In May, 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on an amazing expedition across the Louisiana Territory. It has been nearly 200 years since then, and the bicentennial of their historic journey is rapidly approaching. These true American heroes faced unknown people, harsh conditions and unexplored lands to secure a place in history as two of the world's greatest explorers. One of the expedition's stops along the way was near present-day Yankton, South Dakota, and the Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce along with the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan has put together this site to celebrate Yankton's place in history as well as sites along the rest of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

An Overview of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
These days, you can fly across the United States in six hours. Even if you have to take a car, you can do it in six days.
But imagine what it would have been like two hundred years ago, when Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the other members of the Corps of Discovery traveled 3,700 miles from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean in non-motorized boats, on horseback, and on foot. Not only did they have no cars or airplanes to travel in, they also had to do it with no reliable map -- and they had to make their way through territory inhabited by Indian nations who couldn't necessarily be expected to smile upon a band of armed explorers.

Planning the Expedition
In 1803, when was President of the United States, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This was a huge tract of over 800,000 square miles, taking in nearly the entire mid-section of North America from present-day Texas and Louisiana up to Montana and North Dakota. This almost doubled the size of the new country.

Much of the new territory was unexplored. Jefferson decided to send an expedition up the Missouri River to its source in the western mountains and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson hoped that the expedition would be able to find the elusive Northwest Passage, a water route across the country, which would be a great boon to commerce.

So in that same year, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery under the command of his trusted private secretary, Meriwether Lewis. Besides seeking the Northwest Passage, Lewis was to map the new territory, assess its natural resources, and make contact with its inhabitants, befriending them if possible. Lewis recruited his friend William Clark to share equally in the command of the expedition, as well as a force of over 40 men. The members of the Corps of Discovery were soldiers, but their purpose was peaceful -- exploration, diplomacy, and science. Lewis was commissioned as a Captain of the Army of the United States, Clark as a Lieutenant (although this inferior rank was kept secret from the men, and Clark was always called "Captain").
Lewis purchased a large stock of supplies, including guns and ammunition, food, clothing, navigational instruments, and large numbers of goods to be used as gifts and barter for Indians. To carry the Corps and its cargo on the first leg of their journey, Lewis had a keelboat built, a 55-foot shallow-draft vessel capable of carrying about 12 tons of cargo. The boat had a sail, but was mostly propelled with oars and poles. The journey on the Missouri River would be over 2,000 miles -- upstream all the way.

Up the Missouri
The expedition started from St. Louis, where the Missouri empties into the Mississippi, on May 14, 1804. Along the way, Clark oversaw the men and carefully mapped the route. Lewis made scientific observations and collected specimens of animals and plants. The trip was arduous -- the men lived outdoors, hunted for food, and rowed the keelboat (along with two smaller boats) up the river, often towing the boat from the shore when the current got too heavy or the river became difficult to navigate. They fended off huge clouds of mosquitoes that swarmed around them. The party made only 12 or 14 miles on a good day.

Along the way, the group made contact with Indian inhabitants of the land. During the first season of travel, they contacted the Missouris, the Omahas, the Yankton Sioux, the Teton Sioux (Lakota), and the Arikaras. The captains would offer gifts, meet with the chiefs, and make speeches encouraging the Indian nations to make peace with one another and with their new "great father," President Jefferson. All were friendly except the Lakota, with whom the expedition had a confrontation that nearly became violent.
By October, the Corps of Discovery had reached what is now North Dakota, but they were obviously nowhere near the Missouri's headwaters and winter was at hand. Since little was known about the route beyond the Mandan villages, Lewis and Clark decided to build a fort and winter with the Mandans and their Hidatsa neighbors. These tribes, with a population of about 4,500 people, occupied five permanent villages along the Missouri

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