Their descriptions of vast populations of fur-bearing mammals would spur the extension of the American fur trade into the upper reaches of the Missouri River. At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail.īoth captains kept detailed journals that depicted a culturally and geographically diverse Western landscape, that was rich with natural resources. This water link would connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River system, thus giving the new western land access to port markets out of the Gulf of Mexico and to eastern cities along the Ohio River and its minor tributaries. Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark would find a water route linking the Columbia and Missouri rivers. In the next twenty-eight months, the Corps of Discovery would travel more than 8,000 miles through unfamiliar terrain inhabited by an array of indigenous peoples.
The party originally consisted of twenty-nine men, including Clark's black slave York. Under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the Corps of Discovery set forth from St. Together they collected a diverse military Corps of Discovery that would be able to undertake a two-year journey to the great ocean. Lewis always called Clark by the title of "Captain" and never told the members of the Corps of Discovery to do otherwise. He received the rank of 2nd Lieutenant of the Corps of Artillerists. Army would not reinstate Clark with his former rank of Captain. President Jefferson approved Lewis' choice of Clark as the co-leader of the planned expedition to the Pacific. Lewis so respected Clark, that he made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, even though Clark was never recognized as such by the government. Lewis in turn solicited the help of William Clark, whose abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman were stronger than those of Lewis. Jefferson chose his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. The objectives of the mission were the establishment of commercial ties with the indigenous people of the Far West and an increase in the knowledge of the region's geography. After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson was successful in a moving an illustrious foreign diplomacy endeavor through the United States Senate: the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. The collection features Thomas Jefferson papers & correspondences, transcriptions of the journals of Lewis and Clark and others on the Expedition, books, maps, newspapers and more.Īll computer recognizable text, transcriptions, reproduced printed text, and description sheets in the collection are searchable. Material includes text, historical volumes, and images of original documents and maps. Lewis & Clark - Corps of Discovery Historical Documents, Journals, Books, Maps & Newspapersġ1,335 pages of material related to the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition of 1804 to 1806.
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