As Ambrose well knew, the great journey really began far to the east in Philadelphia, Monticello, and Washington, D.C.įrom 1978, when the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail was established by Congress, until 2019, the eastern terminus of the expedition was regarded as St. Charles to shining sea” just doesn’t rise to the level of American epic. They discovered and described 178 new plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals.So in what sense would that be a transcontinental journey? “From St. Depending on where one decides to begin their journey, it covered some 8,000 miles traveled by keelboat, pirogue (large canoe), canoe, horse, and on foot.Īmong other accomplishments, they confirmed that there was no all-water route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, made the first detailed maps of the regions, met and established relations with some two dozen Indian nations, at times almost coming to blows with some but without whose help the expedition would have faced starvation and become lost. On September 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery paddled into St. Lewis’ first journal entry for the expedition was dated August 31, 1803. He instructed Lewis to foster peace among them and to bring them into the American trading network. Their “Great Father” was now Jefferson and not a Spanish or French ruler. Through the lens of great power politics and in the eyes of the United States, these tribes were now on American territory. Of course, it also changed the relationship to the Indigenous Americans. As Jefferson indicated, this “lessened the apprehensions of interruption from other powers” and it also “increased infinitely the interest we felt in the expedition.” This acquisition had great significance for the expedition in that the majority of the area it would now explore belonged to the U.S. doubled its size from the Mississippi River west to the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains.

By buying this huge tract of land of 830,000 square miles, the U.S. Shortly before the trip began, the Jefferson Administration concluded the Louisiana Purchase with Napoleon’s France for about $15 million. Last on his list but first in importance was “articles of commerce they may need or furnish ….”īeyond commerce, the expedition was to discover and detail flora and fauna, soil and minerals, dinosaur bones, and volcanoes. Of the many Indian tribes, he instructed Lewis to learn the names of the nations, their numbers, possessions, their relations with other tribes, languages, traditions, monuments, lifestyles, implements, food, clothing, housing, diseases and remedies, laws, and customs.

Jefferson stated: “Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take careful observations of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river ….”

Steven ambrose lewis and clark