LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

In 1803 Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's Corps of Discovery to find a water route to the Pacific and explore the uncharted West. He believed woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and a mountain of pure salt awaited them.

What they found was no less mind-boggling: some 300 species unknown to science, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and the Rockies.

The Journey Begins
May 21-July 31, 1804

Having started upstream on the Missouri River from their St. Louis-area camp—where they had been preparing for the expedition since fall 1803—on May 14, William Clark and nearly four dozen other men met up with Meriwether Lewis on May 20. The Lewis and Clark expedition—"the Corps of Discovery"—began making its way up the Missouri aboard a 55-foot-long (17-meter-long) keelboat and two smaller pirogues. As they traveled, Clark spent most of his time on the keelboat, charting the course and making maps, while Lewis was often ashore, studying the rock formations, soil, animals, and plants along the way.

Always the members of the expedition were on the lookout for Indians, hoping they would be peaceable, armed in case they weren't. For security, Lewis and Clark made camp on river islands whenever possible and posted guards at night. By the end of July they had traveled more than 600 miles (1,110 kilometers) up the river. Still they had not met a single Indian.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery as a scientific expedition to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. The expedition's goal as stated by President Jefferson was "to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river that may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce".[10] In addition, the expedition was to learn more about the Northwest's natural resources, inhabitants, and possibilities for settlement.[11] Although, Lewis and Clark were not the first explorers to travel west and they did not achieve their primary objective of finding a waterway across North America, the significance of the expedition can be measured in various other areas.[12]

Geography and mapping

One of the most significant contributions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a better perception of the geography of the Northwest and the production of the first accurate maps of the area. During the journey, Lewis and Clark prepared approximately 140 maps.[13] Author Stephen Ambrose states that the expedition "filled in the main outlines of the previously blank map of the northwestern United States".[14] Before the expedition, most Americans were not aware of the size and extent of the Rocky Mountains. They believed that the Rocky Mountains could be crossed in a single day and that the Rockies separated the source of the Missouri River from a great "River of the West" that would empty into the Pacific Ocean.[15] However, the expedition found that the supposed single day of traveling was instead an 11 day ordeal that nearly cost them their lives and that an easy water route across the continent did not exist.[16]

Natural resources

A second achievement of the expedition was a better understanding of the Northwest's natural resources. During the journey, the expedition documented over 100 species of animals and approximately 176 plants.[17] The expedition even sent a caged prairie dog, which had never been seen before in the East, to President Jefferson as a gift.[18] Over the two year journey, the expedition had made more discoveries of landscapes, rivers, native cultures, zoology, and botany of North America than any scientific expedition.[19]

Native American relations

Another achievement of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was that it established friendly relations with some of the Native Americans. Without the help of the Native Americans, the expedition would have starved to death or gotten hopelessly lost in the Rocky Mountains.[20] The expedition was especially indebted to a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea, who served as a guide and interpreter. The sight of a woman and her infant son would have been a reassuring sight to Native Americans who might have mistaken the armed explorers as a group on a warlike mission.[21] For the most part, encounters between the three dozen Indian tribes and the expedition were successful.[22] Author James Ronda states "Lewis and Clark matter today because they act as a benchmark by which we can measure change and continuity in everything from the environment to relations between peoples".[23]

Lewis and Clark may not have found the elusive Northwest Passage and were not the first to explore the west, but as Robert Archibald states, "they were the first United States citizens to have described the place officially".[24] The fact that they were a scientific expedition was extremely important, especially during the age of the Enlightenment. The new knowledge they obtained about the Northwest's geography, natural resources, and native inhabitants sparked American interest in the west, and strengthened the nation's claim to the area.