by Paul Schrag
The Loyal Land Company of Virginia received 800,000 acres in 1749. They had plans to fund expeditions west in 1753, just four years after forming the company. The quest unfortunately had to be abandoned indefinitely when the French and Indian War broke out. Peter Jefferson never realized his dream of exploring the West. He died on the family ranch and left his large estate to his fourteen-year-old son Thomas.
Immediately after his father’s death, Jefferson began attending what was considered the finest school in Albemarle County, Virginia, under the tutelage of Rev. James Maury. Maury was known in the area as a great teacher of classic education, such as morals and manners, history, literature, mathematics, and geography, which he considered essential in the education of a “well rounded” young man. The clergyman also promoted settling the West. Most of the boys attending the school boarded there because it was too far to come and go each day from home.
Consequently, strong friendships were formed. Many of the young men educated by Reverend Maury would go on to become great personages in the molding of the new country. Thomas Jefferson lived with the minister and his family for two years, and the influence Maury had on the young Jefferson is evident in the latter’s passion for geography and the exploration of the West. It was a passion Jefferson maintained even as his political career evolved steadily from governor, vice president, to president. It is worth noting that another future president, James Madison, had been a pupil of Reverend Maury.
In 1784 Jefferson introduced to Congress an ordinance that allowed new states to be formed from western territories. Much of Jefferson’s excitement about possible trade routes and passages west rested on maps of the American continent produced by early French explorers. It is important to note that maps of America were based almost entirely on conjecture and stemmed from pseudoscientific theories that were equal parts analysis and wishful thinking. Jefferson subscribed to one of these theories, known as Symmetrical Geography, which suggested that the topography of the western American continent mirrored the eastern half—literally that mountains, rivers, and waterways of the eastern and western portions of America were identical, or at least remarkably similar. This theory included a belief in the so-called Long River, which was thought to comprise a series of interlocking lakes and rivers that would provide a water route west. The Long River legend was later replaced by a belief in two rivers running east and west that converged to create a waterway that would be able to carry explorers to the Pacific Ocean.
In a time when most of the population lived within forty miles of the Atlantic Ocean, Congress disapproved of allowing newly discovered lands to be given status equal to that of the original states. Undeterred, Jefferson helped sponsor the French botanist André Michaux in hopes of finding the quickest route to the Pacific Ocean. This expedition collapsed near the Mississippi, suffering from political conspiracies and paranoia.
The French, Spanish, and Native Americans were fighting westward expansion, but Jefferson pressed on with a steady resolve. He had a number of interests and was endlessly studying, never resting, knowing that Great Britain or any other nation could claim land on the soil he and his Revolutionary War brethren fought to protect.
In the beginning of 1801, with the help of the American Philosophical Society, an institution for knowledge created by Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson finally took the first real steps westward.
He chose his private secretary and personal protégé, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition.
Lewis was sent to Philadelphia, where he personally studied under some of the sharpest minds of his time. The preparation called for an intensive review of botany, mathematics, chemistry, anatomy, and medicine. It is not difficult to imagine Lewis readying himself for this important mission, comparing himself with the Spanish conquistadores, stockpiling rifles and ammunition, and securing the proper instruments and equipment.
The taking and collection of notes on newly discovered plants, animals, and minerals was of great importance, as was disciplined documentation of all discoveries in journals. Lewis was well prepared for the task and had a strong personal bond to Jefferson. Both came from the same neighborhood in Virginia and were pioneering sons of distinguished families. Jefferson practically watched Lewis grow up.
Born on the family farm August 18, 1774, Meriwether Lewis had lived just miles from Jefferson’s Monticello. Lewis was born to parents of high prominence in central Virginia. Thomas Jefferson had two siblings that married into the Lewis family, and Meriwether’s uncle had handled Jefferson’s relations during his years of diplomatic service in Paris. When Meriwether was five, his father died of pneumonia. His mother remarried, moving the entire family south to Georgia. It was during that time Lewis developed his skills as a tracker, herb gatherer, and outdoorsman. Hunting at night alone with his dogs, the ten-year-old Lewis developed a lifelong passion for the earth’s natural wonders. It was in Georgia that Lewis had his first encounter with the Cherokees. Even as a curious young boy, Lewis was sensitive to the plight of the natives.
Meriwether returned to Virginia in his early teens to be educated. But when he finished his formal schooling, he opted to return to the family farm rather than continue on to college. His scheme to spend time expanding his land and growing his own flora and herbs was short-lived. Trouble brewed as new taxes on whiskey caused farmers to rebel. Riots spread in the colonies. During August 1794, President Washington mobilized thirteen thousand militiamen from Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Lewis, who was worried about the safety of his land, quickly enlisted. The revolt was uneventful and quickly suppressed. Lewis, however, had found some excitement in the promise of travel and decided to remain with the army. Serving under General Wayne during the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Lewis arrived after the slaughter just in time for the signing of the Treaty of Greenville. The landmark treaty was a success for the western confederacy but a sad loss for the Native Americans who turned over Ohio, the future site of downtown Chicago, and Fort Detroit. It was during this military campaign that Lewis met William Clark for the first time. The two instantly forged a deep bond.
