1803: President-elect Thomas Jefferson
invites Meriwether Lewis, a captain
in the First United States Infantry, to
become his private secretary.
Lewis had volunteered for a
transcontinental expedition that
Jefferson tried to organize in 1792;
now, as President, Jefferson sees
an opportunity to launch this
expedition, and sees in Lewis
someone who could lead it. Over
the next two years, he will guide
Lewis as he gains the scientific
knowledge, technical skills and
special equipment he will need for
the journey.
Jefferson asks Congress for an
appropriation to send an expedition
up the Missouri River and on to the
Pacific, in order to discover whether
a Northwest Passage or water route
across the continent exists and to lay
the groundwork for extending
American fur trade into the region.
None of this territory is part of the
United States when Jefferson makes
his request in January, but even then
he is negotiating secretly through
James Monroe to purchase the
whole vast region from France. Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves
Pittsburgh aboard a specially
designed keelboat, the
Discovery, on the first leg of his
transcontinental expedition. At
Louisville he is joined by Captain
William Clark, an experienced
frontier soldier who is the
youngest brother of William
Rogers Clark, the hero of the
Revolutionary War in the West.
Together Lewis and Clark proceed
up the Mississippi to Wood River,
Illinois, opposite the mouth of the
Missouri, where they establish a
winter camp to make final
preparations and train their
recruits.
1804: Heading up the Missouri River in
May, Lewis and Clark stop to visit
Daniel Boone at his home near St.
Charles. By October, they have
reached the villages of the
Mandan in present-day North
Dakota, where they establish
winter quarters. During their
months at what they call Fort
Mandan, they receive invaluable
information from the Indians about
the course of the Missouri and the
countryside surrounding it. Here
they also add three more to their
30-member Corp of Discovery: a
French trader named Toussaint
Charbonneau, who will serve as
interpreter, his wife, Sacagawea, a
Shonone who had been
kidnapped and raised by the
Hidatsa, and their baby, whom
Clark calls Pompey.
1805: In April, Lewis and Clark resume their
expedition by canoe, sending the
keelboat Discovery back down the
Missouri laden with scientific
specimens. Within a few weeks, they
reach the mouth of the Yellowstone
River and in May catch first sight of
the Rocky Mountains. In June, they
portage around the Great Falls of the
Missouri, reaching the upper forks of
the Missouri in July. Coming to the
navigable limits of the river in
mid-August, they set out on foot to
cross the continental divide, and here
they encounter the Shoshone, whose
chief, by an astounding coincidence,
Sacagawea recognizes as her
brother.
With her help, the expedition
purchases 30 horses from the
Shoshone and begin the difficult trek
through the Bitterroot Mountains,
where snow and hunger lengthen the
trail. Coming down out of the
mountains, they are found by the Nez
Perce, who permit them to fell trees
for five dugout canoes and set them
on course down the Clearwater River.
Following the Clearwater to the Snake
River and thence to the Columbia,
Lewis and Clark come in sight of the
Pacific on November 7, 1805. Here
they establish their winter quarters,
named Fort Clatsop for a nearby
Indian tribe.
1806: Leaving the Pacific coast in March,
Lewis and Clark retrace their path,
crossing back over the Bitterroots in
July. Here the Corp of Discovery
divides into two parties: those led by
Lewis venture cross-country to the
Great Falls of the Missouri, with an
excursion north up the Marias River;
those led by Clark explore the
Yellowstone River. The two groups are
reunited near the mouth of the
Yellowstone in August and reach St.
Louis on September 23, where they
have been presumed lost and
receive a hero's welcome. They are
accompanied by the Mandan chief,
Big White, and his wife, Yellow Corn,
who travel with Lewis to meet
President Jefferson in Washington,
D.C.
