Fort Clatsop Collection
The Journals of Lewis & Clark
RECORDING THE JOURNEY
"Take notice of the country you pass through, it's general face, soil, river, mountains, it's productions animal, vegetable, & mineral so far as they may be new to us & also be useful; the latitudes of places...; the names, numbers, & dwellings of the inhabitants, and such particularities as you can learn of them."
President Thomas Jefferson - April 30, 1793
With determination and perseverance the Corps of Discovery fulfilled Jefferson's numerous objectives. It was an enormous, unbelievable undertaking, starting in May 1804. The corps' primary task was to find the most direct, practical water communication route across the continent for commercial purposes. They contacted American Indians to make peace and gather cultural information, identified and gathered plants and animals, charted rivers and mapped the land. Theirs was the first Government sponsored scientific expedition to the west coast. No other expedition matched the magnitude of responsibility . These inquisitive, determined individuals on this commercial/ military / scientific / literary odyssey filled roles as biologist, botanist, cartographer, diplomat, ethnographer, geographer, geologist, physician, soldier, zoologist and journalist.
A most important task was the writing of the journals. Jefferson insisted that they be "accurate, distinct and intelligible," and required at least two copies. Lewis was the elegant, sophisticated writer. An outstanding character of Clark's literary contribution was his free-style phonetic spelling. Who else could produce twenty-seven variations of "Sioux"? English teachers shudder, but historians delight in his original grammatical style. On record were moments of elation and frustration, exactness and uncertainty, humor and near disaster. Always there was careful, detailed observation, rich in scientific data and human interest. The journals remain as one of America's truly great literary epics.
