On this day, the 14th of May, in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Four, the Corp of Discovery left Ft. Dubois, across the Mississippi Rive from St Louis, on an historic trek commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson. Led by United States Army Captain Meriwether Lewis (President Jefferson's personal assistant) and Lieutenant William Clark, the expedition company was comprised of five non commissioned officers and approximately thirty enlisted men.
The company proceeded up the Missouri River in a 55 ft. keel boat and two large pirogues known as the red pirogue and the white pirogue.
After ascending the Missouri River to it's source, crossing the Bitterroot Mountains and descending the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, then returning over approximately the same route, the Corp of Discovery arrived back at St. Louis on the 23rd of September, 1806 with the loss of only one of it's members; Sgt Charles Floyd who died possibly of appendicitis on August 20th, 1804 near present day Sioux City Iowa early in the journey.
This expedition pioneered the way for the opening of the western fur trade and the rise of the class of Americans know as the mountain men. Corp member Private John Colter was given permission to muster out of the company at the Mandan villages on the return trip to head back up river with two civilians who were heading to the headwaters of the Missouri to trap beaver and became over the next four years one of the most famous mountain men in history.
This was a monumental and far reaching expedition that had a very real impact on the opening of the territories gained through the Louisiana Purchase and the further expansion of this nation. It is well worth spending a little time reading about if you get the chance.
I hope this piques your interest in this most interesting part of our history.
TC
