Introduction:

In December 1803, William Clark established "Camp River Dubois" on the Wood River at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, north of St. Louis, Missouri and across the river in Illinois. While at the camp it was Clark's responsibility to train the many different men who had volunteered to go to the Pacific on the expedition and turn them into an efficient team. Most of these men had never met each other before. There were exceptions - for instance, Lewis and Clark knew one another before the trip. There were also two brothers, Joseph and Reubin Field, and two other men, Floyd and Pryor, were cousins. Some had served in the same army regiments together. But by and large, most of them were strangers to one another. The youngest man, George Shannon, was 17 years old, the oldest, John Shields, was 35. The average age of all the men was 27. Clark had the men build a fort and cabins out of logs. He drilled the men, teaching them how to march in formation, use their weapons as a team and shoot effectively at targets. Most of all, he tried to get the men to respect military authority and learn how to follow orders. When they would later face danger on the frontier, there would be no time for the men to question the officers.

During the winter, Meriwether Lewis spent a lot of time in the little town of St. Louis. There were only 900 people who lived in St. Louis at that time, and almost all of them were involved, in one way or another, with the fur trade. St. Louis was ruled by Spain, and since 1770 there had been a Spanish governor in charge of the post. The Louisiana Purchase above New Orleans had not yet been transferred to the United States. Technically, when Lewis rowed across the river from Illinois to Missouri, he was leaving the United States and entering Spanish territory. Lewis had to gather more supplies and equipment for his journey, because there were so many volunteers that there were over twice as many men set to go on the expedition as he had originally planned for! Lewis also talked with fur traders who had been up the Missouri River, and obtained maps made by earlier explorers. Because the first year of the journey would be over territory that a small number of European-Americans had seen before, Lewis and Clark wanted to gather as much information as they could about the places they would be traveling through.

On March 9, 1804, Meriwether Lewis attended a special ceremony in St. Louis, during which the Upper Louisiana Territory was transferred to the United States. Now all the land from the Mississippi River to the tops of the Rocky Mountains officially belonged to the United States. Meriwether Lewis must have been proud to see the flag of his own country raised over St. Louis.

Two months later, on May 14, 1804, the expedition was ready to begin. William Clark and the Corps of Discovery left Camp River Dubois, and were joined by Meriwether Lewis in St. Charles, Missouri a week later. The outbound party numbered 45, and included 27 young, unmarried soldiers, the French-Indian interpreter Drouillard, York, and even Captain Lewis' Newfoundland dog, Seaman. An additional group of soldiers would travel only to the Mandan country for the first winter. Several French boatmen recruited in the St. Louis area helped manage the three boats, which were laden with supplies.

Travel up the Missouri River in 1804 was difficult and exhausting due to heat, injuries and insects as well as the troublesome river itself, with its strong current and many snags (big logs and trees floating in the river which could sink a boat). The expedition used Lewis' 55-foot long keelboat and two smaller boats called pirogues to carry their supplies and equipment. The boats used sails to move along, but in going upriver against a strong current, oars and long poles were used to push the boats. Sometimes the boats had to be pulled upriver with ropes by men walking along the shoreline. This was called cordelling. They averaged 10-15 miles per day.

During this phase of the journey the group had some discipline problems. Some of the men got drunk or misbehaved. They were punished harshly, and soon the problems stopped. The men began to work together as a team, and to like one another. One man they especially liked was Charles Floyd, one of the three sergeants. Suddenly, on August 20, 1804, Sgt. Floyd got sick and died. It is believed that he died of a burst appendix. He was only 22 years old. There was nothing that could have been done to save his life, even if he had been in the nation's largest city instead of on the frontier, and attended by the best doctor in America. Doctors did not know enough about the human body and how it worked in 1804 to save Charles Floyd. Floyd was laid to rest on top of a large hill by the river, in modern-day Sioux City, Iowa, where today there is a large monument to mark the spot. Sgt. Floyd was the only man to die on the 2½ year journey, even though great danger lay ahead.

