Lewis Discovers the Source of the Missouri River
Making Sea Salt
Map of Hudson's Explorations
Missouri River Map
USA-50-Rivers-2
World Map 1800
World Map Today
We Proceeded On: A History of the Lewis and Clark Expedtion
Overview
This document was originally intended to be a short textbook describing the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition which took place from 1803 to 1806. It has been modified to include hyperlinks, maps, and individual and group activities. Many other resources are available to teachers, including excerpts from primary journal entries, developed in conunction with the bicentennial journey from 2003 to 2005.
Introduction
You may want to complete the MIssouri River activity as a whole class.
Meriwether Lewis
On the afternoon of August 12, 1805 Meriwether Lewis and his companion Hugh MacNeil approached a small rivulet on the border of present day Montana and Idaho that gushed from the base of a small hill. As noted in his journal entry for that day:
“The road took us to the most distant fountain of waters of the mighty Missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights. Thus far I had accomplished one of those great objects of my mind has been unalterably fixed for some many years, judge then the pleasure I felt in allying my thirst with this pure and ice cold water which issues from the based of a low mountain or hill of a gentle ascent for ½ mile.”
Lewis had attained the goal that President of the United States Thomas Jefferson had charged him with three years earlier “explore the Missouri river& such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado or and other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce”
Little did he know in fulfilling this mission, he would alter the landscape and the history of the United States forever.
Activity
Open the attached map and identify how many current states the Missouri River flows through.
Northwest Passage
Have students download the attached map and have them describe on or more of Henry Hudson's voyages to the new world.
Extra Credit
What hapened to Hudson and his son on the explorer's last voyage?
The story of the 19th century Lewis and Clark Expedition began 400 years earlier when rich European merchants sought to expand their wealth by trading with Asian countries such as China and India. The traditional overland trade routes through Europe and Asia were blocked by the Ottoman Empire so these merchants looked westward to find an all water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans known as the Northwest Passage. Many people are familiar with Christopher Columbus’s three journeys in the 1490’s that failed to find such a route through the southern Atlantic. Other countries, particularly England, looked north towards the arctic waters sponsoring expeditions by Martin Frobisher and Henry Hudson. The perils of huge ice sheets and frigid weather again ended in failure, and in the case of Hudson, cost him his life.
Acttivity
Open the Northwest Passage link found in this paragraph and answer the following question:
- Why was the discovery of the Northwest Passage so important to European countries?
The World in 1800
Project the attached two maps and have studetnts locate various continents and countries. How are they similar; how do they differ?
The world in 1800 was in the middle of a great economic transformation. While farming was still the occupation of most of the 900 million people of the Earth’s inhabitants, revolutions in science, technology, agriculture and transportation were about to bring Europe and North America into a new age.
In the United States, the political landscape was changing as well. The old order Federalists, led by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, were fading from the scene replaced by so-called “Republican-Democrats” led by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.
Jefferson, president from 1801 to 1809, was unlike any individual who served in that office before or since. In addition to being the author of the Declaration of Independence, he had varied interests, which included farming, botany, geography, land surveying and cartography. He believed that the future of the United States lay in the west and he dreamed of a country that filled the map from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. He was familiar with the tales of the Northwest Passage and was determined to find out if there was indeed an all water route across the continent using vast interior rivers, particularly the Missouri, as a kind of superhighway for boats laden with goods for trade.
At that time, there was little in the way of maps or narratives that supported his vision. With the exception of fur trappers, very few explorers had been able to penetrate an American interior that was virtually unknown to the white man. Some scholars wrote of boiling hot springs, volcanoes, wild Indians and even mastodons but no one really knew for sure. Jefferson was anxious to learn more about these unexplored lands and their vast riches. In 1801 as President of the United States, he convinced a reluctant Congress to fund an expedition under the command of his Virginia neighbor Meriwether Lewis and associate William Clark in the famous 2-½ year expedition, which now bears their names.
Activity
Open the Thomas Jefferson link and answer complete lthe following activity:
- In a a paragraph of at least 75 words, explain why President Thomas Jefferson was so important for the success of the Lewis and Clark Exepedition.
Planning the Trip
Have students research the Louisiana Purchase and answer the following questions:
- Why did Napoleon agree to sell the Louisiana Territory for such a relatively small price?
- Wny did Jefferson agree to purchase the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon?
Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in 1774 and served in the United States Army from 1795 to 1801; when Jefferson became President in 1801 he hired Lewis to be his personal White House secretary and shared with him his plans of exploring the Missouri River from the Mississippi River at St. Louis to its source. The President was also interested in learning more about the geology, animals and plant life in the American west.
