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The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first overland expedition done by the United States to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition team was headed by the United States Army soldiers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and also assisted by George Drouillard who was half Shawnee and half French. The expedition's goal was to gain an accurate sense of the resources being exchanged in the Louisiana Purchase. This expedition laid much of the groundwork for the westward expansion of the United States.



The Journey “Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o'clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage." With those words, written on August 31, 1803, Meriwether Lewis began his first journal entry on the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

Lewis declared the mouth of the river Dubois to be the expedition’s point of departure, but the real beginning can be considered to be the two and a half months they spent descending the Ohio River. Clark made most of the preparations. He bought two large buckets and five smaller buckets of salt, a ton of dried pork, and medicines.

The party of 33 included 29 individuals who were active participants in the Corps' organizational. The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, the Corps of Discovery suffered its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He was buried at Floyd's Bluff, in what is now known as Sioux City, Iowa. During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark had reached the edge of the Great Plains, a place abounding with elk, deer, bison, and beavers.

Lewis and Clark were also entering Sioux territory. The first tribe of Sioux they met, the Yankton Sioux, also known as the Lakota. Lewis and Clark gave The Yankton Sioux five medals, but they were very disappointed with this and gave the explorers a warning about the upriver Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux received their gifts with obvious hostility. One chief demanded a boat from Lewis and Clark as the price to be paid for passage through their territory.

In April 1805, some members of the expedition were sent back home from Mandan in the “return party”. They brought with them a report about what Lewis and Clark had discovered, 108 botanical and zoological specimens (including some living animals), 68 mineral specimens, and Clark's map of the United States. Other specimens were periodically sent back, including an alive prairie dog in a box. The expedition reached the pacific ocean in December 1804 and set up camp. While wintering at the fort, the men prepared for the trip home by boiling salt from the ocean, hunting elk and other wildlife, and interacting with the native tribes. The 1805–06 winter was very rainy, and the men had a hard time finding suitable meat. Summer-spawning salmon was not available.

Lewis and Clark began their journey home on March 23, 1806. On the way home, they used four dugout canoes they bought from the Native Americans, plus one that they had stolen in a previous theft. Less than a month after leaving Fort Clatsop, they abandoned their canoes because portaging around all the falls proved to be very difficult. The explorers later split into two groups, but rejoined before they returned home quickly via the Missouri River. They reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806.