The men of the expedition nearly had a violent encounter with the Teton (Lakota) Sioux in South Dakota. The Sioux said they wanted more presents, and insisted that Lewis and Clark be their long-term guests - they did not want other Indian tribes to have that honor. They really wanted to stop Lewis and Clark because the Lakota had good trading agreements with nearby tribes. They knew that Lewis and Clark wished to open the entire Missouri River to free trade for all Indian tribes with the United States. One of the Sioux chiefs tried to keep the expedition from moving on by holding fast to the tether rope of one of the boats. Clark drew his sword, and ordered the men on the keelboat to get out their guns. All the guns of Lewis and Clark's men were pointed at the Sioux warriors, who pointed their bows and arrows back at the explorers. The Sioux outnumbered the small Corps of Discovery, and could easily have killed them all. On the other hand, Lewis and Clark had powerful weapons which would kill many Sioux warriors in a fight. After a tense moment, the chief decided to let the explorers go. Tempers were calmed, no shots were fired, and the boats moved upstream once again. Despite this incident, relations with Native Americans were generally good, and councils were held with many tribes, each of whom were presented with gifts and peace medals, and told about the change in government from the Spanish to the United States.

By October the "Corps of Discovery" reached the villages of the Mandan Indian tribe, where they built "Fort Mandan" (near present-day Stanton, North Dakota), and spent the winter of 1804-1805. The Mandan people lived in earth lodges along the Missouri River. Their neighbors the Hidatsa lived along the Knife River close by. The villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa people were the center of a huge trade network in the West. A small number of French, British and American traders lived in the villages with the Indians, and even married women from the two tribes. Lewis and Clark were not the first European-Americans to visit this part of the country. During the winter Lewis and Clark made copious notes in their journals, drew maps, and learned of the geography which lay ahead from American Indians in the area of the camp. There were many adventures during the winter, including a buffalo hunt. The weather was very harsh, with temperatures going down to 40 degrees below zero.

During the winter Lewis and Clark recruited a Frenchman who had lived with the Hidatsa (sometimes referred to as the Minnetari) Indians for many years. His name was Toussaint Charbonneau, and the captains wanted him to act as an interpreter. They got a real bargain, because along with Charbonneau would come his 16-year-old Shoshoni Indian wife, Sacagawea, and her newborn baby boy, Jean Baptiste. Sacagawea had been captured by a raiding party of Hidatsa warriors five years earlier, and was taken from her homeland in the Rocky Mountains to the Knife River village where she met her husband. Lewis and Clark knew that they would probably meet Sacagawea's people in the Rocky Mountains, and that they might have to ask for horses if they could not find a nearby stream which led down to the Columbia River. So Sacagawea would be invaluable because she could speak to her people directly for the explorers.

On April 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with an extensive collection of zoological, botanical, and ethnological specimens as well as letters, reports, dispatches, and maps. Members of the expedition who had caused problems were sent back as well. As the keelboat headed south, and the expedition, now numbering 33, resumed their journey westward in the two pirogues and six dugout canoes. The Corps of Discovery now traveled into regions which had been explored and seen only by Native Americans.

The men pulled and sailed their boats up the Missouri River through what is now Montana. They encountered fierce grizzly bears which attacked them. The bears were so tough that even several rifle shots wouldn't kill them. The grizzly bears were truly the kings of the western plains. The men also investigated other animals they had never seen before, including pronghorn antelopes and black tailed deer. They were fascinated with the little prairie dogs that built huge underground villages. They saw so many buffalo that at one point they recorded that they had to "club them out of the way." They saw huge cliffs of white rock that reminded them of castles and huge stone buildings.

