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Have an awesome day! Hi Gloria! They traveled through rivers and mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean! They actually followed rivers, Treylen! They helped discover much of Western America! Have you ever been hiking or on an outdoor adventure? Hi Ms. Palacio's Class! Lewis and Clark initially set out to find the "Northwest Passage" which never really existed.
They were the first pioneers to venture West and discovered parts of America that have never been seen before! Hi, Emma Grace! We're so happy you visited this Wonder today!
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Drag a word to its definition. Want to add a little wonder to your website? Help spread the wonder of families learning together. Charbonneau knew the land better than the Americans, and Sacagawea proved invaluable in many ways, not least of which was that the presence of a young woman and her infant convinced many groups that the men were not a war party and meant no harm.
In this idealized image, Sacagawea leads Lewis and Clark through the Montana wilderness. In reality, she was still a teenager at the time and served as interpreter; she did not actually guide the party, although legend says she did. Kidnapped as a child, she would not likely have retained detailed memories about the place where she grew up. The corps set about making friends with native tribes while simultaneously attempting to assert American power over the territory.
Hoping to overawe the people of the land, Lewis would let out a blast of his air rifle, a relatively new piece of technology the Indians had never seen. The corps also followed native custom by distributing gifts, including shirts, ribbons, and kettles, as a sign of goodwill. These medallions or peace medals were meant to allow future explorers to identify friendly native groups.
Not all efforts to assert U. An encounter with the Blackfoot turned hostile, for example, and members of the corps killed two Blackfoot men. After spending eighteen long months on the trail and nearly starving to death in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, the Corps of Discovery finally reached the Pacific Ocean in and spent the winter of — in Oregon.
They returned to St. Louis later in having lost only one man, who had died of appendicitis. Upon their return, Meriwether Lewis was named governor of the Louisiana Territory. Unfortunately, he died only three years later in circumstances that are still disputed, before he could write a complete account of what the expedition had discovered. Although the Corps of Discovery failed to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean for none existed , it nevertheless accomplished many of the goals Jefferson had set.
The men traveled across the North American continent and established relationships with many Indian tribes, paving the way for fur traders like John Jacob Astor who later established trading posts solidifying U. Delegates of several tribes did go to Washington to meet the president. Hundreds of plant and animal specimens were collected, several of which were named for Lewis and Clark in recognition of their efforts. And the territory was now more accurately mapped and legally claimed by the United States.
Nonetheless, most of the vast territory, home to a variety of native peoples, remained unknown to Americans. Although most of the West still remained unknown, the expedition added greatly to knowledge of what lay west of the Mississippi.
Most important, it allowed the United States to solidify its claim to the immense territory. Beaver hats were popular apparel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in both Europe and the United States because they were naturally waterproof and bore a glossy sheen. Its prime location made it a key spot for trade. The agreement—which gave the United States approximately , square miles of land—almost doubled the size of the nearly year-old nation.
The United States only paid about three cents an acre for the land, which stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. Purchasing this enormous amount of land was one thing, but exploring it was another. Jefferson wanted to plan an expedition to investigate the territory.
In the spring of , Lewis, Clark, and dozens of other men left St. Louis, Missouri , by boat. Although he had a land grant and back pay waiting for him in St. Louis, Colter accepted the offer and turned back, on his way to one of the most incredible adventures in the history of the West.
Here the men spent the winter of , but not Colter. This man, with a pack of thirty pounds weight, his gun and some ammunition, went upwards of five hundred miles to the Crow nation; gave them information, and proceeded from them to several other tribes. The region, actually east of present Yellowstone Park, remained largely unexplored for another 60 years. The Crow later befriended Colter, and he fought with them when a battle broke out between Crow and Flathead against 1, Blackfeet.
In the fall of , he and fellow expedition veteran John Potts teamed up to trap in western Montana. They were working the Jefferson River near present Three Forks, when several hundred Blackfeet warriors appeared on the riverbank.
The chiefs ordered Colter and Potts ashore; Colter complied and was immediately stripped and disarmed. Potts remained in his canoe in midstream. An Indian fired a shot. I will kill at least one of them. The next instant, year-old Potts was riddled with bullets. Colter was horrified and expected to be slowly tortured to death.
But after the chiefs conferred, one of them motioned Colter toward the prairie. Colter started to walk, expecting to be shot for sport. But when he had gone 80 or 90 yards, he realized this was sport of a different kind — a race to the death. Perhaps his previous encounter with the Blackfeet had made him respected as well as hated.
Colter set off running, pursued by warriors armed with spears. The Madison River was five miles away, and the barefoot Colter galloped over rocks and cactus, trying to reach it and escape. He was halfway to the Madison when blood began gushing from his nose. He ran on, soon realizing that one warrior, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, was far ahead of the others.
Colter turned to face him, and the young brave tripped as he lunged at him with the spear. Colter grabbed the spear and broke off the head as the Indian fell. He killed the brave with one blow, grabbed the blanket, and bolted for the Madison. As he reached the water, Colter disappeared in the thick willows and then dove under a beaver dam. He came up inside the dam and soon heard the Blackfeet searching for him, even tromping overhead.
But they did not find him and at nightfall Colter made his escape. He died in while serving in the army. Colter was 37 and left a wife, Sally, and a son and daughter.
Brothers Joseph and Reubin Field were two of the best hunters on the expedition. The most dangerous scene had been a violent encounter between Indians and four members of the expedition — Lewis, George Drouillard, and the Field brothers. The four men were exploring northwestern Montana on the homeward portion of the journey when they met a small band of teenage Piegan Blackfeet.
