Mandan possible. Nearby is the 4 Bears Casino and Lodge.

North Dakota's namesake spelling for Sacagawea graces the third-largest man-made lake in the United States, formed by the Garrison Dam in 1960. The lake and surrounding state park honor the Shoshone woman whose knowledge and diplomacy proved invaluable to the expedition's survival and success. Lodging, camping, and a full-service marina make this a popular basecamp for exploring the upper reaches of the historic Missouri River corridor.

Located a half mile east of Fort Buford, this center tells the story of the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers — one of the most significant geographic junctures on the entire expedition, reached by the Corps in late April 1805 on their outbound journey and again on their return in August 1806. The rotunda features large murals with quotes from the Lewis and Clark journals alongside landscape paintings, offering the same magnificent river view the expedition documented two centuries ago. North Dakota's final major Lewis and Clark site before the trail continues into Montana.