Introduction to Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition (May 14, 1804-September 23, 1806), an expedition sent by President Thomas Jefferson to examine the resources of the far Northwest. The 8,000-mile (12,900-km) journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast and back again was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
The expedition provided valuable information about the climate, geography, natural products, and plant and animal life of the region, and about the customs, dress, and economy of the Indians. The exploration helped establish the legal claim the United States later made for the territory, and it opened a route that was soon traveled by settlers and traders. One aim was unfulfilled: Lewis and Clark failed to find a practical water route all the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific, for none exists.
Important dates in the Lewis and Clark expedition1803January 18President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress to finance an expedition to explore the western part of North America. Congress quickly approved the request.May 2 U.S. representatives signed a treaty with France to purchase the Louisiana Territory.June 19Captain Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson’s choice to lead the expedition, asked William Clark to serve as co-leader.August 31Lewis launched the expedition’s boat down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.October 15Lewis and Clark met in Clarksville, Indiana, where Clark had recruited men for the expedition.December 13The expedition established winter quarters at Camp Dubois, near St. Louis, Missouri.1804May 14The expedition set out from Camp Dubois and headed up the Missouri River.August 20Sergeant Charles Floyd became the expedition’s only member to die on the journey.October 24The group began to build Fort Mandan in present-day North Dakota for its winter camp.November 4Lewis and Clark hired the French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone Indian wife Sacagawea to interpret Indian languages.1805April 7The journey resumed up the Missouri River.June 13The group reached the Great Falls of the Missouri River and soon began an 18-mile (29-kilometer) overland trip around the waterfalls.September 11The expedition entered the Lolo Trail of the Bitterroot Range in the Rocky Mountains. The party spent 11 days crossing the mountains under severe conditions.November 18Members of the expedition reached the Pacific coast.December 7The expedition began to build Fort Clatsop in present-day Oregon for its winter quarters.1806March 23The homeward journey started.July 3The expedition split into two groups to find a shortcut home and to explore more of the Louisiana Territory.July 27Lewis’s group killed two Blackfeet Indians who tried to steal guns and horses in what was the only bloodshed on the entire trip.August 12The two groups of explorers reunited on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Yellowstone River.September 23The expedition arrived back in St. Louis.Background
When Jefferson became President in 1801 the Louisiana Purchase had not yet been made and the area around the headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers was still unexplored by whites. This vast region was not part of the United States and its status was uncertain; it was said to belong to France or Spain or Great Britain, or to nobody.
One of the first measures of Jefferson's new administration was to provide for adequate examination of this region, believed to be rich in furs, timber, and minerals. In the winter of 1802–03 Congress agreed to an appropriation of $2,500 for the purpose. Jefferson organized the party as a military expedition sent out by the War Department.
Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's private secretary, was put in command. Lewis asked that William Clark, an old friend and a fellow soldier, be made co-leader of the expedition. Lewis was given a captain's commission, and Clark was made a lieutenant. Lewis refused to recognize the difference in rank. Clark was addressed as “captain” from start to finish and is called “captain” to this day.
Lewis and Clark were men of exceptional physical and mental ability, and worked well together as a team. Both had long experience in wilderness living and river travel. Lewis was the natural leader and had the more scientific mind. Clark was a skilled frontiersman with a genius for negotiating with Indians.
Interesting facts about the Lewis and Clark expeditionFor their leadership, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark each received 1,600 acres (650 hectares) of land as rewards. The rest of the men got double pay and 320 acres (130 hectares). The interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau received an additional $533.33 for his services. His wife Sacagawea got nothing.The explorers passed through what are now 11 states: Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.Sacagawea, the only woman to make the round trip, gave birth to a boy, Jean Baptiste, on Feb. 11, 1805. After the expedition, Charbonneau and Sacagawea asked Clark to raise and educate the boy, and he agreed.Several members of the party often teamed up to communicate with the Indians. To talk to the Shoshone, for example, Lewis and Clark spoke in English to Private Francois Labiche. Labiche spoke in French to Toussaint Charbonneau. Charbonneau spoke in Hidatsa to Sacagawea, who spoke in Shoshone to members of her tribe.York, the only black member of the expedition, had been a slave in the Clark family since boyhood. William Clark’s father, John Clark, gave William rights to York in his will.Seaman, the only pet to accompany the explorers, was a Newfoundland dog owned by Lewis. Seaman proved to be especially dependable for guard duty. Indians once kidnapped Seaman, but the explorers rescued the dog.The journals of Lewis and Clark describe about 180 plants and 125 animals that had not been reported to scientists.Preparations
Forty-six or forty-seven people started on the expedition (the precise number is not known). The majority were soldiers (including a temporary detachment of seven), but the party also included boatmen, a hunter-interpreter, and Clark's black slave, York. The party assembled in the summer of 1802, and proceeded down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi to a point in Illinois opposite the mouth of the Missouri. The following winter was spent in preparation, with several trips to St. Louis, then a frontier furtrading village.
