Lewis & Clark: journey into the unknown: a group of daring explorers headed west from Missouri nearly 200 years ago. Their journey would change the U.S. forever.

"We shall delineate [mark] with correctness the great arteries [rivers] of this great country," wrote President Thomas Jefferson in 1805. "Those who come after will fill up the canvas we begin."

Jefferson had long cultivated a fascination with the West. His library contained more volumes on the region than any library in the world. Jefferson also foresaw a United States that would stretch from sea to sea. To achieve this goal, the U.S., he knew, would have to establish a solid claim to its western territories.

As President, Jefferson got the chance to realize his dreams of westward expansion. In January 1803, he obtained $2,500 from the U.S. Congress to fund a journey to the Pacific Coast. Three months later, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. An area of 827,987 square miles stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, it doubled the size of the nation.

President Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis, his personal secretary, to lead a "Corps of Discovery" across thousands of miles of territory. Lewis, in turn, asked William Clark, under whom he had served in the Frontier Army, to be his co-captain.

Clark happily accepted the challenge. "My friend," he wrote, "I join you with hand & Heart."

Starting Out

A warm spring rain fell on May 14, 1804, when the Corps of Discovery set off from the banks of the tiny Wood River, near St. Louis, Missouri (see map, p. 12). About 50 men crossed the Mississippi River in a keelboat (large flat-bottomed boat) and two pirogues (canoe-like boats). Sixteen of the men would return home before the expedition reached the Pacific Ocean. Only one, Sergeant Charles Floyd, would die along the way, probably of a ruptured appendix.

The Corps headed up the Missouri River, battling its strong currents. On land, the expedition encountered animals none of the men had ever seen, including grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, and buffalo. The Corps endured scorching heat, heavy rains, frigid temperatures, and relentless mosquitoes. Throughout their journey, the men were, by turns, sick, exhausted, and half-starved.

Says historian Dayton Duncan: "The group came face-to-face with gigantic disappointments, but they continued on--one day at a time, one paddle stroke after another."

In what is now North Dakota, the captains hired a French Canadian trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, to serve as an interpreter with Indian tribes. Charbonneau brought his young Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagawea (sah-KAG-ah-way-ah), then six months pregnant. Lewis and Clark thought Sacagawea could help them buy horses from Shoshones who lived at the headwaters (source of a river) of the Missouri. But her importance to the journey would far surpass that.

Chronicling the West

The voyage provided countless remarkable sights for the Corps. Lewis wrote of the White Cliffs in present" day Montana: "As we passed on, it seemed as if those scenes of enchantment would never have an end."

Lewis recorded this observation along with many others in journals he and the crew kept. Of all the items the explorers brought back, these first-person accounts of the voyage and its wonders may have been the most valuable.

"Great Father"

Clark was the group's chief cartographer (mapmaker). He filled his journals with detailed maps of the lands, mountains, and rivers through which the Corps traveled. Lewis was the team's scientific expert. He identified some 178 plants and 122 animals that were new to scientists, including the coyote and the porcupine.

Lewis and Clark also made important studies of almost 50 Indian tribes living in the western U.S. Jefferson had instructed Lewis to establish "friendly" contact with the tribes. The explorers told the Indians that President Jefferson was their new "Great Father," and that the Indian nations were part of the U.S.

Lewis and Clark depended on many Indian tribes for guidance and survival. But no one was more important to their success than Sacagawea.

She helped the Corps endure the treacherous (dangerous) crossing of the Rocky Mountains, and taught them how to dig for edible (fit to be eaten) roots and vegetables. When a sudden storm upped over a canoe, she calmly plucked supplies, including the group's journals, from the rapids.

Sacagawea, which means "Bird Woman," also served as a symbol of peace. Other Indians, seeing a woman and child, understood that the white men were not a war party.

"Immense Ranges"

In the late summer of 1805, the expedition had been through one its most difficult periods. Circling the Great Falls of Montana and climbing the Rocky Mountains had taken three grueling (exhausting) months.

On August 12, 1805, Lewis's scouting party reached the Continental Divide--the crest of the Rockies--near present-day Lemhi, Idaho. On the other side, Lewis expected to see a vast valley and the Columbia River leading away to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, all he saw were more "immense ranges of high mountains."

It was a great disappointment. There was no easy water route to the Pacific--only more hard traveling. After 11 long days of straggle through the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps finally emerged at the site of present-day Weippe, Idaho. Again, friendly Indians saved them. The Nez Perce (nehz PURS) fed the Corps--who had survived on a few grouse, a raven, and a coyote, among other animals--and helped them build canoes for the final leg of their trip.

