Meriwether Lewis & William
Clark
Meriwether Lewis b.1774, Albermarle
County, Virginia; d. 1809, Nashville, Tennessee
William Clark b. 1770, Caroline County,
Virginia; d. 1883, St. Louis, Missouri
When
you think of pioneer exploration, you think of these two men. The germinal
(beginning) moment
came in 1803 when army captain Lewis, President
Thomas Jefferson's
private secretary, was put in command of a congressional financed
(paid for by congress)
journey to find and explore a passage to the
Pacific Ocean.
Jefferson had just completed what would today doubtless be termed "the
mother of megadeals," buying from
Napoleon
for $15 million dollars
a tract (piece) of
land just about equal in size to the then-existing United States. Lewis
promptly invited fellow officer William Clark, like himself an experienced
outdoorsman, to share leadership of the expedition.
The
Lewis and Clark Expedition
left
St. Louis
on May 14, 1804,
traveling up the
Missouri River
- its 30 members included surveyors, soldiers, Kentucky frontiersmen, two
French boatmen, and Lewis' Newfoundland dog, Seaman. En route they were
guided by a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea
(also spelled Sacjawea but pronounced
Sa-ga-ga-way-a),
who interpreted (translated)
for them as they passed through Indian territories. Onward they pressed, and
upward, into the Rockies. In November 1805, they spent the winter on the
coast and in March set out on the difficult return trip.
Arriving back in
St. Louis
on
September 23, 1806, they marked the occasion by jubilantly (happily) firing
their guns. Not only had they surveyed more
North American
continent than
anyone before them, but by opening the
Oregon Trail
they had given the U.S.
its majestic sense of "manifest destiny" - of being a country that stretched
leisurely (without worry) from
sea to shining sea, rather than just a string of states huddled along the
Atlantic
looking uneasily back toward
Europe.
Clark was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs and, in 1813, governor
of the
Missouri
Territory. Lewis was made governor of the
Louisiana
Territory in 1807; two years later, on his way to
Washington, D.C.
, he died under mysterious circumstances near
Nashville.
President Jefferson, aware that Lewis suffered from depression, sadly
concluded that he had committed suicide, but others suspected foul play.
Click on the map to learn more
along the trail
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Below are some sites and links for more information on Lewis
and Clark.
This site was last updated
08/04/2004 08:08 PM -0400
When
you think of pioneer exploration, you think of these two men. The germinal
(beginning) moment
came in 1803 when army captain Lewis, President
Thomas Jefferson's
private secretary, was put in command of a congressional financed
(paid for by congress)
journey to find and explore a passage to the
Pacific Ocean.
Jefferson had just completed what would today doubtless be termed "the
mother of megadeals," buying from
Napoleon
for $15 million dollars
a tract (piece) of
land just about equal in size to the then-existing United States. Lewis
promptly invited fellow officer William Clark, like himself an experienced
outdoorsman, to share leadership of the expedition.