On March 9 and 10, 1803, Lewis was the chief official witness at the transfer of upper Louisiana to United States authority, under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase. This agreement brought under United States control all the territory the expedition would cross east of the Rockies. The Louisiana Purchase not only increased the importance of the expedition, but also eliminated the danger of foreign interference or objection.
Supplies gathered for the journey included 21 bales of goods for trade with the Indians. The boats for transporting men and supplies on the first stage of the expedition were a 55-foot (17-m) keelboat and two pirogues (large dugout canoes).
Progress of the Expedition
The expedition got under way May 14, 1804. It proceeded up the Missouri River, occasionally passing groups of fur traders or parties of Indians, who at this time were usually friendly to white men. The Sioux tribe, however, demanded more trade goods than Lewis and Clark were willing to give them, and threatened to attack the expedition. Violence was narrowly averted, and the party continued upriver. One soldier, Charles Lloyd, became ill and died, the only death on the entire trip.
First Winter CampBy late October they had arrived at the Mandan Indian villages, about 40 miles (64 km) north of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. Here they built Fort Mandan and camped for the winter. The boatmen built a dugout canoe and returned to St. Louis. During the long winter months much information about the Missouri and its tributaries was obtained from the Indians. The party hired a French guide, Charbonneau, whose wife Sacajawea (“Bird Woman”) was a Shoshoni Indian from a tribe far to the west. Her baby, born during the winter, was carried on her back papoose-fashion throughout the long trip.
In the spring the temporary detachment of soldiers was sent back in the keelboat, carrying a report of the journey to date for President Jefferson. They also delivered to him five boxes containing Indian articles, plants, furs, and other specimens, and cages of live animals.
Journey ResumedOn April 8, 1805, the expedition set off again in the two pirogues and six newly made dugout canoes. The Missouri became increasingly more difficult to navigate. A month-long portage was required to bypass the Great Falls, the site of present-day Great Falls, Montana. Finally the expedition reached the point where the Missouri divides into three forks. They followed the northern branch, which they named the Jefferson, to its headwaters in the mountains. Here Lewis and three others went through the Lemhi pass. The four were the first white men to cross the Continental Divide north of New Mexico and south of Canada.
In August, the expedition met a band of Shoshoni Indians. By a dramatic coincidence, the chief turned out to be the brother of Sacajawea, who as a child had been captured from her tribe. Lewis and Clark traded goods for horses and, with an Indian guide, the party made its way through mountains of the Bitterroot Range by way of a pass near present-day Lolo, Montana.
The trail was difficult, the weather bitterly cold, and the food supply short. But coming out of the mountains they again found navigable water and hunting grounds. Dugout canoes were made, the horses left with friendly Indians, and the explorers were afloat once more. Descending the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, they came to the Pacific Ocean on November 15, 1805.
Second Winter CampA winter camp was built on a small river west of present-day Astoria, Oregon, and named Fort Clatsop, after the dominant Indian tribe in the area. Here the explorers spent a miserable winter, suffering from unending rain, a monotonous diet, and lack of trade goods for buying food and supplies from the Indians. Trading ships were known to come to the Columbia, and the party hoped for the arrival of a United States vessel, but none appeared while they were there. After reviewing their notes on the country they had crossed, Lewis and Clark decided their route had not been the shortest and easiest, and that others must be explored on the return trip.
The Return JourneyThe expedition left Fort Clatsop on March 23, 1806. Traveling up the river was much harder than coming down had been. After five weeks they reached the Indian tribe with which they had left the horses. The snow was still too deep in the mountains for them to start overland, so they spent two months with their Indian friends. Well rested and with ample food and horses, the party was in good condition when it started on its journey again.
After crossing the Continental Divide, the party separated, Lewis taking one group on a new northern route, and Clark's group exploring to the south. Lewis established a short route between the Clearwater River and the Great Falls on the Missouri. He also explored the Marias River, where his party had a skirmish with Blackfeet Indians. Clark's group, guided by Sacajawea, who was in familiar country, returned by way of the Yellowstone River. The expedition reassembled where the Yellowstone joins the Missouri.
At the Mandan Indian villages, one member of the party, John Colter, obtained permission to leave the expedition for the life of a trapper. He returned to the mountains and is believed to have been the first white man to set foot within what is now Yellowstone National Park. At Mandan, also, Sacajawea, whose loyal service had been invaluable, left the party with her family.
The expedition reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806. This was two years, four months, and nine days after it had left. No word had been received from its members since the return of the keel-boat a year and a half before, and they had been given up for lost. Word of their safe and successful journey was received with joy and pride by President Jefferson and the whole United States.
Reports By Members of the Expedition
President Jefferson had directed that notes be taken on geographical features of the trip, Indian tribes, plants and animals, and many other topics. Lewis kept a journal and Clark a diary. Several enlisted men also wrote down their observations. These records were regarded as private property, however, and were never filed with the secretary of war. Congress made no effort to get the reports published, and the two leaders were too busy with other affairs.
Many versions of the journals were printed at private expense over the years, but not until 1904–05 was the complete collection published (seven volumes and an atlas, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites). An abridged version, Journals of Lewis and Clark (1953), was edited by Bernard De Voto.