National Historic Trails - Lewis and Clark Trail - The Corps of Discovery

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the United States. It stands, incomparably, as our Nation's epic in documented exploration of the American West. In 1804-06, it carried the destiny as well as the flag of our young Nation westward from the Mississippi across thousands of miles of mostly unknown land to the Pacific Ocean. This epic feat fired the imagination of the American people and made them feel the full sweep of the continent on which they lived. In its scope and achievements, the Expedition towers among the major explorations of the world.

In 1803, the United States, while attempting to purchase New Orleans from France, was unexpectedly sold the entire territory called Louisiana. This enormous, 838,000-square -mile area doubled the size of our national domain. It included most of the lands drained by the western tributaries of the Mississippi River, from the Gulf of Mexico to present Canada, and west to the Continental Divide.

Although Thomas Jefferson had previously proposed expeditions of western exploration, the purchase of Louisiana now provided the impetus to move forward and Congress authorized the Expedition. A primary objective was to find a practical transportation link between the Louisiana Territory and the"Oregon Country," claimed by the U.S. following discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792.

However, the Expedition was conceived as more than geographic exploration. Jefferson wanted information on the resources and inhabitants of the new territory. The party was to scientifically observe and, if practicable, collect plant, animal, and mineral specimens; record weather data; study native cultures; conduct diplomatic councils with the tribes; map geographic features "of a permanent kind" along their route; and record all important observations and events through daily journal entries.

Assigning high priority to the quest for knowledge, Lewis and Clark meticulously recorded observations about the characteristics, inhabitants, and resources of the country through which they passed. Not many explorers in the history of the world have provided such exhaustive and accurate information on the regions they probed.

Before the Expedition, the trans-Mississippi West was an unexplored, unmapped, virgin land. The members of the Expedition made their way through this vast country, living off its resources and adapting themselves to its harsh conditions. They encountered primitive tribes and menacing animals. On foot, on horseback, and by boat they pushed over massive mountain ranges, across seemingly endless plains, through dense forests, and against powerful currents of raging waters.

Meriwether Lewis began the journey at Washington, D.C., on July 5, 1803. At Pittsburgh, he gathered supplies of arms and military stores from Harpers Ferry and Schuylkill Philadelphia Arsenals. These and a wide assortment of other items were loaded aboard a specially designed keelboat, on which Lewis "with a party of 11 hands" departed down the Ohio River, August 30. Other men were recruited along the way. At Clarksville, opposite Louisville, Lewis was joined by his cocommander, William Clark. The party established its 1803-04 winter camp along the Mississippi River, above St. Louis at Wood River (Illinois), opposite the mouth of the Missouri River.

After a winter of diplomatic duties and final preparations, the explorers, on May 14, 1804, headed their boats into the current of the river "under a jentle brease." The party numbered 45 from Wood River to its 1804-05 winter establishment at Fort Mandan (North Dakota), and 33 from Mandan to the Pacific and return in 1805-06. Lewis' Newfoundland dog, Seaman, accompanied the party throughout its journey.

Ascending the Missouri in 1804 proved arduous and slow as the men towed the keelboat and two smaller more maneuverable craft, called pirogues, against the swift current. Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only Expedition member to die on the journey, succumbed to apparent appendicitis and was buried near present Sioux City, Iowa. The difficulties of the first summer and autumn forged the party into a hardened "Corps of Discovery."

The first of many councils with Indian tribes took place north of present Omaha, Nebraska, at a place the captains called "Councile Bluff." Here they gave presents and peace medals to the Oto chiefs and informed them of the new sovereignty of the United States.

The Expedition spent a productive winter at Fort Mandan, which they built in November 1804 near present Washburn, North Dakota. The fort was close to the five Knife River villages of the friendly Mandan and Minitari (Hidatsa) Indians. Here the commanders gained valuable knowledge of the country west to the Rockies and recruited as interpreters the French-Canadian fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, and his Shoshoni wife, Sacagawea. Together with their newborn son, Jean Baptiste, they would journey with the party to the Pacific and back to the Mandan villages.

In April 1805, the keelboat departed for St. Louis, and the "permanent party" of 33 continued up the Missouri in the two pirogues and six dugout canoes. As they forged westward through country "on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden," the explorers met danger as a matter of course, suffering hunger, fatigue, privation, and sickness.

They encountered the Great Falls of the Missouri in mid-June 1805 and spent 3 weeks portaging their heavy canoes and equipment 18 miles around the falls. They reached the source of the Missouri in August. Miraculously, the Shoshoni band contacted there were Sacagawea's people, led by her brother, Chief Cameahwait. This remarkable coincidence, together with Sacagawea's ability to speak Shoshoni, greatly enhanced the trading for horses. These were needed for travel over the Continental Divide and through the Bitterroot Mountains to navigable waters of the Clear-water River (Idaho). Here, the party made new dugout canoes, left their horses with the friendly Nez Perce Indians, and were once again waterborne.

Navigating down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia Rivers, the explorers, in November 1805, reached the "great Pacific Ocean which we been so long anxious to See." The north shore of the Columbia estuary proved sparse of game and too exposed to the fury of winter storms, so they crossed to the south side of the river. In December 1805, the Expedition constructed Fort Clatsop on a sheltered site near present Astoria, Oregon. The winter months were wet and dismal; Christmas dinner consisted of spoiled elk meat. Their 4-month stay at Fort Clatsop was a busy time. The captains worked over their field notes and maps, entertained and bartered with Indians for food, and gained from them important geographic and ethnographic information. They sent hunters out daily and dispatched a detail of men to the ocean to make salt by boiling sea water. On March 23, 1806, after the disappointment of no contact with coastal trading vessels for possible return by sea, the Corps of Discovery began the long trek home.

Struggling upstream against the current of the Columbia, they traded their canoes to Indians for horses near today's The Dalles, Oregon. Traveling overland, they returned to the Nez Perce villages and retrieved their horses but met nearly a month's delay in crossing the Bitter-roots due to deep snow.

In July 1806, they reached Travelers Rest Camp near present Missoula, Montana. Here, the party divided. Lewis, with a small detachment, explored today's Blackfoot, Sun, and Marias Rivers and became engaged in the most serious Indian skirmish of the entire journey.

Clark and his group headed southeast to the Yellowstone River traversing Shoshoni tribal lands. Sacagawea contributed important guide services to Clark as she pointed out Indian trails that led to the Yellowstone. Clark and his party once again made dugout canoes and explored the river downstream to its confluence with the Missouri where they met Lewis' party. After a short stop at the Mandan villages, the homeward bound voyageurs made a rapid descent of the Missouri to St. Louis, arriving there on September 23, 1806.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled more than 8,000 miles over a period of 2 years, 4 months, and 9 days. Its findings contributed vital new knowledge concerning the vast, previously unknown land, its resources, and its native inhabitants. The resulting geopolitical impact of the mission had far-reaching effects upon international boundaries and relations. The Lewis and Clark journals are among the treasures of our Nation's written history, disclosing in simple eloquence, extraordinary deeds of a sincere, determined frontier breed that endures as a lasting legacy to be enjoyed by all Americans.

Move on to the continuation of the Lewis and Clark Trail.