Why it took 96 years to properly honor the only man Lewis and Clark lost

Sergeant Floyd’s Four Burials Across a Century

Sergeant Charles Floyd died with just a few words: “I am going away.”

In 1804, this 22-year-old became the only casualty of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, struck down by what was likely appendicitis near modern Sioux City. Yet his story was just starting.

The Missouri River soon washed away his grave. Then locals saved his bones, only to lose the site again to souvenir hunters and cattle.

His remains moved four times over nearly a century before finding a final home.

Today, the 100-foot sandstone obelisk that guards Floyd’s bones stands as America’s first National Historic Landmark.

The Young Sergeant Started Feeling Sick Weeks Before His Death

Charles Floyd first wrote about being sick on July 31, 1804, noting in his journal that he felt better after being ill. By late July, Lewis and Clark saw Floyd struggling with what they called a “violent colic.”

Floyd got better briefly, but around August 15, his condition got much worse. He suddenly had severe stomach pain.

Modern doctors who’ve studied the case think Floyd likely had appendicitis, which ran in his family.

His Last Words Were a Request for a Letter Home

Floyd died peacefully around one o’clock in the afternoon on August 20, 1804. The group stopped for lunch when Floyd took his final breaths.

His last words to William Clark were simple: “I am going away and wished me to write a letter. ” His appendix likely burst, causing a deadly infection called peritonitis.

Even the best doctors of that time couldn’t have saved him. At just 22 years old, Floyd became the first American soldier to die west of the Mississippi River.

The Corps of Discovery Laid Him to Rest with Full Military Honors

The men carried Floyd’s body to high ground on the north side of the river. They buried him on top of a round hill overlooking the Missouri River.

Captain Lewis read the funeral service while the men showed “everry respect” to their fallen friend. They marked his grave with a red cedar post that said “Sergt. C. Floyd died here 20th of August 1804.”

The group named the nearby stream Floyd’s River and the hill Floyd’s Bluff.

River Travelers Used His Grave as a Navigation Point

Floyd’s Bluff and the cedar post became a well-known landmark for white travelers going up the Missouri River. Famous painter George Catlin painted the gravesite in 1832, showing the original cedar marker still standing.

When Lewis and Clark came back from the Pacific in 1806, they found animals had disturbed Floyd’s grave, so they fixed it up with a new cedar marker.

As more trappers and traders moved up the Missouri, they knew this as the grave of the expedition’s only casualty.

The Missouri River Almost Washed Away His Remains

By 1857, spring floods ate away at Floyd’s Bluff, causing part of the grave to slide toward the river. The original cedar post and some bones tumbled into the water.

A local man named M. L. Jones noticed in late 1856 that someone had cut the cedar post almost to ground level. By April 1857, the flooding river cut directly into the bluff.

The riverbank eroded until it reached Floyd’s grave, which sat almost sixty feet above the water.

Sioux City Residents Rescued His Bones from the Riverbank

On May 28, 1857, worried Sioux City citizens grabbed most of Floyd’s skeleton, including his skull, from the crumbling riverbank.

They placed his remains in a walnut coffin and reburied him with proper military and religious ceremonies. The new grave sat about 200 yards east of the original spot, safely away from the eroding riverbank.

They put up new wooden markers to show where Floyd now rested.

Souvenir Hunters and Cattle Erased His Grave from the Landscape

Over the next forty years, people looking for souvenirs slowly whittled away the wooden markers. Cattle trampled the gravesite and wiped out any other signs of Floyd’s burial location.

By the 1890s, thieves had stolen Floyd’s grave marker completely.

Between the vandalism and damage from animals, finding the exact spot where Floyd was buried became harder and harder.

His Lost Journal Turned Up in Wisconsin After 90 Years

In 1893, scholar Reuben Gold Thwaites found Floyd’s long-lost journal at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

The journal appeared in print in 1894 in the American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, which got people interested in Floyd and his grave again.

This sparked a big search to find the lost grave, which had been trampled and vandalized for nearly forty years. After lots of work, searchers finally found the grave on Memorial Day 1895.

They Placed His Bones in Urns Under a Marble Slab

On August 20, 1895, Floyd’s remains went into two earthenware urns and got buried for the third time. They held a special ceremony, and covered the grave with a marble slab measuring four feet by eight feet.

Five Sioux City residents started the Floyd Memorial Association in 1895: Thomas J. Stone, John H. Charles, George D. Perkins, C. R. Marks, and G. W. Wakefield.

The marble slab read “Sergeant CHARLES FLOYD DIED Aug. 20. 1804. Remains removed from 600 Feet West and Reburied at This Place May 28. 1857. This Stone Placed Aug. 20. 1895.”

A Community Raised $20,000 for a Proper Monument

The Floyd Memorial Association spent five years collecting $20,000 for a permanent monument. They got $13,400 from the U.S. Government, the state, county, and private donors.

Colonel Chittenden from the U. S. Engineer’s Office gave his services for free. Workers laid the foundation on May 29, 1900, and placed the cornerstone on August 20, 1900, exactly 96 years after Floyd died.

The railroads even shipped materials at no cost to help the project along.

America’s First National Historic Landmark Stands 100 Feet Tall

Floyd’s remains were buried for the fourth and final time on August 20, 1900, sealed at the base of the monument.

The 100-foot Egyptian-style obelisk made of white Kettle River sandstone was finished and dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1901. Thousands of people came to the dedication ceremony.

In 1960, the Sergeant Floyd Monument became the first site named as a National Historic Landmark in the United States.

Visiting Sergeant Floyd Monument, Iowa

The Sergeant Floyd Monument at 2601 S Lewis Blvd in Sioux City is free to visit daily from 8am to 8pm. You can read plaques about Floyd’s four different burials and how the monument was built.

The 23-acre park gives you great views of the Missouri River valley from Floyd’s Bluff. The Sioux City Museum runs it, and there’s a nearby river museum with Floyd’s skull reconstruction.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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