William Clark 'Christmas 25th Dec. I was wakened by a Christmas discharge. Found that some of the party had got drunk (2 fought,) the men frolicked and hunted all day. Snow this morning, ice ran all day, several turkey killed. Shields returned with a cheese & 4 lb. Butter. Three Indians came today to take Christmas with us…. ' The men had began clearing the land and cutting logs for the huts on December 13th, 1803. They were working as fast as possible as winter was setting in. Indeed Clark mentioned that one of the cabins was actually raised at night. By the 20th men were beginning to move into their huts and on the 22nd George Drouillard arrived with 8 new men and 2 horses. Clark didn’t seem to be very impressed with the quality of the men but he put them right to work. The next day, on the 23rd, he had the newly arrived men building another hut for themselves. Christmas eve the men had finished covering the roofs of the huts and were probably comfortably moved in. And on Christmas day they had finished most of the work on their cabins but the officers quarters were not yet completed. We don’t know at exactly what stage of completion the officer’s cabin was, but it wasn’t until the 29th that it was finally finished.