By early June they reached a place where two rivers met. Lewis and Clark were confused. The Indians did not tell them about such a large river meeting the Missouri, and they had no idea which river - the right fork or the left fork - was the right one to take. The only clue they had was that the Indians had told them that the Missouri had a huge waterfall on it. If they found the right river they would see the waterfall. If they didn't, they might not get to the Pacific Ocean in time for the winter, and would have to spend another cold season away from home, this time in the wilderness without Indian friends like the Mandans and Hidatsas to help them. Lewis and Clark knew they needed to find the correct fork of the river, and time was running short. They led small groups of soldiers up each river, Lewis going up the right fork and Clark up the left, both looking for the waterfall. When they returned, both Lewis and Clark had made up their minds about which was the right river to take, even though neither party saw a waterfall. They asked their men what they thought. After all, most of the men had spent a lot of time on the rivers. Labiche, Cruzatte and Lepage were all experienced French voyageurs. All of the men felt that the right fork was the true Missouri. It was muddy like the Missouri, while the left fork was clear. Both Lewis and Clark disagreed with all their men. They felt that the left fork was the true Missouri. They told the men they would go up the left fork, even though neither party had sighted the great falls which would prove once and for all which was the correct fork. The men said they would follow Lewis and Clark no matter what, even though they thought the captains were wrong. So they started up the left fork, calling it the Missouri and naming the right fork the Marias River after a cousin of Meriwether Lewis.

Sacagawea fell very sick, and the expedition moved slowly against the strong current of the river. Meriwether Lewis became impatient, and led a small party of men overland to see if he could find the waterfall - otherwise, they would have to turn back and follow the other fork of the river. On June 13 he spotted a mist rising above the hills in front of him. After a few minutes of walking, Lewis looked down into a deep ravine, and saw a beautiful, huge waterfall. He knew they were on the right river.

But the problems of the expedition were not over. Lewis scouted ahead and found that there was not just one waterfall but five, and that they stretched for many miles along the river. The canoes could not be paddled upstream against such a current. They would have to be portaged (taken out of the water and carried) around these waterfalls. The portage at Great Falls was going to be 18 miles long. In order to move the heavy dugout canoes and all their supplies so far, the men had to build little "carriages" with solid wooden wheels cut from tree trunks. The canoes were put on the wheels and pulled by ropes by the men overland for 18 miles. They also tried to make Sacagawea well again; after drinking water from a mineral spring her health improved. The pirogues were left behind by this point, so Meriwether Lewis tried to put his special collapsible, iron-framed boat from Harpers Ferry together. He was very disappointed when the boat did not work, but Clark was ready to help by having two more dugout canoes made.

They set out westward once more, paddling upstream. Soon they entered the Rocky Mountains and saw incredibly beautiful scenery with tall evergreen trees. By August 17 they reached the Three Forks of the Missouri, which marked the navigable limits of that river. At this spot the Missouri was fed by three rivers, which they named the Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison after government officials in Washington. They turned up the river named for President Jefferson and finally reached its headwaters, where the once mighty Missouri could be easily straddled by a man. Now they had reached the crest of the Rocky Mountains. Jefferson, Lewis and Clark had all hoped that the trip would be easy from this point on. It was hoped that the headwaters of the Columbia would be nearby, and that the men could float and paddle their way downstream to the Pacific Ocean. Imagine how disappointed Lewis was as he came to the top of the mountains - and saw nothing but more mountains stretching off as far as he could see. Lewis knew then, as he crossed the Continental Divide through Lemhi Pass, that there was no easy water route to the West Coast.

Luckily, the men had brought Sacagawea along. This mountainous area was the homeland of her people, the Shoshoni, from whom she had been taken five years earlier. Lewis, who needed horses to get his expedition over the mountains, was finally able to contact the elusive Shoshoni, who had never seen a white man before. When Sacagawea came along the trail with her baby son on her back, she suddenly recognized the chief of the Shoshoni, the man for whom she was supposed to interpret - and he was her brother! If this had been the script of a Hollywood movie, the audience would reject the scene as being too far-fetched to be believed, yet it really happened. This happy accident certainly helped Lewis and Clark as they bargained with the Shoshoni for the horses they needed. In their journals, they wrote about the happy reunion of Sacagawea with her long-lost brother. Although she got to see old friends and her family, Sacagawea did not decide to stay with the Shoshoni. She continued with Lewis and Clark, her husband and baby, as the captains looked westward and hoped to find a way to the Pacific Ocean before the harsh winter weather set in.

