Historic Journey: The Lewis and Clark Expedition
When two obscure young Army officers left St. Louis on the afternoon of May 14, 1804 for the Northwest, they had little idea that they were riding into the pages of history.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were to travel 8,000 miles over the next four years to explore the wilderness, land recently bought as part of the Louisiana Purchase. They eventually reached the Pacific Ocean after discovering there was no direct water route there.
It was an unusual band called the Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery. The two Virginians brought with them a slave, a teenage Native American girl and her baby and a support group, including a dog. They rode and walked and canoed across the vast wilderness.
Mission Impossible
And now 200 years later, up to 30 million Americans are expected to celebrate their impossible mission. That's six times the population of the young United States when Lewis and Clark set out.
Lewis and Clark, themselves, were unusual characters. Lewis, suffering from bipolar disorder, eventually shot himself to death. Clark, ahead of his time in some ways, allowed his slave to vote in expedition decisions but kept him in captivity once returning to St. Louis.
It is hard to imagine today how little was known about that wilderness along the Missouri River where the expedition ventured. There are those who contend that there was more information about the moon before our astronauts landed there than was known about the territories between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean in 1803.
Lewis and Clark moved down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh where their boats were built in 1803, sailing into the Mississippi and then the Missouri. Their hopes to find a water passage to the Pacific were not realized. They spent a winter in North Dakota aided by Native Americans and in the spring of 1805, they rode the headwaters of the Missouri into the Rockies.
Route to Sea Blocked
But those mountains blocked them from any rivers flowing into the Pacific. Near starvation, they carted gear over the rugged mountain trails. Finally on November 7, they sighted the ocean and built a stockade, Fort Clatsop, near what is now Astoria, Oregon. Then the next spring, they retraced their route back to St. Louis.
Although many historians view Lewis and Clark as heroes in the drive for exploring the West, Native Americans have a different view. They say that one part of the story which is not generally told is that they were forcibly removed from their land after the expedition to make way for white settlers.
The Final Chapter
The final chapter of the Lewis and Clark expedition will be commemorated with little joy on October 11, 2009. That is 200 years after a depressed Lewis, then using opium, put a pistol to his head in Tennessee and killed himself.
Commemorative Events
- October 14, 2003, Louisville, Kentucky: Reenactment of a meeting at the falls of the Ohio River.
- March 12, 2004, St. Louis, Missouri: Ceremony marking bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
- July 31, 2004, Fort Calhoun, Nebraska: Reenactment of meeting between the expedition and the Otoe tribe.
- August 27, 2004, Oacoma, South Dakota: Bicentennial celebration sponsored by Sioux tribe.
- November 24, 2005, Astoria, Oregon: Celebration of the expedition's arrival on the Pacific at Fort Clatsop National Memorial.
- July 22, 2006, Billings, Montana: Celebration at Pompey's Pillar National Monument.
- Sept. 23, 2006, St. Louis, Missouri: Expedition's return to St. Louis.
Online Resources
For more information, send e-mail to the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial or visit their Web site.
The National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial has published a comprehensive calendar of Lewis and Clark commemoration events
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Books
Find these books online at Barnes and Noble.com.
- Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. Stephen Ambrose. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. June 1997
- How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark. Rosalyn Schanzer. National Geographic Society Press. March 2002
- Lewis and Clark: An American Journey. Daniel B. Thorpe. Main Street Press. September 2004