Prior to embarking on the voyage, Jefferson sent Lewis to Philadelphia Pennsylvania to gain more knowledge about botany, zoology, navigation and medicine from the brightest men of the age to help insure the success of the expedition. These included Dr. Benjamin Rush who provided Lewis with basic information about health and medicine and Andrew Elicottt who taught him about map making and surveying.
After completing his training, Lewis invited his old friend and former army colleague William Clark to join him as the co-leader of the expedition; Clark gladly agreed and they made plans to meet in the fall of 1803. After stocking up on provisions including rifles and ammunition from the federal arsenal of Harper’s Ferry Virginia, Lewis and a small party[traveled overland to Pittsburgh where his keelboat a ship large enough to carry the company’s men, provisions, journals and samples of plants and animals was built.
Once the keelboat was completed, Lewis and his small crew floated down the Ohio River and joined Clark in Indiana territory. There they completed the important task of choosing a crew including the Newfoundland dog Seaman and Clark’s slave York; they then continued southwest on the Ohio to the Mississippi River at St. Louis.
After a short stay, they sailed down the Mississippi to the point where it joined the Missouri at a site we know today as Camp Dubois. The men wintered there in the winter of 1803-1804 until they were ready to begin the next part of their expedition.
During that time period, a momentous event in the nation’s history occurred when the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France and its leader Napoleon. This acquisition, known as the Louisiana Purchase, included all lands drained by the Mississippi River doubled the size of the United States at a cost of $15 million, or three cents per acre. The St. Louis ceremony formally transferring this land took place in St. Louis in March 10, 2004 was witnessed by Lewis and Clark.
Activity
Open the Louisiana Purchase and Napoleon links found in this paragraph and answer the following questions:
- Why did Thomas Jefferson wish to purchase the Louisiana Territory from the French?
- Why did France agree to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States?
Westward Bound
Have students download the attached website which contains, among other things, journal entries made by Meriwether Lewis and other members of his party during their journey along the Missour River. Instruct students to search entries from the winter of 1804-05 to find descriptions of conditions at Fort Mandan. Describe these conditions from the journal entries of at least three members of the party.
Note: You might need to do begin this as a teacher directed activity before making the student assignment. This could also be a good cooperative learning activity with each group member assigned one sprecific explorer diarist.
Extension Activity
After viewing the various journal entries, have each student make his or her own entry describing life at Fort Mandan during this time period.
In May 1804, the nearly four-dozen men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition continued their journey from Camp Dubois traveling northwest on the Missouri River. Fortunately, Lewis and Clark and several of their men kept detailed written journals as they traveled, recording not only their scientific discoveries but also their thoughts and feelings as they traveled into the unknown. Here is an excerpt from Clark’s journal as the Corps began their trip on May 14, 1804 (original spelling and grammar maintained)
I set out at 4 oClock P.M. in the presence of many of the Neighbouring inhabitents, and proceeded on under a jentle brease up the Missourie to the upper point of the 1st Island 4 miles.
That first day they had traveled only four miles, testament to the strong currents running against them for most of the 4,000 mile westward trip, making it all the more important that they chose strong young men who were up to the physical challenge of propelling a two ton vessel upstream.
The corps left the heavily wooded terrain of the Midwest and entered a region we now call the Great Plains. Primarily treeless and relatively flat, they traveled through the current day states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and finally North Dakota.
During this time Lewis distributed Peace Medals created especially to befriend the Indians they met, primarily the powerful Sioux tribe, and encountered the tremendous herds of American Bison that roamed the plains at that time. The captains also began collecting animal and plant specimens which they were to send back to Jefferson. They also experienced the first fatality of a corps member, Sergeant Charles Floyd who died of a burst appendix, remarkably the only casualty of the entire trip.
On October 24 1804, the men made their first winter camp at Fort Mandan, north of the current day capital of Bismarck North Dakota. They endured temperatures that reached as low as 45 degrees below zero. This first winter of exploration was made easier by access to animals they could hunt and the relative friendliness of their Hidasta Indian hosts.
Activity
Complete the activity assigned by your teacher
.
Clatsop Winter
Have students view the attached web resource and answer the following questions:
- Why was it important for Lewis and Clark to make sea salt before their return home..
- What difficulties did L&C encounter making salt?
Extension Activity
- Dowload the attached journal resources and have students research entries made during the 1804-1805 winter at Fort Clatsop.
Describe these conditions from the journal entries of at least three members of the party.
Note: You might need to do begin this as a teacher directed activity before making the student assignment. This could also be a good cooperative learning activity with each group member assigned one sprecific explorer diarist.