The explorers traveled overland on horseback, north to Lolo Pass, where they crossed the Bitterroot Range on the Lolo Trail; this was the most difficult part of the journey. The men almost starved on the trail, and were lucky to stumble into the camps of the Nez Perce Indians. The Nez Perce, who had never seen white men before, could easily have killed the starved and weakened explorers and taken their guns and trade goods. These things would have made the Nez Perce rich and powerful. Instead, they treated the explorers with kindness, feeding and helping them, pointing the way to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark left their horses for safekeeping with the honest Nez Perce, and finished making dugout canoes. Finally, they put their canoes in the water for the trip down the rivers to the coast. They floated down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, portaging dangerous waterfalls and trading with friendly Indians along the way. They reached the Pacific Ocean by mid-November 1805. They had fulfilled the goals set for them by President Jefferson. Now they had to make it through another winter and return with their information to the United States.

Once in sight of the ocean, the expedition was lashed by harsh winds and cold rain as they huddled together on the north side of the Columbia River. A decision had to be made about where to stay for the winter. They could not return to the mountains because the snows would be too deep. Finally, Capt. Lewis called for a vote. Everyone in the party got to vote, including York and Sacagawea. Most African Americans and women could not vote in the United States in 1805, but The Corps of Discovery had become a truly democratic organization. The decision about where to spend the winter would affect them all. It was decided to stay on the south side of the river, inland where the winds and rain would be less harsh and their would be more elk to hunt for food and clothing.

In December the explorers built Fort Clatsop on the south side of the Columbia River (near present-day Astoria, Oregon), and settled in for the winter. Lewis and Clark accomplished considerable scientific work, and gathered and recorded information regarding the country and its inhabitants. A detail of men was assigned to make salt by boiling sea water on the Pacific coast. The winter on the Pacific coast was not a cold one, but the weather was dreary, with rain almost every day for months on end and several types of biting insects, like fleas. One day, the Indians reported that a dead whale had washed up on the shore, and Clark led a group of the men who were curious about seeing the whale to the ocean. Sacagawea begged Clark to take her along too, saying that she hadn't traveled so far to miss out on seeing the ocean and the whale. Clark brought her along on the little adventure. The men spent most of the winter making clothing and moccasins out of elk hides, and trying to hunt for food in an area which seemed to have very little game. No contact was made with any trading ships, and Lewis and Clark knew that all the men would have to return to the United States by an overland route.

On March 23, 1806 the return trip began. After a tough journey up the Columbia River against strong currents and many waterfalls, the party retrieved their horses from their friends the Nez Perce, and waited in the Indian villages for the deep mountain snows to melt. It wasn't until June that they could get over the mountains and back to the Missouri River basin. After crossing the Bitterroots Lewis and Clark decided to split their party at Lolo Pass in order to add to the knowledge they could gather. They wanted to be certain that there was not an easier way to cross the continent to the Pacific, and that they had not missed an important potential route or pass. Confident of their survival, Lewis went north along the Missouri River while Clark went south along the Yellowstone River. They planned to rendezvous where the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers come together in western North Dakota. Clark took the larger group with him, including Sacagawea, her husband and son, and York. Lewis took along the best hunters and outdoorsmen, including George Drouillard and the Field brothers.

