Skip to content
Trail Research Archive

Mullan’s 1861 Lewis and Clark Speech

Contributed by Kristopher K. Townsend

On Christmas eve or day 1861, John Mullan gave what is said to be the first public lecture in Montana. It was the largest crowd ever assembled at Fort Owen, and his topic was Lewis and Clark. The speech shows the prevailing attitudes about Lewis and Clark 55 years after the their Expedition.

View Speech

Topics

Google Maps Lewis and Clark Trail Route Center Line Oregon-California Trails Lolo Trail Nee-Me-Poo National Historic Trail Mullan Road Other Trail Inventory Pacific Ocean Exploration Bird-Truax Trail Fur Trade Historic Map Timeline Carroll Trail Methodology Old North Trail The Wilderness Road

Contributors

Steve F. Russell Kristopher K. Townsend US National Park Service (LCNHT) Robert Heacock Robert H. Dunsmore Robert N. Bergantino Richard S. Buswell Larry Jones John (Jack) P. Harlan Martin Plamondon II James D. Harlan Ralph Saunders Charles Raddon U.S. Army National Guard Raymond Borchers Merle Wells David and Sue Eakin

Each work on this site is the intellectual property of the contributor and as such, protected by copyright laws. We encourage academic use with full attribution to the contributor. If you have something to contribute, let us know: editor@trailresearch.org.

Lewis & Clark Trail Alliance Logo

This website copyright © 2017–2026
by the Lewis & Clark Trail Alliance (LCTA),
a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Candid Platinum Transparency 2026

Sponsored by:

D A Davidson OnX logo Choice Hotels: Comfort, Country Inn, Sleep Inn, Quality Inn
Montana's Yellowstone Country Athletic Brewing Company Logo Illinois Ohio River Scenic Byway Logo NorthWestern Energy: Delivering a Bright Future
Manage Consent

To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}