Compare And Contrast Lewis And Clark

Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American overland exploration of the American West and Pacific Northwest, departing in May, 1804 from St. Louis on the Mississippi River, making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific coast and ending in September 1806. The expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and guided byf Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The exploration covered a total of about about 8000 miles round trip, from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson trusted in the existence of a Northwest Passage, a water way between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The main goal of the expedition was to locate this Northwest Passage and plan its

This was the vast amount of land in central North America. Now the journey was more important because Lewis and Clark would be proclaiming American power in this new area of the continent.
The Expedition The formal name of the expedition team was The Corps of Discovery. The president did not realize how many people would be needed to complete this task. Lewis and Clark enlisted a larger group of boatmen, soldiers, and hunters. When they left for the expedition up the Missouri River they had up to forty-eight men at Wood River which was outside St. Louis. Some other adventurers that played a major role in the American western expansion included George Drouillard and John Colter. How President Jefferson’s notion of American geography was the route that Lewis and Clark followed out West. The Missouri River seemed to Jefferson to be the most practical way to travel across the continent to the waters in the Rockies. After climbing over the Rocky Mountains he thought that the Corps of Discovery would find another river leading straight to the Pacific Ocean. But, the speculations of President Jefferson about the geography did not match what Lewis and Clark

To what American explorers called "unknown" was really Native American hunting territories, homes, and gardens. Without the food, shelter, transportation, and important geographic information that the Native Americans provided the expedition would not have completed as many tasks as it did. They would probably not survive. Sacajawea represents the cooperation between native people and the Corps of Discovery. While she was not a guide totally, her presence signaled to the many Native Americans tribes that the Corps of Discovery was not