Even though the supply list
of 1804 does not list Dutch ovens, we know through Private
Whitehouse (a member of the Lewis and Clark’s Corps of
Discovery) on
June 11, 1805,a Dutch oven was cached only
to be retrieved in one year later on their journey back from
the Pacific Ocean.
Dr. Ken Karsmizki, a historical archaeologist at the
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum, has spent the
last 14 years on the trail of the two explorers. His
research located evidence of a fire circle ( near White Bear
Islands, during the Great Falls portage in Montana) and that
the site also shows a set of pot leg marks which are baked
into the soil. Dr. Karsmizki speculates that a cast-iron
pot spilled soup "set" those marks and left a clear outline
of where the pot had rested; he also believes that those
same legged cookpots were put off to the side of the fire,
resting on rocks with coals underneath - a slow cooker.
Video
from Great Plains Bison-tennial Dutch Oven Cook-off 2004 in 
