Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an expedition organized in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the upper reaches of the Missouri River system. President Thomas Jefferson appointed Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark to command the expedition. The two Captains met on the Ohio River and traveled westward, stopping at military posts along their route to enlist volunteers for the expedition. The group Lewis and Clark assembled consisted of twenty three soldiers, three interpreters, and an African American Slave. They spent their first winter (1803) in a camp on the Mississippi River, opposite the mouth of the Missouri River. At St. Louis sixteen more men were recruited, and the Lewis and Clark expedition officially started on May 14, 1804. After over five months of difficult travel the explorers had covered 1600 miles; later in October they established a winter camp near the site of present day Bismarck, North Dakota. Lewis and Clark left camp in April, 1805, and about two months later reached a point on the Missouri River near the site of present day Great Falls, Montana, some 500 miles further. The expedition spent nearly a month portaging around the falls and then proceeded to the triple fork of the Missouri River; The members of the expedition named the branches Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin. Paddling up the Jefferson, they reached the head of navigation on August 12, 1805. The Lewis and Clark expedition then left the river, obtained a guide and horses from Shoshone Indians, and proceeded overland through the Rocky Mountains until they reached the Clearwater River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The expedition then descended the Clearwater and Columbia Rivers by canoe, and reached the Pacific Ocean on November 15, 1805. The expedition spent a tough winter there in a camp fortified against Indian attack. The return journey was started on march 23, 1806, and the Lewis and Clark expedition reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

Thomas Jefferson's Lewis and Clark expedition is considered as one of the great feats of exploration. The expedition traveled approximately 8500 miles, much of it through unknown territory inhabited only by Native Indians who had never seen white people before. The government of President Thomas Jefferson awarded the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition with grants of land.



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