President Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and find a water route across the western half of the continent. Lewis and Clark assembled a crew of around 40 men known as the Corps of Discovery and departed St. Louis in 1804. They encountered many Native American tribes along the way, including the Shoshone whose chief was the brother of Sacagawea who acted as an interpreter. After a difficult journey through the Rocky Mountains, they reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and spent the winter at Fort Clatsop before returning to St. Louis in 1806, having gained a wealth of knowledge about the lands and tribes of the American West.

2. President Jefferson
recently purchased
the Louisiana
territory from France
Jefferson wanted to
find a waterway that
linked the Columbia
and Missouri Rivers

3. Jefferson elected his own Personal secretary,
Meriwether Lewis for this expedition
Lewis was then sent to Philadelphia in 1803 to be
taught in medicine, zoology, botany and celestial
navigation
Lewis picked his superior officer William Clark to
help him on the trip because he was a good sailor and
could help keep journals

4. The crew consisted of four dozen men and were
called the Corps of Discovery
The crew doesn’t set sail until the official ceremony of
the US receiving the territory
They launch out of Campwood, St. Louis in the
summer of 1804

5.  The year 1804 was the first year
of the expedition and the only
causality was suffered on August
20th
 Charles Floyd appendix burst
 Teton Sioux tribe threatens to
end the expedition
 Conflict resolved before fighting
occurs
 November 4th
a French trader is
hired as interpreter and his wife
Sacagawea is also hired
 The crew winters in Fort Mandan

6.  Sacagawea gives birth to her son
 April 7th
, Lewis sends back half
the crew with artifacts and new
knowledge of the unknown
territory
 The first grizzly bear is seen
 The expedition names the three
forks of the Missouri, Gallatin,
Jefferson and Madison
 The crew arrives in Shoshone
territory

7. Chief is Sacagawea’s brother
The crew goes through the mountains and almost
starve
They come out of the mountains in Idaho
The crew crosses the Columbia and winters
York, Clark’s slave and Sacagawea were allowed to
vote on this choice

8.  The crew makes its final stop at
Fort Clatsop, named and
presented to the Clatsop
Indians
 The crew stays with the Nez
Pearce while waiting for the
snow to melt
 After the mountains the crew
splits into groups
 Lewis and his party camp with 8
Blackfeet soldiers but the
Blackfeet try to steal their
horses, 2 soldiers were killed
 September 23, 1806 they reach
St. Louis

9. Many Indian tribes that came into contact with Lewis
and Clark are welcomed by Jefferson
America has a better understanding of what lies in the
new territory
Friendly relations made with new tribes, if the
expedition wasn’t successful it could have led to a
bloodier removal
Many new animals and plants seen like Buffalo and
Prairie Dogs
Proved a path was possible to the Pacific

10. http://www.lewisclark.net/timeline/index.html
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lewis-
clark/