Lewis was the consummate adventurer—curious, strong, smart, artistically inclined, and fearless. He was as comfortable in battle as he was in the laboratory, in the library, or in the field. At heart he was a soldier and an adventurer, but he had spent so much time in the company of learned men like Jefferson that his rough edges had been refined. Lewis also was known for mood swings and occasional fits of melancholy. He is alternatively described by various biographers as sensitive, brash, self-aware, poetic, driven, depressed, fearless, and easily angered. He was also characterized as hard to get along with and seems to have held many of the racist tendencies that characterized men of his day. His treatment of Sacagawea, for example, was often described as condescending and dismissive.
Clark was also born in Virginia, the ninth of ten children from English and Scottish ancestry. Unlike the Lewis family, the Clarks did not have a drop of aristocratic blood. As with most children of his era, Clark was home-schooled. Shy, awkward, and self-conscious, he preferred reading books to socializing. At fifteen, his family moved to Kentucky, where Clark ultimately would break out of his shell. Learning wilderness survival tactics, he began to prepare for his inevitable calling. Clark had five older brothers, all with hardened military experience. He understood he would have to follow in his brothers’ footsteps to gain respect. That was no easy task, considering that one of his brothers was a general during the American Revolutionary War.
Clark’s childhood home was a battlefield, under constant raids by the Wea natives. At nineteen years old William Clark began his military career by volunteering to help push tribes out of Kentucky in order to secure the Ohio River. Kentucky militia made no effort to distinguish between warring and peaceful tribes, a point made clear by the attack on the peaceful Shawnee. Appalled by the murder of women and children, Clark detailed these horrors in his journal. Rising up the ranks to lieutenant, he proved to be
a good soldier, showing his unmatched expertise in mapping and tracking new lands while commanding troops and winning battles. He was praised for his leadership. But after seven years, the harshness of nonstop conflicts took their toll and Clark prematurely retired, claiming poor health.
As Clark’s military career dipped, his friend Meriwether Lewis seemed to be rocketing straight to the top. After six years in military service Lewis was promoted to the rank of captain. A year later he was invited by Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected president, to be his private secretary. It was a role he happily accepted. After convincing Congress, Jefferson’s plan for exploring the West was set in motion. Lewis, who had been preparing for this journey for what seemed his whole life, was now on the verge of final reckoning. He knew that such a dangerous expedition demanded the preparedness and skills of an equal.
Lewis sought his good friend William Clark, writing him a letter and promising Clark would be his co-captain. The letter enthusiastically detailed the importance of the expedition. An exciting adventure and a chance to be the first to see the Pacific Ocean from land was an offer too good to refuse. It appears, in Clark’s case, that venturing into the unknown with one of his friends, and getting paid to do so, was the right remedy for a man who had abandoned military life. After weeks passed with no response, Lewis was ready to move on when he finally received news that Clark indeed would be joining the party. The newly created Corps of Discovery was setting off on a mission as important in its time as the moon launch was for us in ours.
Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o’clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage.
—AUGUST 31, 18031
So began the first journal entry as Lewis departed Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, on his magnificently crafted 55-foot-long keelboat. The boat was narrow and fast, designed to move people swiftly upriver. Almost immediately Lewis was confronted with scientific curiosities. At Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, Lewis helped assist Dr. William Goforth excavate fossil remains of a mastodon. After five days spent studying and cataloging this find, Lewis sent his first shipment of specimens back to President Jefferson. Jefferson was an avid mastodon-bone collector and believed they were not extinct. Lewis was told to keep an eye out for this elusive creature in the unexplored western territories. So impressed were the revolutionary forefathers they went as far as proclaiming the mighty mastodon as America’s national symbol.
In December 1803, William Clark took the responsibility of training the men who had volunteered to go to the Pacific. In a camp set up near present-day Hartford, Illinois, he began the task of building a cooperative and trail-fit team. It was a challenge, considering most of the men had never met one another. Clark taught them to build forts out of logs, to march in formation, and to use their weapons effectively. The dangers they expected to face were numerous, and they prepared skillfully for every possible scenario.
In early 1804 Meriwether Lewis attended the ceremony in which the Upper Louisiana Territory was transferred to the United States. In the most awesome real estate deal in history, the United States took control of a vast territory covering 828,800 square miles encompassing present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans and parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In May of 1804 William Clark, the newly formed Corps of Discovery, and Meriwether Lewis met at St. Charles, Missouri. The assembled party of forty-five included twenty-seven unmarried soldiers, a French interpreter, Captain Lewis’s beloved dog Seaman, and another group of soldiers who would accompany them to Mandan country during the first winter of the expedition. Even French boatmen were recruited to help manage the boats, which were laden with supplies.
