Today in History—September 23: Welcome Back, Lewis and Clark!

On this day in 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, near where they had set out from two and a half years earlier.

Their westward exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest gets more attention, but their return journey was also full of discovery and adventure. Had they failed to return—with maps, specimens, and observations—their trip west would have been far less momentous.

The expedition departed for St. Louis from Fort Clatsop, near Astoria, Oregon, in March 1806, and traveled up the Columbia River. They retrieved their horses from members of the Nimiipuu tribe in Idaho and waited for the snow to melt before continuing.

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On July 3, from Travelers’ Rest, near Missoula, Montana, the expedition split into groups: Meriwether Lewis explored the Marias River to the north, and William Clark investigated the Yellowstone River to the south.

On July 25 Clark carved his name and the date into a large rock outcrop he named for Sacagawea’s son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who had been born during the expedition’s journey and whom Clark had nicknamed “Pomp.” Clark’s carving on Pompeys Pillar in southern Montana is the only remaining on-site evidence of the expedition today.

Two days later the expedition’s only violent interaction with Native Americans occurred—during Lewis’s northern jaunt. An altercation over guns and horses broke out between Lewis’s party and Blackfeet men, and two members of the Blackfeet tribe were shot and killed.

Lewis and Clark reunited on August 12 in western North Dakota and rushed down the Missouri River. The men were eager to conclude their grueling exploration. Plus, Lewis had been accidentally shot in the buttocks by a one-eyed member of his party while hunting elk the previous day, which we’ll assume inspired some haste.

The men arrived in St. Louis six months after leaving Fort Clatsop, and they were welcomed with huzzahs. That afternoon Lewis wrote a letter to Pres. Thomas Jefferson announcing their safe return and their discovery of an overland route across the continent.