Background on Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery 1803-1806

Background on Lewis' and Clark's Corps of Discovery, 1823-1806

Exploring the Lewis and Clark Trail has been a "lifetime" goal of Bill and Wilma, especially after reading Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West,  by Steven E. Ambrose (Simon & Shuster, 1996). Appointed by President Jefferson to explore the unknown territory of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Meriwether Lewis (Thomas Jefferson's personal White House Private Secretary and Captain in the US Army) asked friend and retired solder, William Clark, to join him in Clarksville, IN. They were 30 and 33 years old, respectively.

We will follow Lewis' 1803 Eastern Legacy Trail, starting in Philadelphia, PA (to gather supplies and receive training by experts in medicine, zoology, meteorology, geography, botany and navigation), visit Jefferson's Montecello in Charlottesville, VA, stop at Harpers Ferry, WV where Lewis stopped for rifles and ammunition and more supplies, travel to Pittsburgh, PA and travel by boat down the Ohio River (meeting William Clark in Clarksville, IN)
to the Mississippi River and up to St. Louis, MO.

We then follow the Corp of Discovery as they gathered their 40+ soldiers, rugged backwoodsmen and guides, setting off against the current of the Missouri River in May 14,1804.  They eventually reached the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon in November 1805. Wintering in Oregon, they returned east in March 1806, divided into two camps, Lewis to explore to the Marias River and Clark the southern route. They miraculously met up at the Yellowstone/Missouri Rivers then traveled together downstream on the Missouri and arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806, having poled, paddled, ridden and walked over 8,000 miles in almost 2.5 years.