Extension Activity
After viewing the various journal entries, have each student make his or her own entry describing life at Fort Clatsop during this time period.
Have students write a 200 word essay describing the similarities and differences between the winter at Fort Mandan 1803-1804 and Fort Clatsop during the winter of 1804-1805.
Clatsop Winter
The Fort Clatsop winter camp of 1805-1806 on the Pacific Coast proved to be much different than the one they experienced the previous year at Fort Mandan. For one, the weather was much milder and extremely wet, raining according to Lewis’s journal for all but 12 days they camped there. Perhaps more important, the relations with the native Clatsop were much different with an atmosphere of mistrust replacing one of cooperation, so much so that the captains felt the need to post 24 hour guards at the entrance to their fort.
Camp life was leisurely, even boring as the men passed the time hunting, fishing and preparing for the Spring return trip. One important task was to make salt from the nearby ocean for preserving food.
Activity
Complete the activities assigned by your teacher.
Into the Rockies
Have students download the attached excerpt from Lewis's journal which describes the day and time he discovered the source of the Missouri River; ask these probling questions:
- What did Lewis discover when he reached the source of the MIssouri River?
- How do you think he felt upon making this discovery?
- Imagine you were there when this discovrery was made; what would you say to Lewis?
Extra Credit
- What are camas roots? How did eating them affect members of the party?
As the frigid winter of 1804-1805 came to a close, Lewis and Clark were ready to push on to the Pacific. They identified the best of their crew, 31 men known as the “Permanent Party”, to continue the journey and sent the rest back down the Missouri along with the keelboat and specimens they had collected the previous summer and fall.
Before setting out, they made several important additions to the crew including the French-American fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau and his 16-year-old wife Sacagawea and her baby Jean Baptiste, whom they nicknamed “Pomp”. Both Charbonneau and his wife would serve as important guides and language interpreters during the second half of the trip.
Now traveling westward through current day Montana, the river became shallower, requiring the men to use self-made vessels known as pirogues and smaller dugout canoes in order to move forward. They were again moving into a new region of the continent, this time a region known as the “Stoney Mountains” which we today call the Rockies.
This is where Jefferson’s knowledge of the continent came into question- he thought that these mountains were similar in size and range to the more familiar Appalachians, relatively low peaks with numerous gaps, or passes- something which could be easily traversed by strong men in strong boats.
As they traveled on that summer, the river’s width shrunk and depth narrowed, forcing the men to leave their vessels and carry their supplies overland for over 18 miles near what we call today the “Great Falls of the Missouri”. The river also began to branch off into tributaries making it difficult to determine which was the Missouri and which were its branches.
Successfully portaging their heavy boats and cargo over land and through the narrowing river, the corps found itself approaching a vast mountain expanse, one they were anxious to cross over to reach their Pacific Ocean destination before the terrible cold and snow set in. Their maps and boats were useless now and they had a desperate need for horses to in order to continue; their only hope was to obtain them from the native Indians who lived in that region. Lewis traveled ahead with a small party of men in order to obtain these animals from these unknown Indians who lived in the mountains.
Prior to making contact, he reached the source of the Missouri River on August 12, 1805 where he saw nothing but a vast expanse of mountains we now call the Bitterroots; there was no gentle decline to the Pacific as he was led to believe from Jefferson but 160 miles of jagged peaks and narrow passes. There would be no easy water pathway through them to the Pacific as he and President Jefferson had hoped. Turning aside his disappointment Lewis continued his horse hunting expedition.
He discovered a Shoshone village but was unable to negotiate a purchase with its chief, Camehawait. He then experienced one of the most fortunate coincidences in history of exploration when Clark and the rest of his party arrived several days later.
Following closely with the rest of the expedition was Sacagawea who was very familiar with this part of the mountains where she had lived as a girl; it turned out that Cameawhait was her long lost brother. With her intervention and her brother’s help, Lewis managed to obtain 29 horses, one mule and a guide they needed to continue on.
With winter rapidly approaching, the corps managed to traverse the rugged mountains as deep snow began to fall; the nearly starved expedition staggered out of the Bitterroots after 11 days into an area known as Weippe Prairie in present day Idaho.
There they rested in the land of the Nez Perce Indians who were undecided what to do with their visitors; deciding to help, not kill the men, Lewis and Clark’s men were fed salmon and camas root which made them violently ill. Recovering, they continued westward, this time traveling with the current through the Columbia River Gorge and the dense forests of current day Oregon.