While on the Marias River in Montana Lewis' small group had a fight with a party of Blackfeet Indians, and was forced to kill two of them who tried to steal their guns and horses. This was the only violent incident of the entire journey. While out hunting one day, Lewis was accidentally shot by Cruzatte, a nearsighted member of his own crew. The painful wound in Lewis' backside kept him from being able to sit down or continue his journal writing. Soon after this near-disaster, the Corps of Discovery was reunited in North Dakota. They returned to the Mandan villages where they left Charbonneau, Sacagawea and the baby behind. Clark promised to take care of the baby, who he nicknamed "Pomp." Three years later, Charbonneau and Sacagawea brought Pomp down to St. Louis, where William Clark saw to his schooling.

At the Mandan villages Lewis and Clark convinced a chief named Sheheke (they called him "Big White") to come with them to meet President Jefferson in Washington. As they continued down the Missouri River, they had Chief Sheheke, his wife, and an interpreter named Rene Jusseaume with his family along in their dugout canoes. One of Lewis and Clark's men stayed behind. His name was John Colter, and he asked special permission to remain in the Mandan country to trap furs and try to make a living as a "mountain man." Colter later became one of the most famous mountain men, and was the first non-Indian to see the Grand Tetons and what is now Yellowstone National Park.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806. Nearly all the people of the little town lined the riverbank to welcome them back. Dinner parties and dances were held in their honor. When people in the settled portions of the United States heard that Lewis and Clark had returned from the West, they could barely believe it. Most people had given them up for dead. If wild animals, hunger, harsh weather or Indians hadn't killed them, perhaps they had gotten lost, they thought. Of course, none of those things happened. Lewis, Clark, and nearly all their men returned to St. Louis as heroes. The Corps of Discovery broke up in St. Louis. Lewis and Clark made their way to Washington, where they told President Jefferson in person about the wonders they had seen in the West. The dream of Jefferson and of Jefferson's father had finally come true, and Americans had climbed the Rocky Mountains and walked on the beaches of Oregon.

What did Lewis and Clark accomplish, and what was the significance of their Expedition? From the standpoint of international politics, the expedition altered the struggle for the control of North America, particularity in the Pacific Northwest, by strengthening the U.S. claim to the areas which today includes the states of Oregon, Idaho and Washington. Lewis and Clark also achieved an impressive record of peaceful cooperation with the Indians. The expedition generated American interest in the fur trade. This had a far reaching effect, since it led to further exploration and commercial exploitation of the West. It can be said that Lewis and Clark's trek set off a century of rapid settlement which peopled the West with Euro-Americans and unfortunately disrupted or ruined the cultures and lifestyles of countless Native Americans. Lewis and Clark added to geographical knowledge by determining the true course of the Upper Missouri and its major tributaries. They forever destroyed the dream of a Northwest Passage (a water route across the continent), but proved the success of overland travel to the Pacific. In addition, William Clark produced maps of tremendous value to later explorers. The expedition compiled the first general survey of life and material culture of the village Indians of the Missouri, the Rocky Mountain tribes, and the Native Americans of the Northwest coast.

Lewis and Clark made significant additions to the zoological and botanical knowledge of the continent, providing the first scientific descriptions of many new species including the grizzly bear, prairie dog, pronghorn antelope, and mountain goat. They made the first attempt at a systematic record of the meteorology (weather) of the West, and less successfully attempted to determine the latitude and longitude of significant geographical points.

Lewis and Clark traveled over 8,000 miles in less than 2½ years, losing only one member of their party, at a total cost to the taxpayer of $40,000. By any measure of scientific exploration, the Lewis and Clark expedition was phenomenally successful in terms of accomplishing its stated goals, expanding human knowledge, and spurring further curiosity and wonder about the vast American West. But in the end, it was Thomas Jefferson who was most pleased. In late 1806, Meriwether Lewis returned to Washington, D.C., and spread maps out on the floor of the White House, delighting the President with the tales of his travels. Jefferson's dream, and the dream of his father, Peter Jefferson, had finally come true. The West had been investigated, the Pacific had been reached by an overland route, and America would never be the same again.