Early History— before 1837
“The Missouri Indians first came to the attention of Europeans through the account left from the Louis Joliet expedition in 1673. They were not newcomers to the present-day Platte County area since it is estimated that Native Americans had occupied the area since the 12th century. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by a large, abandoned village in a large valley near Bean Lake.“
From an article written by Dr. R.J. Felling in 1983 and published in Discover North Magazine
INDIANS OF PLATTE COUNTY Part I
INDIANS OF PLATTE COUNTY Part II
One of the markers on the South Bluff Road commemorating the journey of Lewis & Clark. The Voyage of Discovery camped near Weston on their journey up the Missouri River in 1804 and then again on their return in 1806.
1805 Louisiana map from Library of Congress digital collection
What is now Weston, MO is part of the ancient ancestral lands of the Osage, Kaw (Kansa) and Otoe-Missouria. During the 1830s, the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Munsee, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) were forcefully relocated to the region, each community with its own history and traditions. A few decades later, many of these nations were again forced to move.
The Iowa, Sioux and Sac Native Americans recognized the area around Weston as their ancestral homeland. Native Americans lived in and traveled this area of exceptional abundance from, at least, the 1100s— many years before the European settlers arrived. We know from the journals of Lewis & Clark that the area was rich with flora and fauna.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in the Weston, MO area on July 2, 1804, on their way up the river and opposite the head of Bear Medicine Island (later Kickapoo Island). They replaced a broken mast with a cut cottonwood and noted in their journal that across the river were the remains of the old French Fort Cavagnolle in the rear of the first Kansas Indian village.
Read two excellent articles in Missouri Life Magazine about the earliest inhabitants of the area where Weston, MO is now located—
Part 1: When the Osage & Missouri Reigned
Part 2- The Tribes of Missouri Part 2: Things Fall Apart
Both articles By Ron Soodalter
Louisiana Purchase Treaty
1803- The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from Napoleonic France in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi.
Size: 530,000,000 acres
The Louisiana Purchase opened the territory for the eventual settling of Weston.