Early Report on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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The earliest disclosure of the progress of the Corps of Discovery was released by President Jefferson in February 1806 in a small publication with the big title, “Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri, Red River and Washita, by Captains Lewis and Clark, Doctor Sibley, and Mr. Dunbar; with a Statistical Account of the Countries Adjacent.”

This report included information from several other expeditions executed by Mr. Jefferson in 1804-05 – one along the Red River and another up the Washita.

The news he included about the Corps of Discovery would have come from the information Captain Lewis sent back from Fort Mandan on the returning keelboat, which departed on April 7, 1805 and reached Jefferson on July 13.