Masking his apprehension, Lewis smoked a pipe with the young men, and Drouillard interpreted in sign language. The two groups even camped together. Lewis and the others rushed back to the camp and saddled their horses before a much larger band of Blackfeet could give chase. But they knew they were safe when they reached the Missouri River and rejoined several of their fellow explorers. After the return to St. Louis, the Field brothers went back to their home in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Joseph died less than a year later at the age of Other than Charles Floyd, who died of apparent appendicitis three months after the journey began, Joseph was the first expedition veteran to die. The exact cause of death is unknown, but in a list of expedition members Clark compiled sometime between and , he said Joseph had been killed. Joseph left no children. Reubin married Mary Myrtle and farmed in Kentucky for the next 15 years, though little is known of his life. He was about 52 when he died in ; he and Mary left no heirs.
Like Joseph Field, John Shields was a valuable member of the company who died not long after the expedition ended. Born in , Shields was the oldest member in the original group of volunteers. He was an expert blacksmith and gunsmith and served his fellows well.
Suggesting a steam bath, Shields dug a 3-foot by 4-foot hole and then built a fire to heat the ground and exposed rocks. After scooping out the embers, the men helped Bratton into the hole, where he created steam by pouring water on the hot stones and earth. Shields instructed others to hold blanket-draped willows overhead to retain the heat.
After a while, the men helped Bratton out, and he plunged into cold water. Then more steam, followed by another cold plunge, followed by 45 additional minutes of steam treatment. Shields also administered large amounts of mint tea. The next day Bratton was cured. Shields had married Nancy White in the s; the couple had one daughter. Shields died at the age of 40, in He is buried near Corydon, Indiana. The captains hired Lepage to replace John Newman, who had been expelled from the party.
Lepage knew the region well and was possibly the first white man to ascend the Little Missouri River, probably going as far as Montana or Wyoming. He told Clark he had spent 45 days descending the virtually unnavigable river. After the expedition members returned to St.
Louis, Lepage signed to trap with Manuel Lisa, and he may have been on a fur-trading venture in the West when Meriwether Lewis arrived in St. Louis in Lepage apparently never received his salary, for he died a non-violent death within two months.
He was 48 and he left a widow no record of her name has been found , four sons, and one daughter. Little is known of John B. Thompson, either before or after the expedition. He was one of three men assigned to cook but the only one relieved of that duty, indicating limited skill.
He was injured when the group hit heavy rapids in the Snake River. Otherwise, Thompson seems to have performed his duties without drawing unusual praise or criticism. Clark later indicated that Thompson died a violent death but offered no details. In the summer of , a St. Louis newspaper notified anyone owing or having demands of the estate of John B.
Thompson, deceased, to present their accounts to Peggy Thompson. No children were mentioned. Thompson was probably around 40 when he died. Slightly more is known about Thomas Proctor Howard. Born in Massachusetts, he joined the army in Howard married Genevieve Roy after the expedition, and they had two sons. He served again in the army and was 37 when he died in On September 23, , the honorable John Lucas tapped his gavel to begin a murder trial. George Shannon sat in the jury box with 11 other men.
The year after the expedition, during a fur-trading excursion where military rules of conduct were strictly enforced, a man named Antoine Bissonnette took the equipment issued him and deserted. Lisa sent Bissonnette to St.
Charles for medical help, but he died on the way. They retired for 15 minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty. The recollection of this unhappy affair throws me very often in the most profound reflections. Court records show that Drouillard was frequently involved in legal battles related to the fur trade.
He must have headed up the Missouri with a sense of relief when he joined another trading party in the spring of A few months later, at Fort Mandan, Drouillard met Colter, who had still not returned to civilization. In the spring of the next year, Drouillard and Colter guided fur trader Pierre Menard and 80 trappers to Three Forks, where Menard hoped to establish a permanent post for the St.
Louis Missouri Fur Company. One week after the men began building a fort, a band of Blackfeet ambushed 18 trappers, slaying and mutilating two of them and stealing horses, traps, and furs.
Three other men were missing, but Colter was among those who made it back to camp. On the third morning he ignored warnings and left alone again. Later that day, a group of armed men rode upstream and found a scene of carnage. We saw from the marks on the ground that he must have fought in a circle on horseback and probably killed some of his enemies, being a brave man and well armed with a rifle, pistol, knife, and tomahawk. Hired as a boatman and an interpreter for the expedition, Cruzatte became better known for his fiddling.
Cruzatte achieved fame — or infamy — by accidentally shooting Lewis. The two men were hunting elk toward the end of the expedition when the one-eyed Cruzatte took aim and fired at a brown patch in the willows. Though he was in a good deal of pain and possibly in shock, Lewis kept his wits. After calling for Cruzatte several times and hearing no reply, he feared that Indians had shot his companion.
Still, Lewis endured considerable pain and once fainted when Clark changed the dressing. Cruzatte virtually disappeared after the expedition. The same year, he received a summons from a St. Louis court for bad debts. Otherwise, the record is silent, and it is unknown whether he married or had children. According to Clark, Cruzatte was killed by the mids, possibly dying around age About the same time Colter discovered Yellowstone Park, Weiser was on a scouting trip, possibly ascending the Madison River to southern Montana and crossing the Continental Divide into Idaho, where he found fertile beaver territory on the Snake River.
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