When Thomas Jefferson
became president in March of 1801, he decided that now he had the chance to
conduct an expedition to explore the western region of the continent. He
believed (hoped) that there was a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He began planning such an expedition and
obtained secret funding from Congress to carry out the trip. At this time, most of the area they would be
exploring belonged to the Spanish, French and English. The boundary of the United States ended at
the Mississippi River. He selected his
former secretary, Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition.
Lewis immediately
began planning the expedition. He invited William Clark, who he had served with
in the army, to be co-captain of the expedition. Just before the start of the expedition,
the Louisiana territory was purchased from France. This included all of the
land from the Gulf coast thru what is now the central United states up to the
Canadian border and west to the Pacific Ocean above the Spanish Territory.
The expedition
begins on 14 May 1804 from near St Charles, MO.
Sixty miles north on the Missouri River they will leave the last small
European village and enter completely unknown territory. This exploration is
being conducted as a regular army expedition with all participants at this
point being part of the army.
On July 3rd Sgt Floyd falls ill. On Aug 3rd,
1804, the first council meeting between a native tribe and a representative of
the United States government is held near modern day Omaha, NB. In this council meeting the native tribe is
informed of their new great white father far to the east. They are promised a future of peace and
prosperity if they do not make war on whites or other tribes. Future contacts with the natives were modeled
on this meeting.
On Aug 20th,
1804 Sgt Charles Floyd becomes the first fatality of the expedition. Amazingly enough considering the hardships of
the journey, he was to be the only death on the expedition. The most probable
cause of death was a ruptured appendix.
This brings us to our
stop at the KOA in North Sioux City, SD.
Our first visit here is the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux
City, IA. In front of the main building there is a river steam tug boat
and exhibits on the river and the expedition.
Here we had a presentation from a lady who has studied the expedition
details for over 40 years. She had great
information to share.
The main building was impressive not only for the expedition
displays but for the technology inside and the landscaping and works of art
outside. This included the sculpture of
Lewis and Clark with Clark’s Newfoundland dog, “Seaman”.
-->
Our last stop was the final resting place of Sgt Floyd on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River not far from his original burial spot.
8 comments:
Bob is from Iowa and never has visited these sites. We need to act as tourists when in Iowa and this is going to be high on the list.
Brave men. Love learning/reading about them.
Enjoying this! It would be fun to travel the whole route; we may do that. Thanks for an informative post.
What an interesting trip. I've enjoyed following along. I love the trips with a theme.
I was just thinking what Mike said, "it would be fun to travel the whole route." Yes, they were certainly brave men!! Great trip with loads of interesting information!!
I wonder how Thomas Jefferson was able to get secret funding from Congress? Wonder if that still goes on today? A very scary thought.
Every time we come to a place that Lewis and Clark discovered, I can't help wondering what must have gone through their minds the first time they saw the area. As said before...very, very brave men.
Seems like quite an interpretive center. I didn't realize there was one in Sioux City. There seems to be one in almost every city that has sprung up along the route from the beginning to the end but they all seem to have a little something to add to the story. Nice picture of you at the end.
those carving are fantastic.
Post a Comment