William Clark Research Paper

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William Clark William Clark was ½ of the genius team that made their way through miles of unknown land, unknown nature, unknown natives, and came home with all but one voyager, who was killed of natural causes. William Clark and Meriwether Lewis were the first Americans to try and map the Louisiana Purchase area, and not only did they map it, they discovered allies, new plants and animals, and discovered new land and water routes that could be useful for future travelers. Lewis and Clark are known for their wild adventure, but what everyone wants to know is where did the story begin? Were they a good team? “U.S. soldier and explorer William Clark was born on August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia. A younger brother to Revolutionary War …show more content…

On May 14th, 1804, the expedition set out with a total of 45 men in 3 boats. Of these, 29 were to travel all the way to the Pacific while the others were to turn back at approximately the halfway point. The first part of the journey was up the Missouri through well-traveled country. On May 25th they started to meet members of tribes who were friendly and welcoming. They all had high hopes that the journey would continue smoothly as it was, however, fate had other plans for them. As the river got rougher, the land longer, and the weather colder, they realized that they would have to stop somewhere as winter hit, or they would not survive the journey. They spent their first winter near a Mandan village, where they invited Sacagawea, a Shoshone indian, and her husband to join the expedition with them as interpreters. “The winter was spent hunting and bartering for supplies for the coming trip. In the spring, 13 of the men headed back to St Louis. The rest of the expedition set out again on April 7, 1805, this time into unknown country.”[GALE,2003] From there, the expedition just got harder. Heading up what they had decided was the main stream, they were stopped by the great falls of the Missouri (at Great Falls, Montana). They were forced to build crude wagons and haul the boats and all their supplies around the rapids, which took a total of one month to make the

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