When did Lewis and Clark find the prairie dog?

Answer 1

The prairie dog was first encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition on September 7, 1804, in present-day Boyd County, Nebraska. When alarmed they emit a bark somewhat similar to what Lewis called "that of the little toy dogs." Clark described the animal as a "ground rat", a burrowing squirrel, and he noted that although his men dug six feet into a burrow trying to catch one, they realized they hadn't even gotten "half way to his Lodges" so they spent the better part of the day attempting to drown them out: "we por'd into one of the holes 5 barrels of water without filling it" and eventually succeeded in capturing a live prairie dog. It was sent to Washington D.C. along with other specimens to Jefferson.

Answer 2

Lewis and Clark were the first European Americans to discover the prairie dog. They first wrote about them in 1804. However, the native Americans of the Great Plains had known of the prairie dog for thousands of years.