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Lewis and Clark West to the Pacific by
Frank R. "Bob"
Davenport. Photo and Copyright held by:
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc
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The
Lewis and Clark expedition
(1804-1806) was the first United States overland expedition to the Pacific
coast and back.
The
Louisiana Purchase in 1803 sparked
interest in expansion to the west coast. A few weeks after the purchase,
United States
President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western
expansion, had U.S. Congress appropriate $2,500 to send a small U.S. Army
unit to explore the west all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Along
their way, they were instructed to study and make detailed reports on the
Indian
tribes, geography, climate, plants and animals, as well as evaluate the
potential interference of British and French-Canadian hunters and trappers
who were already well established in the area. In addition, one of
Jefferson's main objectives was for the unit to find a waterway that would
connect the east to the west.
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 Jefferson
selected 28-year-old Army captain,
Meriwether Lewis to lead the
expedition, afterwards known as the
Corps of
Discovery. Lewis, in turn, selected a former Army comrade,
32-year-old
William Clark, to be co-leader of the Expedition. Due to
bureaucratic delays in the US Army,
Clark officially only held the
rank of Second Lieutenant at the time, but
Lewis concealed this from
the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring
to
Clark as "Captain."
Lewis and Clark
reached their staging point at the confluence of the
Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers near
St. Louis,
Missouri
in December 1803. There they camped for the winter at the mouth of
Wood River, on the
Illinois
side of the
Mississippi
River. Over the winter, the two captains recruited
young woodsmen, boatmen, and enlisted soldiers who volunteered from
nearby army outposts.
 By
spring, the group, comprised of approximately 40 men, began their
historic journey on May 14, 1804. Through the long, hot summer,
they laboriously worked their way westward on the
Missouri River, soon passing Le Rochette, the last white settlement on the
Missouri River. From there they
continued through what is now Kansas City,
Missouri,
then along the present-day borders of
Kansas,
Nebraska, and Iowa. Along the way, the group experienced problems within its ranks,
including disciplinary floggings, two desertions, and a man
dishonorably discharged for mutiny. On August 20, 1804 the
Corps of
Discovery suffered its first and only death when Sergeant Charles
Floyd died from what was thought to be an attack of acute
appendicitis.
While in what is now
South Dakota,
a band of Teton
Sioux tried to detain their boats, but when the explorers showed their
superior weapons, they were allowed to sail on.
They spent their first
winter near present-day Washburn,
North Dakota
on among the
Mandan
Indians. On the north bank of the
Missouri River, they constructed a log fort which they called
Fort Mandan, in honor
of the local
Indians. By this time the expedition had traveled approximately 1,500 miles. The explorers spent the winter hunting, gaining information about the
route ahead, and making tools that they would later trade for supplies. While there, they met a French-Canadian trader named
Touissant
Charbonneau
and his young pregnant
Shoshone wife,
Sacagawea.
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Sacagawea's tribal
homeland lay in the Rocky Mountain country far to the west and she spoke
both the
Shoshone and Minitari
dialects.
Lewis and Clark decided to
hire Charbonneau and
Sacagawea
to accompany them, acting as guides and interpreters.
Sacagawea's
son was born at
Fort Mandan in February and when the expedition set out
again in April, the young family joined the expedition.
Along the way,
Sacagawea
proved even more helpful than they had originally thought, as she also
acted as a peacemaker and negotiated for horses and supplies along the
way.
The expedition continued
up the Missouri River and into
Montana Territory, but as they neared the Rocky Mountains the flow of
the Missouri River began to lessen. As
the expedition approached the river’s headwaters deep in the mountains
they were forced to start traveling by land. Although, they had believed
that the Missouri
would connect to another great river leading to the Pacific, the
expedition found that such an easy connection did not exist.
The expedition continued
by land, traveling across much of present-day Northern
Idaho
until reaching the Clearwater and Snake Rivers, where they again could
journey by boat. The expedition moved more quickly by water, finally
reaching Columbia River in mid-October. Continuing on, they passed Celilo
Falls and through what is now Portland,
Oregon.
In November, 1805,
some 18 months after leaving
St. Louis,
Lewis spotted Mt. Hood, a mountain known to be very close to the ocean.
However, winter was upon them so they soon set up a permanent winter
dwelling south of the Columbia River, near present-day Astoria,
Oregon ,
which they called Fort Clatsop. The expedition spent the self-described
long, wet winter preparing for the trip home by boiling salt from the
ocean and hunting elk and other wildlife.
The explorers
started their journey home on March 23, 1806 and on their return
Lewis and Clark split up.
Clark led one group up the Yellowstone River, while
Lewis led another
group into what are now North Central
Montana and
the Province of Alberta. In August they met on the
Missouri River and arrived back in
St. Louis on
September 23, 1806.
Throughout the
journey,
Lewis and Clark constantly
collected samples of plants, animals, and birds, while also documenting
encounters with the many
Indians
they met along the way. Their detailed observations on their 8,000 mile
round trip journey of climate, landscape, plant communities, and human and
animal populations were valuable to an expanding nation.
Although the expedition
failed to find the Northwest Passage, it greatly increased knowledge of
the nation’s newly acquired territory and opened the doors to westward
settlement.
After the expedition
concluded,
Lewis was made governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1807. His career started well, but two years later a controversy involving
government finances arose and
Lewis made plans to travel to Washington
D.C. to resolve the dispute. Traveling through Tennessee, Governor
Meriwether Lewis on October 11, 1809 died mysteriously from gunshot wounds
inflicted while at Grinder's Stand, a public roadhouse. It is not known
whether he was murdered or committed suicide. His grave lies where he
died, within today's Natchez Trace National Parkway near Hohenwald,
Tennessee.
Meanwhile,
Clark was made
a brigadier general of the territory in March, 1807. In 1813 he was
appointed Governor of
Missouri
Territory, a position he held until
Missouri
Statehood in 1820. In 1822 he was appointed Superintendent of
Indian
Affairs by President Monroe. He was reappointed to this post by each
succeeding president and served in this capacity for the remainder of his
life.
General William Clark died of natural causes in
St. Louis,
September 1, 1838 and is buried in the
Clark Family plot at Bellefontaine
Cemetery, St.
Louis.
Today the
Lewis and Clark National
Historic Trail can still be followed along the
Missouri
and Columbia Rivers. Though much has changed over the past
centuries, many of the trail portions remain intact. At 3700 miles,
the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail is the second longest of the 23
National Scenic and National Historic Trails. It begins at Hartford,
Illinois
and passes through portions of
Missouri,
Kansas,
Iowa,
Nebraska,
South Dakota ,
North Dakota ,
Montana,
Idaho,
Oregon
and
Washington .
Many people follow the trail by auto while the
more adventurous can still find many sections that encourage boating,
biking, or hiking.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated, July, 2011.
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