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Lewis and Clark Expedition

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Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

Earlier European exploration to the Pacific coast

While the Lewis and Clark expedition was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast, it was preceded over a decade earlier by a Canadian expedition led by explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie, whose expedition completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico by a person not of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, in July 1793.

Louisiana Purchase and a western expedition

In 1804, the Louisiana Purchase sparked interest in expansion to the west coast. A few weeks after the purchase, President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had the Congress appropriate $2,500 for an expedition. In a message to Congress, Jefferson wrote

The river Missouri, and Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as rendered desirable by their connection with the Mississippi, and consequently with us. ... An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men ... might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean ...

Thomas Jefferson had long thought about such an expedition, but was concerned about the danger. While in France from 1785-1789, he had heard of numerous plans to better explore the Pacific Northwest. In 1785, Jefferson learned that King Louis XVI of France planned to send a mission there, reportedly as a mere scientific expedition. Jefferson found that doubtful, and evidence provided by John Paul Jones confirmed these doubts. In either event, the mission was destroyed by bad weather after leaving Botany Bay in 1788. In 1786 John Ledyard, who had sailed with Captain James Cook to the Pacific Northwest, told Jefferson that he planned to walk across Siberia, ride a Russian fur-trade vessel to cross the ocean, and then walk all the way to the American capital. Since Ledyard was an American, Jefferson hoped him success. Ledyard had made it as far as Siberia when Czarina Catherine the Great had him arrested and deported back to Poland.

The famous map of Lewis and Clark's expedition. It changed mapping of northwest America by providing the first accurate depiction of the relationship of the sources of the Columbia and Missouri rivers, and the Rocky Mountains.

The American expedition to the Pacific northwest was intended to study the Indian tribes, botany, geology, Western terrain and wildlife in the region, as well as evaluate the potential interference of British and French Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area.

Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery. In a letter dated June 20, 1803, Jefferson wrote to Lewis

The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce.

Lewis selected William Clark as his partner. Because of bureaucratic delays in the U.S. Army, Clark officially only held the rank of Second Lieutenant at the time, but Lewis concealed this from the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring to Clark as "Captain".

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Achievements

Black Tailed Prarie Dog
  • Encouraged Euro-American fur trade in the West
  • Opened Euro-American diplomatic relations with the Indians
  • Established a precedent for Army exploration of the West
  • Strengthened the U.S. claim to Oregon Territory
  • Focused U.S. and media attention on the West
  • Produced a large body of literature about the West (the Lewis and Clark diaries)

Expedition members

File:Lewis-and-clark-statue.jpg
Statue of Lewis and Clark in Seaside, Oregon, near the expedition's end
  1. Captain Meriwether Lewis — private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson and leader of the Expedition.
  2. Lieutenant William Clark — shared command of the Expedition, although technically second in command.
  3. York — Clark's enslaved black manservant.
  4. Sergeant Charles Floyd — the Expedition's quartermaster; died early in the trip. He was the one person who died during the Expedition.
  5. Sergeant Patrick Gass — chief carpenter, promoted to Sergeant after Floyd's death.
  6. Sergeant John Ordway — responsible for issuing provisions, appointing guard duties, and keeping records for the Expedition.
  7. Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor — leader of the 1st Squad; he presided over the court martial of privates John Collins and Hugh Hall.
  8. Corporal Richard Warfington — conducted the return party to St. Louis in 1805.
  9. Private John Boley — disciplined at Camp Dubois and was assigned to the return party.
  10. Private William E. Bratton — served as hunter and blacksmith.
  11. Private John Collins — had frequent disciplinary problems; he was court-martialed for stealing whiskey which he had been assigned to guard.
  12. Private John Colter — charged with mutiny early in the trip, he later proved useful as a hunter; he earned his fame after the journey.
  13. Private Pierre Cruzatte — a one-eyed French fiddle-player and a skilled boatman.
  14. Private John Dame
  15. Private Joseph Field — a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Reubin.
  16. Private Reubin Field — a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Joseph.
  17. Private Robert Frazer — kept a journal that was never published.
  18. Private George Gibson — a fiddle-player and a good hunter; he served as an interpreter (probably via sign language).
  19. Private Silas Goodrich — the main fisherman of the expedition.
  20. Private Hugh Hall — court-martialed with John Collins for stealing whiskey.
  21. Private Thomas Proctor Howard — court-martialed for setting a "pernicious example" to the Indians by showing them that the wall at Fort Mandan was easily scaled.
  22. Private François Labiche — French fur trader who served as an interpreter and boatman.
  23. Private Hugh McNeal — the first white explorer to stand astride the headwaters of the Missouri River on the Continental Divide.
  24. Private John Newman — court-martialed and confined for "having uttered repeated expressions of a highly criminal and mutinous nature."
  25. Private John Potts — German immigrant and a miller.
  26. Private Moses B. Reed — attempted to desert in August 1804; convicted of desertion and expelled from the party.
  27. Private John Robertson — member of the Corps for a very short time.
  28. Private George Shannon — was lost twice during the expedition, once for sixteen days. Youngest member of expedition at 19.
  29. Private John Shields — blacksmith, gunsmith, and a skilled carpenter; with John Colter, he was court-martialed for mutiny.
  30. Private John B. Thompson — may have had some experience as a surveyor.
  31. Private Howard Tunn — hunter and navigator.
  32. Private Ebenezer Tuttle — may have been the man sent back on June 12, 1804; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
  33. Private Peter M. Weiser — had some minor disciplinary problems at River Dubois; he was made a permanent member of the party.
  34. Private William Werner — convicted of being absent without leave at St. Charles, Missouri, at the start of the expedition.
  35. Private Isaac White — may have been the man sent back on June 12, 1804; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
  36. Private Joseph Whitehouse — often acted as a tailor for the other men; he kept a journal which extended the Expedition narrative by almost five months.
  37. Private Alexander Hamilton Willard — blacksmith; assisted John Shields. He was convicted on July 12, 1804, of sleeping while on sentry duty and given one hundred lashes.
  38. Private Richard Windsor — often assigned duty as a hunter.
  39. Interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau — Sacagawea's husband; served as a translator and often as a cook.
  40. Interpreter Sacagawea — Charbonneau's wife; translated Shoshone to Hidatsa for Charbonneau and was a valued member of the expedition.
  41. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau — Charbonneau and Sacagawea's son, born February 11, 1805; his presence helped dispel any notion that the expedition was a war party, smoothing the way in Indian lands.
  42. Interpreter George Drouillard — skilled with Indian sign language; the best hunter on the expedition.

