


Later explorers used these maps to further probe the western portion of the continent.
#Lewis and clark corps of discovery adventure figure series
Along the way, William Clark drew a series of maps that were remarkably detailed, noting and naming rivers and creeks, significant points in the landscape, the shape of river shore, and spots where the Corps spent each night or camped or portaged for longer periods of time. In doing so, they fulfilled many of Jefferson's wishes for the Expedition. Additionally, they recorded their contact and described (and at times drew) the shape of the landscape and the creatures of this western world that were new to them. Along the way, they continued to trade what few goods they still had and set up diplomatic relations with Native American tribes. Louis by September 1806 to report their findings to Jefferson. With journals in hand, Lewis, Clark, and the other members of the Expedition returned to St. Once over the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps of Discovery shaped canoe-like vessels that transported them swiftly downriver to the mouth of the Columbia, where they wintered (1805-1806) at Fort Clatsop, on the present-day Oregon side of the river. This route delivered the explorers to the doorstep of the Shoshone tribe, who were skilled at traversing the great rock mountains with horses. They traveled up the Missouri to present-day Three Forks, Montana, following the western-most tributary, the Jefferson River. When the spring of 1805 brought high water and favorable weather, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on the next leg of its journey.

That summer and fall the company of explorers paddled and pulled themselves upstream, northwest on the Missouri River to Fort Mandan, a trading post, where Corps of Discovery set up camp, wintered, and prepared for the journey to the Pacific. The Lewis and Clark Expedition paddled its way down the Ohio as it prepared the Expedition to be launched officially from Camp Wood, just outside St. At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail up the Missouri several miles to the trapper headquarters at Fort Mandan and up the Columbia just a bit over a hundred miles to a point a little beyond present-day Portland, Oregon. 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. 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 solicited the help of William Clark due to Clark's abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman, which were even stronger than Lewis's. Meriwether Lewis was an intelligent and literate man who also possessed skills as a frontiersman. Students will plot these documents on a historic map of the West. Students will learn that the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore west of the Mississippi River in 1804 - though the land was already inhabited and politically complicated. Primary sources demonstrate various political interests, including those of the Spanish, French, British, and several Native American tribes. Lewis & Clark's Expedition to the Complex West, available on, can be used as an introduction or for a closer study of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