Finally on November 7th, 1805 the reached the mouth of the Columbia where it met the Pacific Ocean; Clark expressed his joy at reaching the end of this 4,000 mile journey westward when his wrote in his journal “Ocian in view! O! the joy.”
It was November now and time to make winter camp but the question was where; after days of exploring, the crucial decision was made by a vote of the entire party including Sacagawea and York. On December 25, 1805, members of the Expedition celebrated Christmas day in a fortified camp they named Fort Clatsop near present day Astoria Oregon.
Activity
- Click on the "Sacagawea" llink found in the text and answer the following question:
- Why was such an important member of the Corps of Discovery?
- Complete the activity assigned by your teacher
.
Returning Home
On the return voyage, Lewis and Clark divided their explorations of the inter-mountain west. While Clark's journey was relatively uneventful, Lewis's was quite dramtic and violent, resulting in the death of several native Indians. Have students research these difficulties, identify them, and reach a conclusion as to whether or not Lewis was justified in the killing of the native Indians.
Eager for the return home, the corps broke camp on March 23, 1806, prematurely as it turns out as deep snow still covered the mountain passes. They returned to their starting point and set out for good in late June.
While the expedition had accomplished all of the goals that President Jefferson set before them, there was still more exploring to do. Once the men re-crossed the Bitterroots, the party split into separate parties and agreed to meet later in the summer at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, the border of present day Montana and North Dakota. Clark led the Yellowstone exploration which was relatively uneventful; on July 25th near present day Billings Montana he carved his name and date into a small hill we know today as Pompey’s tower, named after Sacagawea’s child.
Lewis’s party, on the other hand, experienced perhaps the most painful part of the entire expedition when they came into contact with a hostile group of Blackfeet Indians near present day Cut Bank Montana. In late July this confrontation became lethal as Lewis killed two members of the tribe he caught them trying to steal horses. Riding their own mounts for 24 straight hours, they reached the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers where they were finally reunited with Clark’s men on August 12th.
They were sailing with the river current now and made excellent time, sometimes traveling over 70 miles per day; after stopping briefly at Fort Mandan and bidding farewell to Sacagawea and her family, they resumed their downstream journey arriving safely in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.
Lewis and Clark, long thought dead, became national heroes. Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806 and excitedly described his findings to his sponsor, Thomas Jefferson. While the dream of the Northwest Passage died atop Lemhi pass on August 12, 1805, their discoveries opened riches of an entirely new land that others would exploit in the years to come.
Activity
Complete the activity assigned by your teacher.
Aftermath
Some historians believe that Lewis did not take his own life but was killed by a person or person's unknown. While this theory has been mainly discounted, clearly he was a broken man when he met his fate at Grinder's Tavern. Conclude these lessons by debating the following question:
Resolved: That the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-1805 was a success because it opened up the Lousiana Purchase for future American settlement.
As part of this debate, consider dividing the class in half, with on part taking the affirmative and one the negative of the relative success of the Lewis and Clark Exploration.
William Clark and Meriwether Lewis suffered much different fates after the completion of their journey. Clark was appointed as a Governor of the Missouri Territory as well as Superintendent of Indian Affairs until his death in 1838. He created a detailed map of the west based on the detailed observations he made on the exploration.
Lewis, on the other hand, was not as fortunate. He was under heavy pressure from President Jefferson to publish his journals but was unable to do so. After being appointed the Governor of the Louisiana Territory, he began to drink heavily and ran up considerable debt. Recalled to Washington to explain these expenditures, he died by his own hand in 1809. It was not until 1814, five years after the great explorer’s death, that his magnificent journals appeared in print for the first time.
Activity
Complete the discussion activity assigned by your teacher.
Activities-
- For younger studens, have them make a Lewis and Clark Exploration poster which incorporates graphics and text found in this extended reading.
- For older students, assign a brief essay answering the same questions.
- For any age students locate one or more videos developed for the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Exploration and share the best with members of the class.
Reading Comprehsion
- What is the “Northwest Passage” and how was it related to the Lewis and Clark expedition?
- Why did Thomas Jefferson authorize the expedition?
- Why did Lewis select Clark to be his companion on the trip?
- What was the name of Lewis’s dog?
- Describe how the Rocky Mountains were different than the Appalachians.
- How did York and Sacagawea contribute to the completion of the Expedition?
- Explain how the winter camps at Fort Mandan and Fort Clatsop were both alike and different?
Essay
- Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition a success or failure? Explain.
- Were the Native Americans Lewis and Clark encountered a help or a hindrance to them? Explain.
Extension
Download the attached map, print it out and trace the Expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back again. Highlight five important locations and explain why you chose them. ”