Lewis and Clark Expedtion

By emily phelps

  • President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress to finance an expedtion to explore the western part of North America. Congress quickly approved the request.

  • U.S. representatives signed a treaty with Grance to purchase the Lousiana Territory

  • Captain Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's choice to lead the expedtion, asked William Clark to serve as co-leader

  • Lewis launched the expedition boat down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

  • Lewia and Clark met in Clarksville, Indiana, where Clark had recuited men for the expedition

  • The expedition estabilished winter quarters at Camp Dubois, near St. Louis, Missouri

  • The expedition set out from Camp Dubois and headed up the Missouri River

  • Sergeant Charles Floyd became the expedition's only member to die on the journey.

  • The group began to build Fort Mandan in present-day North Dakota for its winter camp

  • Lewis and Clark the French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone Indian wife Sacagawea to interpret Indian languages

  • The journey resumed up the Missouri River.

  • The group reached the Great Falls of the Missouri River and soon began an 18-mile (29-kilometer) overland trip around the waterfalls

  • The expedition entered the Lolo Trainl of the Bitterroot Range in the Rocky Mountains. The party spent 11 days crossing the mountains under severe weather

  • Members of the expedition reached the Pacific coast

  • The expedition began to build Fort Clatsop in presetn-day Oregon for its winter quarters

  • The homeward journey started

  • The expedition split into two groups to find a shortcut home and to explore more of the Louisiana Territory

  • Lewis's group killed two Blackfeet Indians who tried to stal guns and horses in what was the only bloodshed on the entire trip.

  • The two groups of explorers reunited on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Yellowstone River

  • The expedition arrived back in St. Louis