Lewis Clark Expedition

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The United States of America has a long background of history in which is accompanied by a list of explorers who explored this nation. These explorers, each discovered parts that made the United States the continent it is today. An important expedition that involved two very important explorers is the, Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as, Corps of Discovery. Thomas Jefferson, who was the president at the moment, chose Meriwether Lewis, whom was a good friend of his, to lead an expedition into the lands west of the Mississippi and to gather information about the plants, animals, and peoples of the region. Lewis accepted Jefferson’s mission, and asks his close friend, William Clark, to help him in the expedition. This expedition had many …show more content…

The crossing of the Lolo Trail took 11 days and the travelers nearly starved. The expedition had to carry their boats in a process called portaging; they were only able to cover 4 to 5 miles a day. They would finally reach the Pacific coast in November 1805, a year and a half after setting out from St. Louis. They also faced horrible weather, were explorers dealt with thunderstorms, extreme heat and cold temperatures, hail storms and dust clouds. Their worse weather experience happened in 1806 at Fort Clatsop, near the Pacific coast. According to the U.S. Army Center of Military History, it rained all but twelve days that winter, and the explorers’ clothes rotted off their backs. Along with their hardships and bad weather, the explorers also had to face animals and insects, which didn’t quite go well either. Lewis was nearly killed by a grizzly bear in one recorded instance, and the team was confronted by no less than forty bears on the expedition. Mosquitoes were also a major problem for the explorers. Sergeant John Ordway, the only member of the expedition who made a diary entry during the expedition, wrote in his journal that the mosquitoes were “troublesome” and explained about how they caused swelling in his face and eyes, which slowed them

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