Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark, younger brother of
George Rogers Clark, were sent by
President Jefferson to explore the
Louisiana Territory. They started up the
Missouri River in May of 1804 and reached the
Pacific Ocean in November of
1805. They wrote reports on the
plants,
animals,
Indians,
soils,
rivers, type of country, etc. It was a scientific, as well as an exploring, undertaking. On the return trip, completed in September of
1806, Lewis and Clark separated for part of the journey to take different routes. There were between forty and fifty men in the party. All but one returned safely. They had been instructed to
avoid trouble with the Indians and to find a pass over the
Rockies; both instructions were carried out. Clark's diary makes good reading and provides an easy and enjoyable way to take the trip over again.
Apparently Jefferson was not bothered by the fact that he ordered the expedition to go across the Rockies beyond our western border. Captain Robert Gray had sailed into the mouth of Columbia River in 1792; in fact, the river got its name from his ship. Then the Lewis and Clark expedition came down the Columbia to the Pacific (1805) and half a dozen years later the permanent settlement at Astoria, established by John Jacob Astor, was a fur trading post near the mouth of the river. These facts combined to give the United States its claim to the Orgeon Territory which we acquired in 1846.