In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on a two-year journey to document the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. On the way to the Pacific, they collected information on plants, animals, and about some of the Native American nations living in the area.
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Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an expedition to survey the newly purchased territory acquired from the French, known as the Louisiana Purchase. The trek sent the party of about 40 from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.
Image by the United States National Park Service
Today, the Lewis and Clark Trail is a 5,955-kilometer (3,700-mile) long historical trail in the United States National Park Service system. It passes through 11 states and follows the path Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took as they explored the lands acquired through the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson requested and received congressional approval for a team of men and $2,500 [about $78,200 in 2015 U.S. money, according to a website by Rodney Edvinsson, associate professor of Economic History at Stockholm University] to explore “even to the Western Ocean” and to “have conferences with the natives.” He asked his former personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition. Lewis convinced William Clark, one of his former military commanders, to join him.
In a letter to Lewis, Jefferson explained the journey’s primary mission was to explore the area from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson hoped to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean—the long-sought-after Northwest Passage.
This was not Jefferson’s only goal. He also wanted to gather knowledge about the native people living along the route and to establish positive relationships between his government and theirs. Additionally, he asked Lewis and Clark to document the climate, animals, plants, and minerals they encountered along the way.
In May of 1804, Lewis and Clark and a team of about 40 set out from St. Louis, then the capital of the Orleans Terriotory. This so-called Corps of Discovery traveled for about 18 months before reaching the Pacific Ocean in November of 1805. Much of their journey followed the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. The return journey took just under a year, ending in September of 1806.
Along the way, Lewis and Clark received valuable guidance from the only woman in the group, a Shoshone named Sacagawea. Sacagawea was married to a French fur trader who had joined the Corps of Discovery, and she had just given birth to an infant son. Sacagawea shared her knowledge of the land. Historians also speculate her presence helped ease the fear of the Native American people the company encountered on the excursion.
Lewis and Clark (along with others in the Corps) kept detailed journals throughout their expedition. They documented 120 animals and 182 plants, many of which were previously unknown to the Americans, and they returned with specimens of some. Clark drew detailed maps of the territory. They also brought back knowledge of nine Native American languages.
The United States deemed the Lewis and Clark expedition so successful that Congress paid the Corps of Discovery double the expected pay and gave each member hundreds of acres of land. Two-hundred years later, the Lewis and Clark expedition is still recognized as one of the greatest explorations in U.S. history.
Image by the United States National Park Service
process of enlarging.
journey with a specific purpose, such as exploration.
(1803) land bought by the United States from France, extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
(3,734 kilometers/2,320 miles) river in the central United States.
waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
pathway.
A significant push toward the west coast of North America began in the 1810s. It was intensified by the belief in manifest destiny, federally issued Indian removal acts, and economic promise. Pioneers traveled to Oregon and California using a network of trails leading west. In 1893 historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier closed, citing the 1890 census as evidence, and with that, the period of westward expansion ended. Explore these resources to learn more about what happened between 1810 and 1893, as immigrants, American Indians, United States citizens, and freed slaves moved west.
The Cherokee adjusted to White U.S. culture and won a case at the Supreme Court, but were still forced off their land.
A significant push toward the west coast of North America began in the 1810s. It was intensified by the belief in manifest destiny, federally issued Indian removal acts, and economic promise. Pioneers traveled to Oregon and California using a network of trails leading west. In 1893 historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier closed, citing the 1890 census as evidence, and with that, the period of westward expansion ended. Explore these resources to learn more about what happened between 1810 and 1893, as immigrants, American Indians, United States citizens, and freed slaves moved west.
The Cherokee adjusted to White U.S. culture and won a case at the Supreme Court, but were still forced off their land.