The expedition’s first few months were a rough trial. As the group traveled up the Missouri River, they were beset with injuries, bitten relentlessly by insects, and beaten down by persistent heat. In August 1804 the Corps of Discovery lost a man to appendicitis. Fortunately it would turn out to be the only casualty of the mission. Along their path they came across huge logs and trees that bore witness to the storms and strong currents of the area. This made parts of the journey difficult, as these floating obstacles could damage and sink the boats. During the worst of these stretches the only way to see the boats safely through was to have the men pull the boat upriver using the cordelling technique, which requires boats to be pulled with ropes by men walking the shoreline. Averaging no more than ten or fifteen miles a day, the slow process was an additional frustration.
The first meetings with Native American tribes went smoothly. These were peaceful tribes on the outskirts of the territories. In preparation for these encounters, Lewis developed an introductory ceremony or brief ritual, in which, dressed in full uniform, they would inform the tribe’s chief that their land now belonged to the United States and that a man in the East—President Thomas Jefferson—was their new “great father.” They would also present the chief with a peace medal showing Jefferson on one side and two hands clasping on the other, as well as some form of present. In addition the corps members would perform a kind of parade, or presentation of arms, during which they would march in uniform and shoot their guns.
Lewis had been warned of the Teton Sioux. Sioux tribal members were fiercely aggressive when it came to their territory. The Sioux slept in tepees and hunted buffalo. These small bands of South Dakota warriors were feared among the French and Canadian traders. Neighboring tribes were no match for the Sioux’s aggressiveness and were often slaughtered if they interfered. The Sioux were the fierce and demanding gatekeepers of the Missouri River. Controlling the traffic of the river, they demanded large amounts of gifts from passing merchants.
When Lewis arrived, tensions were thick. The ceremonial display didn’t impress the Sioux, who knew the Americans sought control of the river. The Sioux demanded one of the boats from Lewis and Clark, and when this was denied, the tribe held the expedition hostage for three drama-filled days. The Sioux put on a war ceremony for them, complete with freshly scalped heads from the neighboring Omaha. The psychological warfare was unbelievable. Nobody in the expedition knew how to speak the Sioux language. The situation was a powder keg waiting to explode. Then, on the fourth day, Chief Black Buffalo of the Sioux granted Lewis and Clark’s expedition safe passage in exchange for extra tobacco. Relieved that they had survived their first unexpected obstacle intact, Lewis and Clark were eager finally to be looking for something that was actually on their agenda.
The Missouri and Mississippi Valley area was home to thousands of mounds in prehistory. These mounds were of great curiosity to antiquarian thinkers of colonial America. Because they were believed to be more than just Native American burials, a closer investigation of these mounds was of high importance.
With several men and Lewis’s dog Seaman, they hiked the miles from where they set up camp on the river. The four-hour hike took its toll on the explorers; they were completely overpowered by the heat. The dog returned to the river, and the men collapsed at the base of the mound in dire thirst. After rehydrating, Lewis and Clark climbed 70 feet to the top of Spirit Mound. They looked down on the impressive view and, seeing the entire valley plain from above for the first time, witnessed the wild buffalo roaming undisturbed. The Spirit Mound is one of the few remaining sites left standing from the original Lewis and Clark expedition. Jaw slack in amazement, Lewis made the following entry dated August 25, 1804.
From the top of this Mound we beheld a most butifull landscape; Numerous herds of buffalow were Seen feeding in various directions, the Plain to the N. W & N E extends without interuption as far as Can be Seen— . . . no woods except on the Missouri Points. . . . If all the timber w
hich is on the Stone Creek (Vermillion River) was on 100 acres it would not be thickly timbered, the Soil of those Plains are delightfull. Here we got Great quantities of the best large-set grapes I ever tasted, some Blue currents stil on the bushes, and two kinds of plumbs, one the Common wild Plumb the other a large Yellow Plumb . . . about double the Size of the Common and Deliscously flavoured.2
After Lewis and company returned to camp, they briefly considered hiking the lands beyond Spirit Mound but decided the heat would make it dangerous. They continued upriver the next morning and never looked back. If they had ventured just a little farther, they would have crossed paths with America’s biggest pre-Columbian mystery.
The Cahokia Mounds are a gigantic complex settlement of ancient mounds that includes Monks Mound. The name Cahokia is attributed to an unrelated clan of Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 1600s, long after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants. The living descendants of the Cahokia people associated with the mound site are unknown. French explorers assigned the name Cahokia in the late seventeenth century. The name stuck even though the natives claimed the mounds were much older than they were.
Best known for large, manmade earthen structures, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about 700 to 1400 CE. Built by ancient peoples known casually as the Mound Builders, Cahokia’s original population was thought to have been approximately 1,000 until about the eleventh century, when it expanded to tens of thousands.
At its apex, estimated between 1,100 to 1,200 CE, the city covered nearly six square miles and hosted a population of as many as a hundred thousand people.
These ancient natives are said to have built more than 120 earthen mounds in the city, 109 of which have been recorded and 68 of which are preserved within the site. While some are no more than a gentle rise on the land, others reach 100 feet into the sky. Natives are said to have transported the earthen material used to build the mounds on their backs in baskets to the construction sites. More than fifty million cubic feet of earth was moved for the construction of the mounds.