Meriwether Lewis – May 9, 1805

“..the wind being favorable we used our sails and proceeded very well…today we passed the bed of the most extraordinary river that I ever beheld. It is as wide as the Missouri is at this place or 1/2 a mile wide and not containing a single drop of runing water …this river I presume must extend back as far as the black hills and probably is the channel through which a great extent of plain country discharge their superfluous in the spring season ,,, the stream(if such it can be called) we called Big dry river… I also killed one buffaloe which proved to be the best meat…and from the cow I killed we saved the necessary materials for making what our wrighthand cook Charbono calls the boudin blanc.”