"America's Future"

In November 1805, the Corps finally reached the Pacific Coast. They built Fort Clatsop (in present-day Oregon), where they spent a rainy and miserable winter.

Although the journey to the Pacific took more than a year and a half, the trip home would only take six months. Many people back East thought the expedition members were dead. So it was with great excitement--and shock--that St. Louis residents welcomed the Corps of Discovery back on September 23, 1806.

"The people gathred on the Shore and [gave us] three cheers," wrote Sergeant John Ordway of the return.

Filmmaker Ken Burns calls Lewis and Clark's epic journey "the most important expedition in the history of the U.S." The explorers, he adds, "saw America's future. They charted where we would go."

Voyage of Discovery Time Line

* MAY 14, 1804 Members of the Corps of Discovery head West from Missouri "under a jentle brease," as Clark writes.

* SEPTEMBER 25, 1804 Teton Sioux Indians demand one of the explorers' boats in exchange for permission to travel farther up the Missouri River, A fight is narrowly avoided.

* NOVEMBER 4,1804 Lewis and Clark hire a French Canadian trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, as an interpreter. His Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, also joins the expedition.

* APRIL 29, 1805 Lewis and one of the other men kill an enormous grizzly bear.

* JUNE 13, 1805 Lewis encounters "the grandest sight I ever beheld"--the Great Falls of the Missouri.

* AUGUST 17, 1805 The explorers buy horses from a band of Shoshone Indians. Their chief turns out to be Sacagawea's brother, Cameah-wait, whom she had not seen since childhood.

* SEPTEMBER 22, 1805 Members of the Corps emerge from the Bitterroot Mountains.

* NOVEMBER 7,1805 Clark writes that "we are in view the Ocian." It is actually 20 miles away.

* MARCH 23, 1808 After a rainy winter near present-day Astoria, Oregon, the group heads home--for a time faking two separate routes.

* JULY 27, 1808 Lewis's group kills two Blackfeet Indians in a skirmish over horses, the only violent deaths during the expedition,

* SEPTEMBER 23, 1806 The explorers arrive back in St. Louis to the cheers of townspeople.

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. treacherous     A. source of a river
2. edible          B. dangerous
3. grueling        C. fit to be eaten
4. headwaters      D. mapmaker
5. cartographer    E. exhausting

THINK ABOUT IT

In what ways was Lewis and
Clark's journey a success? In
what ways did it spell doom
for many Indian tribes?

OBJECTIVES

Students should understand

* Beginning in 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a two-year expedition to explore the regions west of the Mississippi River.

TEACHING STRATEGY

Discuss with students the leadership qualities Lewis and Clark must have had to lead such an expedition into uncharted lands.

BACKGROUND

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark each received 1,600 acres of land as a reward for leading the Corps of Discovery. The rest of the men received double pay and 320 acres each. Toussaint Charbonneau got an additional payment for his services as an interpreter. Sacagawea received no compensation.

THINKING SKILLS

COMPREHENSION: Why did President Thomas Jefferson believe the Corps of Discovery could help the U.S.? (Jefferson thought an exploration of the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Coast would help the U.S. establish a solid claim to those areas.)

MAKING CONNECTIONS: How did Sacagawea contribute to the success of the expedition? (Sacagawea helped the explorers secure horses from, and communicate with, several Native American tribes. She also helped the explorers find fond in the wild and cross the Rocky Mountains safely. As a woman with a child, she indirectly served as a symbol of the expedition's peaceful mission.)

ACTIVITY

CORPS OF DISCOVERY JOURNAL: Have students write and illustrate journal entries as if they were members of the Corps of Discover. Students should discuss what they expect to find, what they fear, and where they plan to go. Journal entries can include sketches of the plants, animals, and people they encounter throughout the expedition.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Individuals and groups: How Lewis and Clark led an expedition through the lands west of the Mississippi River and established relations with several Native American tribes.

* Power, authority, and governance: How the U.S. government sought to expand its national borders by exploring the lands west of the Mississippi River.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* DeVoto, Bernard (Ed.), The Journals of Lewis and Clark. (Mariner Books, 1997). Grades 5-8.

* Bruchac, Joseph, Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman (Scholastic, 2003). Grades 5-8.

WEB SITES

* Lewis and Clark www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/

* Sacapwea www.imahem.com/herohistory/ sacagawea_herohistory.html

1. B

2. C

3. E

4. A

5. D

Words to Know

* Continental Divide: a series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico that form the watershed of North America