Lewis and Clark Timeline
Post Expedition 1800 - 1810

1800

The U.S. Capitol is moved from Philadelphia, and Congress convenes in Washington D.C. for the first time.

The Land Act of 1800 divides the Northwest Territory, creating the Indiana Territory out of the western section. It also provides for a liberal credit system on the purchase of federal lands, and a reduction in the minimum amount of land offered for sale to one section (640 acres), at $2 per acre.

An Act of Congress establishes the Library of Congress.

By secret treaty, Spain cedes the Louisiana Territory to France.

The first cowpox vaccination in the United States is administered by Doctor Benjamin Waterhouse in Philadelphia.

Gouging, a frontier sport, reaches the peak of its popularity in the Ohio Valley. The ultimate goal of the sport is to gouge out an opponent's eye with the thumbnail.

Second census: U.S. population - 5,309,000.

1801

John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States by President John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third President of the United States in the first presidential inauguration to be held in Washington, D.C.

The New York Evening Post is founded by Alexander Hamilton.

Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) arrives at Licking County, Ohio with a bag of apple seeds.

1802 The "right of deposit" for Americans is withdrawn by the Spanish in New Orleans. American pioneers west of the Appalachians are greatly alarmed by this move, since New Orleans is the only port through which they can sell their products profitably. The move prompts President Jefferson to begin negotiations for the purchase of New Orleans, which culminate in the Louisiana Purchase.

The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, is established by Congress.

Federal law prohibits the sale of liquor to American Indians.

1803

France sells Louisiana to the United States for $15,000,000. This first territorial expansion of the U.S. west of the Mississippi totals 828,000 square miles.

Army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are chosen by President Jefferson to lead an expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean, for the purpose of discovering a direct water route across the continent and to keep records of the natural resources of the new land, with the aim of establishing an American presence in the northwest through trade and settlement.

Resumption of war between England and France disrupts the trans-Atlantic trade and emigration from continental Europe to the U.S. becomes virtually impossible.

In its decision in the Marbury v. Madison case, the U.S. Supreme Court voids an act of Congress, thus establishing its right to rule on the constitutionality of U.S. laws.

Ohio is admitted as the 17th state in the Union.

1804

The expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sets out from Camp Wood, near St. Louis, Missouri, on May 14.

The Louisiana Territory Act, which divides the new territory and provides a territorial government, gives the first official notice of the intention of the United States to move Indians living east of the Mississippi River to the west of the river.

The twelfth amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, providing in part that voters shall "name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President."

The Land Act of 1804 reduces the minimum cash payment for Western lands from $2.00 per acre to $1.64 per acre and permits a minimum purchase of one quarter section (160 acres).

Baptiste LaLande is sent by William Morrison from St. Louis to open trade with the Spanish in Santa Fe. LaLande finds his way there, and likes the area so much that he decides to stay.

1805

The Michigan section of the Indiana Territory is organized as the Michigan Territory. The District of Louisiana becomes the Louisiana Territory.

Fort Bellefontaine is established by soldiers of the regular army at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers north of St. Louis, Missouri, thus extending United States control into the West.

Lt. Zebulon Pike heads a government expedition to find the source of the Mississippi River.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reach the Pacific Ocean on November 18, 1805.

Austria, Russia, and Sweden join Great Britain in the formation of the third coalition against France. In the Battle of Trafalgar, the naval power of France is broken, and Britain is established as "Mistress of the Seas."

Antoine Larocque explores the valley of the Yellowstone River and winters with the Mandans.

Simon Fraser travels across the Canadian Rockies to the Pacific.

1806

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return to St. Louis, Missouri on September 23; their expedition has established an overland route to the Pacific Ocean.

Zebulon Pike heads an expedition to the headwaters of the Arkansas River and into Spanish Territory beyond. Pike evaluates the Great Plains as "unfit for white settlement." Pike is captured by the Spanish and later evicted from Spanish territory.

Thomas Freeman heads a government expedition and produces the first accurate map of the lower Red River.

Congress enacts an embargo against Great Britain to protest the seizure of U.S. ships and the impressment of American sailors.

Aaron Burr's alleged "conspiracy" to establish an independent state from land controlled by Spain collapses with his arrest on charges of treason; he is later acquitted.

The Office of Superintendent of Indian Trade is established in the War Department to administer federal Indian trading houses, called "factories."

1807

Reports by Lewis and Clark of the richness of beaver and otter in the trans-Mississippi west lead to the formation of the Rocky Mountain fur trade by trappers and traders.

Manuel Lisa, a St. Louis trader, leads an expedition of 42 men up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers to the beaver-rich heart of the Crow nation. Lisa builds a trading post at the mouth of the Bighorn River.

President Jefferson orders British warships to leave U.S. territorial waters in retaliation for the attack on the U.S. frigate Chesapeake by the British frigate Leopard off the coast of Virginia.

Congress passes an act prohibiting the African slave trade and the importation of slaves into any place within the jurisdiction of the United States after January 1, 1808.

Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont makes its first run to Albany from New York in about 30 hours, inaugurating the era of successful steamboat navigation on a commercial basis

David Thompson ascends the Columbia River to its source at Lake Windemere, and sets up the first trading post west of the Rocky Mountains.

1808

John Jacob Astor charters the American Fur Company to compete with the British fur trade in Canada.

Napoleon issues the Bayonne decree, seizing all U.S. shipping in European ports. Ten million dollars in U.S. goods and ships are confiscated.

The African slave trade, prohibited by act of Congress, persists. In 1808, the sale of unneeded slaves within the U.S. from agriculturally poor areas to fertile areas has become more profitable than soil cultivation.

1809

James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth President of the United States.

In the Treaty of Fort Wayne, General William Henry Harrison obtains 2½ million acres from American Indians in Ohio and Indiana.

The Illinois Territory is formed.

The first successful sea voyage by steamboat is made by John Stevens' Phoenix, which sails from New York City to Philadelphia.

Thomas Nuttal, a natural scientist, explores the Missouri River beyond the Mandan villages.

Meriwether Lewis dies while traveling to Washington, D.C. on the Natchez Trace. A dispute arises as to whether he was murdered or committed suicide.

The Missouri Fur Company is chartered by the Chouteau family.

Washington Irving publishes A History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker, gaining international recognition for a piece of American literature.

1810

An uprising of Americans against Spanish rule results in the capture of the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge in West Florida and the proclamation of the Republic of West Florida. President Madison annexes West Florida, and announces its military occupation and absorption into the Orleans Territory on the grounds of the consent of local authority.

Nicholas Appert describes a system for food preservation by canning, using glass jars.

Tecumseh, Chief of the Shawnees, organizes the defensive confederacy of Indian tribes of the northwestern frontier. The confederacy is actively supported by the Canadian Governor and British fur traders.

Third census: U.S. population - 7,239,000.