Judith Edwards - The Journey of Lewis and Clark in United States History

A Journey of Discovery

The time was 1804. The place was the vast unexplored western frontier of the United States. The people were Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the explorers who made up the Corps of Discovery. The assignment was to gather as much information as possible about the land, the people, the wildlife, and the resources of the territory. The reasonto gain firsthand knowledge of the newly acquired 828,000mile Louisiana Territory for Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States.

In The Journey of Lewis and Clark in United States History, author Judith Edwards takes the reader along on the exciting expedition that opened the way for American expansion to the West. Detailing the achievements and mishaps of the Corps of Discovery, Edwards describes one of the most memorable adventures of all time.

"Edwards gives an excellent account of the journey"

"a journal-like resource. Highly Recommended."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Judith Edwards has worked as an actress and singer, and holds master's degrees in Creative Writing/Journalism and Social Work. Edwards also headed the Action/Awareness Center, a private psychotherapy practice for individuals and families.

An interesting question was now to be determined; which of these rivers was the Missouri, or that river which the Minnetares had discribed to us as approaching very near to the Columbia river. To mistake the stream... would not only loose us the whole of this season but would probably so dishearten the party that it might defeat the expedition altogether.

Meriwether Lewis, June 3, 1805

This map shows the route taken by the Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri River, as well as the area at which they had to decide which fork to follow toward the Pacific Ocean.

Two tall men dressed in moccasins and buckskin stood on a point overlooking two large rivers. They appeared puzzled and were talking rapidly and pointing first to one river and then the other. Behind them, in a crude camp, were twenty-nine other bearded and buckskinned men, one woman, one baby, and a big black dog. An air of suspense loomed and there was much conversation. The date was June 3, 1805. The men pointing at the rivers were Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the leaders of this group called the Corps of Discovery. They had been traveling up the Missouri River from Wood River, Illinois, by boat and over land, since May 14, 1804. Now they had come to a point where two large rivers intersected. If they made a mistake and followed the wrong river, it would seriously delay the expedition and discourage everyone involved.

Captain Lewis wrote about this dilemma in his journal that night. How terrible it would be to take the wrong river after traveling for more than a year on a trip that was supposed to take the expedition to the Pacific Ocean! As Lewis said, it might mean the ruin of the whole expedition, because winter would come soon. This winter would be the second one the group had spent without reaching the Pacific, and their lack of supplies might mean they would have to turn around, without achieving their goal.

The Corps of Discovery had already been through many challenges. A day before the expedition camped at the fork of the two rivers, French interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau was chased by a grizzly bear into some bushes. If not for the sharpshooting of George Drouillard, the expeditions best hunter, both men might have been clawed to death. In April, when Captain Lewis shot the first grizzly of the trip, another bear chased him eighty yards into the river!

The threat of stumbling across angry poisonous rattlesnakes was a daily occurrence. Captain Clark was almost bitten by a rattlesnake on May 17. On May 29 the Corps of Discovery had a surprise visitor. A huge buffalo swam across the river to the camp. It was night, and only the soldier on guard duty was awake. By the time he saw the buffalo, it was running straight for the fires, galloping within inches of the heads of some of the sleeping men. The guard yelled and jumped up and down, trying to divert the attention of this immense animal. Lewiss big Newfoundland dog, Seaman, barked wildly. Finally, the confused buffalo turned to the side and disappeared as quickly as it had come. The members of the expedition were by then fully awake, guns in hand, nobody knowing what had caused the disturbance.

The weather was often cold and rainy. The Missouri River became so shallow at some points that the men had no choice but to walk on the riverbank and pull the boats along with ropes. The uniforms and shoes the men had started out with were long since worn out. The moccasins they had made did little to protect their sore feet from the rocks and prickly pear cactus plants. But for the moment, at least, there was no threat from the Teton Sioux, a fierce Indian tribe that had confronted them last fall. That incident was a narrow escape, and they hoped it would not be repeated.

Now the Corps of Discovery was faced with a decision that was just as dramatic and held great danger if the choice turned out to be wrong. The members of the expedition were sure that the river they should take was the north fork. It was wider than the other river and looked similar to the waters of the Missouri, on which they had traveled for so many painful miles. The captains, after study and exploration, became convinced that proceeding on the south fork was the correct decision. Lewis wrote,

Those ideas as they occurred to me I indevoured to impress on the minds of all the party all of whom except Capt. C. being still firm in the belief that the N. Fork was the Missouri and that which we ought to take; they said very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us any wher we thought proper to direct but that they still thought that the other was the river....

Just why were these wilderness travelers so willing to follow their leaders, even when they thought their leaders were choosing the wrong river? Why were they traveling in this dangerous, rough wilderness, where around every bend lay the unexpected? Lets find out what thirty-two people, plus a baby, were doing on a riverbank near present-day Great Falls, Montana, in June 1805.

This map shows the United States as it looked in 1804, just after the addition of the Louisiana Territory.

The Lewis and Clark expedition was born in the mind of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. Jeffersons pioneering mind put him way ahead of his time. He was a naturalistsomeone who studies the earth and its inhabitants, and a botanista person who studies plant life. Jefferson was also an architect, having designed his own home, Monticello, in Virginia. He was also one of the worlds first archaeologists, studying civilizations and events from the past by examining buildings and tools of everyday use, which are called artifacts. Jefferson owned many articles dug up from the ruins of earlier times. Monticello is full of practical inventions and evidence of his ability to create beautiful surroundings.

Though Thomas Jefferson had traveled a great deal in Europe, in America he had never traveled more than fifty miles west of his home. He was fascinated and curious about what lay beyond the western frontier, which in those days was the territory west of the Mississippi River. It was his vision that made the Lewis and Clark expedition possible by pushing forward the United States purchase of the Louisiana Territory. Thomas Jefferson knew that the fur trade with American Indians would be valuable to some country, and he wanted America to be that country. He also knew that important information about natural resources and other cultures would help the United States develop.