In popular culture

  • The episode "Margical History Tour" of the American TV series The Simpsons contains a fictional retelling of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
  • The rescue ship in Science fiction/Horror film Event Horizon is named the Lewis and Clark.
  • The Comedy Almost Heroes starring Chris Farley and Matthew Perry features a fictional party attempting to best Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Often parodied in the comic strip The Far Side by Gary Larson.
  • The Histeria! episode "Great Heroes of France" had one segment called "Lewis and Clark", which had Clark's animation style and voice based on the Superman: The Animated Series version of Clark Kent. The sketch's name spoofed the TV-series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which in turn spoofed the original naming of Lewis and Clark. In addition to this, Clark's voice was made to resemble Dean Martin, to match Lewis' portrayal as Jerry Lewis.
  • A song titled "Lewis and Clark" is found on The Mystery CD by Tommy Emmanuel.
  • In 1955 the movie The Far Horizons was released, starring Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis, Charlton Heston as William Clark, Donna Reed as Sacajawea, and Barbara Hale as Julia Hancock. The movie perpetuates the myth of a romantic relationship between Sacajawea and William Clark. The end has Sacajawea and Julia Hancock realizing they are both in love with the same man. Realizing she can never fit into white society, Sacajawea goes back to her people. The movie is based on Della Gould Emmons' novel "Sacajawea of the Shoshones" (Portland OR : Binfords and Mort, 1943).
  • In the 1988 movie National Lampoon's European Vacation, the Griswalds won the game show when, while deciding how to answer the question about the "Lewis and what Expedition", the wife addressed her husband by his first name, "Clark?"
  • The lead character in Robert Heinlein's space exploration classic science fiction novel Time for the Stars was posted on a ship called "The Lewis and Clark", or "Elsie" to the crew.
  • In Harry Turtledove's World War and Colonization Series, the American Space Station which later turned into Earth's first Spaceship was named "The Lewis and Clark."
  • Since the late 1990s, the Pacific Northwest regional air carrier Horizon Air, has been using radio advertisements that feature Meriweather Lewis (portrayed by actor Patrick Warburton) and William Clark (actor Richard Kind) as modern day travelers. The advertisements juxtapose the hardships faced by the Expedition as compared to the relative comfort and convenience of air travel. Lewis is portrayed as the calm leader, while Clark is often trying to upstage his partner and refers to “Clark and Lewis Expedition” on several occasions.
  • In the animated show Gary & Mike, Gary tries to follow the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by car, with continual interruptions and side-tracks by his friend, Mike.

See also

References

  1. "Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress". Retrieved 2006-06-30.
  2. Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American west. (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996). p. 69.
  3. "Jefferson's Instructions for Meriwether Lewis". Retrieved 2006-06-30.
  4. http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/v02.appendix.a.html

Further reading

History

External links

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