Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery," 1803-1806

Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery," 1803-1806. Three Rivers Heritage Trail. , On August 31, 1803, Captain Meriwether Lewis and his crew set off from Pittsburgh at a point near here on their heroic journey to the Pacific coast. The goals of the expedition were to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean, to collect specimens of plants and animals new to science, and to establish contact with Native American tribes., President Thomas Jefferson and Lewis chose Pittsburgh at the strategic Forks of the Ohio as the expedition's assembly and launch point. Here supplies and trade goods were assembled, and the keelboat was built, probably at the Greenough boatyard., Anxious to depart by July 20, before the Ohio River grew shallow for the summer, Lewis was frustrated by a slow boatbuilder who spent more time drinking than working. When the expedition finally left on August 31, the river was so low the keelboat had to be unloaded three times to drag it over sandbars. On the first day they traveled ten miles., Lewis picked up his co-captain, William Clark, near Louisville, Kentucky. After wintering near St. Louis, they traveled up the Missouri River to North Dakota, where they built Fort Mandan in October, 1804. In the spring of 1805 they sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with reports, maps, and natural history specimens collected to that point. These boxes and papers were sent via New Orleans to President Jefferson in Washington, who eagerly awaited news of their discoveries., The epic journey of Lewis and Clark, as they explored territory recently acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase, is one of the great adventures in American history., (captions) , View of Pittsburgh, 1796, by Joseph Warin. The keelboat was built on the bank of the Monongahela River a few years later. Courtesy of The New York Public Library, In Pittsburgh, Lewis bought a large Newfoundland dog he described as "very active strong and docile," and named it "Seaman." During the journey, Lewis refused to trade him, and when Seaman was stolen they tracked the thieves and got him back., William Clark's sketch of the keelboat. It was 55-feet long, 8-feet wide at midships, weighed about 15 tons unloaded, and could be rowed, sailed, pushed and pulled., Lewis and Clark: The Departure from the Wood River Encampment, May 14, 1804 (near St. Louis). Painting by Gary R. Lucy. After wintering across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, the expedition brgun its voyage up the Missouri River. Courtesy of the Gary R. Lucy Gallery, Inc. Washington, MO ww.garylucy.com, In 1802 the United States extended west to the Mississippi River. In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country., The keelboat sailed some 2000 miles down the Ohio, then up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, to North Dakota. After crossing the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains on foot and horseback, the explorers used canoes to travel down the Columbia River and its tributaries to the Pacific Coast.