The Four-Legged Member

of the

Corp of Discovery

"The fidelity and attachment of this animal were remarkable”
      
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One of the under-heralded members of the Lewis & Clark Expedition was a Newfoundland dog owned by Captain Meriwether Lewis. Seaman, the dog, is mentioned 28 times in the journals kept by Captain Lewis and Captain Clark and another six times in the journal kept by Corps of Discovery member John Ordway.The journals portrayed a dog who hunted and retrieved game for the explorers, who barked to warn the men of nearby buffalo and grizzly bears, and who suffered many of the same hardships as the human explorers.

The dog is credited with saving the life of several members of the expedition when a rampaging buffalo entered their camp and the alert dog warded off the beast as it headed directly at one of the tents with sleeping humans inside.

The dog was nearly a fatality himself when he was attacked by a beaver, the beaver biting into the dog’s leg, severing an artery. After a couple of days of being in critical condition, the dog rebounded to make it through the attack.

       
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The dog was captured by Chinooks as the expedition made their way back up the Columbia River on their return from the Pacific. The dog was bound, with his muzzle wrapped shut, and was being dragged off by the Chinook when he was rescued by Expedition members.

It is unclear precisely what happened to the dog after the Expedition, or whether he made it back at all. He is mentioned for the last time in the journals in an entry dated July 15, 1806 prior to their return to St. Louis, when the dog is howling after being relentlessly attacked by mosquitoes. A book by Timothy Alden, published in 1814, tells a story of finding a dog collar in a museum in Alexandria, Va. with the following inscription:

“The greatest traveler of my species. My name is SEAMAN, the dog of Captain Meriwether Lewis, whom I accompanied to the Pacifick (sp) ocean through the interior of the continent of North America.”

Alden also summed up the dog with these words: “The fidelity and attachment of this animal were remarkable”.

The museum in question burned down in the mid-19th century, so the existence of the collar and its inscription cannot be verified.

Captain Lewis did think enough of his four-legged traveling companion to name Seaman Creek in his honor. The body of water, now known as Monture Creek, is located near Missoula in Western Montana.Seaman has been a favorite subject of sculptors throughout the years with at least ten statues depicting the dog having been erected. Stanley Wanless has two sculptures near the Oregon Coast: End of the Trail in Seaside and The Arrival at Fort Clatsop. Click on the video below to see the Wanless artwork.


From the Journals

"last night we were all allarmed by a large buffaloe bull, when he came near the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course" – May 29, 1805

" a bear came within thirty yards of our camp last night and eat up about thirty weight of buffaloe suit which was hanging on a pole, my dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bears and keeps barking all night" – June 27, 1805