In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson called for an expedition up the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition took on an increased significance in light of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Jefferson really did not know what he had purchased from the French. Jefferson chose Army Captain Lewis Merriwhether to head up the expedition. Lewis chose another Army officer, William Clark, to be his partner.
On this date in 1804, Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery broke camp in Illinois and headed up the Missouri River with a cast of forty five men. Along the way, the expedition hired a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea who acted as a guide. She gave birth to a boy during the expedition. They would travel 8,000 miles Their observations of the unknown land are fascinating.
Jefferson’s order to Captain Merriwether Lewis instructed: “Your observations to be taken with great pains and accuracy. To be entered distinctly and intelligently, for others as well as yourself to comprehend.†They were to write down everything that they experienced. Their journals included observations about the topography, vegetation, wildlife and weather. These observations made the Lewis and Clark expedition one of the most successful expeditions in the history of world exploration.
