Clark and Lewis
By: Kyle Stanford
On may 18th 1804, Mariwether Lewis, his secretary, and William Clark along with their whole crew known as “the Corps of Discovery” departed from Camp Dubois on what would be a 28 month journey, covering 8000 miles to discover a route to the pacific ocean. Along the way the made friends with the Native Americans and learned how to survive in some of Americas most beautiful and treacherous territories.
It all started when Thomas Jefferson asked congress to fund a secret expedition into the Louisiana territory to map out the Missouri River and find a route to the pacific. He expected they would come across woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and a mountain of pure salt. They didn’t find any of those however, they did find about 300 species of previously unknown life forms, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and the Rockies.
They were always on the watch for Indians, even though by the end of July they had traveled 600 miles without seeing one. On August 2nd they met a group of Oto Indians. The meeting went well, greetings and gifts were exchanged. (I should also tell you that 18 days after meeting the Indians Sergeant Charles Floyd became the first solider to die west of the Mississippi. He was the only one to die on this expedition.) The Corps had been warned about the Sioux Indians and at the end of August they were at the east end of the Great Planes becoming closer and closer the Sioux territory. When the finally met with the Sioux the chief demanded a boat as passage. The crew basically no and pulled a gun and sword and nothing else happened. No one was killed. 4 days after the first snowfall they set up camp with the Mandan tribe for the winter. Food began to dwindle. During this winter they met Sacagawea and he French husband who would leave the camp and help with the expedition. They were about to enter land no American had ever set foot on.
By the end of May 1805, they were finally nearing the Rockies. On June 3rd the expedition came to a fork in the river. Lewis and 3 men took the south end and the rest went up the north end. Only when Lewis reached the Great Falls on the 13th did he know he was on the Missouri. By the 16th they had rejoined with Clark and 6 days later they began the hardest part of the journey and on came the Rockies. They needed horses but in order to get horses they need to meet up with the Shoshone, but so far their was no sight of them. Finally on August 11th they spotted a Indian on a horse who led them to their Shoshone chief who turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother, CrAzInEsS. They bargained for some horses and got them, good thing because they wouldn’t have been able to make it with out them.
Crossing the Rockies was tough. They were running out of food and ended up eating 3 of the horses they had bought. After getting out of the mountains they met the Nez Perce Indians who gave them dried fish and roots to eat. The crew set up camp on the banks of the Clearwater River. There they hollowed out 5 dugouts. Finally they were nearing the Pacific and out of the Rockies.
They were at the east end of the Cascades, 20 miles from the Pacific when they reached a large body of water. In Clarks personal journal he wrote these few words: “Ocian in view! O! the joy.” Unfortunately bad storms forced them to stay put for 3 weeks to which Clark later described them as “the most disagreeable time I have experienced.” By the middle of November they had made it. FINALLY! They ended up spending the rest of the winter on the west coast. Had these brave men and woman not decided to make this treacherous trip the United states as we know them might not exist. Thanks for listening.


Works sited

Search engine:
www. Google.com

Web sites:
www.pbs.org
www.lewisandclark200.gov
www.nationalgeographic.com
www.lewisandclarktrail.com

Other info:
Clarks journal
The American history Text-book

Music while writing
The Decembrists (check um out)