Through the "gates of the rocky mountains", the expedition reached the three forks of the Missouri in late July of 1805. Sacagawea informed Lewis that they camped "precisely on the spot that the Snake [Shoshone] Indians were encamped at the time the Minnetares [Hidatsa]… pursued, attacked them… and made prisoners of all the females and four boys, Sah-cah-gar-we-ah [Sacagawea] o[u]r Indian woman was one of the female prisoners taken at that time."
During their three day camp at the Headwaters, near present day Three Forks, the explorers named considered what to name the rivers. Since they had already named a river after the Secretary of War & Navy, Lewis and Clark agreed to name the three rivers after respected men in leadership:[ we called the S.W. fork- that which we meant to ascend} - "Jefferson's River, in honor of that illustrious personage, Thomas Jefferson (the author of our enterprise). The middle fork we called Madison's River, in honor of James Madison; and the S.E. fork we called Gallatin's River, in honor of Albert Gallatin."
The following are a few of the stops in the journey:
