In May of 1804 President Thomas Jefferson commissioned an expedition of U.S. Army volunteers under Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. The primary objective was to explore an map the newly acquired territory of the Louisiana Purchase, and to find a practical route across the frontier. Jefferson's plan was outlined in a secret message to Congress and stressed the importance of discovering commercial opportunity of a path to the Pacific Ocean. When Lewis and Clark had finally made it to the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean, Clark calculated that they had traveled 4,132 miles in 554 days, from Wood River to the mouth of the Columbia. Wood river also known as Camp Dubois is near present day Hartford, Illinois served as the winter camp and starting point for the expedition. On May 14, 1804 the expedition under Clark's command left the camp and sailed up the nearby Missouri river where they met with Captain Lewis at St . Charles Missouri.
After many days of travel across rivers, plains and mountainous terrain Lewis and Clark entered into what would indisputably be the most exhausting and debilitating segment of the entire journey, the eleven-day passage across the Bitterroot Mountains to the Clearwater River in Idaho. The expedition team met impenetrable forested mountains, snow and bitter cold. The mountains were barren of the elk, deer, and bear that they hunted for food in the plains, and the men were forced to kill and eat three of their horses. The men had reached the brink of starvation when they met with a band of friendly Nez Perce Indians whose gracious hospitality comforted the weak and hungry men. As the men approached the mouth of the Clearwater River west of the Rockies, they discovered a land and climate that was radically different than they had any reason to expect. First they encountered the high, arid and inhospitable Columbia plateau, then the awesome Cascade Range with it's powerful thermal winds, and finally the damp and foggy climate of the coastal range.
Rather than a relatively easy float on the river to the Pacific ocean, the journalist on the trip recorded that they were met with the roughest 55 mile stretch of the entire trip. It started at Celilo falls and a quarter-mile-long Short Narrows, that Clark called an "agitated gut Swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction." It ended with an equally dangerous Long Narrows and four continuous miles of chutes and falls that required two days to descend. Along the way, they were amazed at the dense population of Indians along the riverbanks with trading centers reeking of smell of dry salmon, rattling with the sound of unfamiliar languages, and bartering displays of Euro-American goods. Once they emerged from the Columbia Gorge on November 2nd, they found themselves in the tidewater at Beacon Rock. After five days of rest, they eagerly set out to reach their long-sough goal of the ocean itself. But the closer they got to the Pacific ocean, the more "tempestuous and horiable" it got with storms pinning them against the northern shorelines for two wet and hungry weeks. They turned back upstream to the relative shelter of some islands and crossed to the south side settling at their final stop of Fort Clatsop in the last few days of 1805.
Almost a full year later in his annual address to Congress, Thomas Jefferson with little fanfare spoke of the bravery of Messrs. Lewis and Clark:
"The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke for exploring the river Missouri and the best communication from that to the Pacific Ocean has had all the success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting communication across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce and inhabitants; and it is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke and their brave companions have by this arduous service deserved well of their country."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29448
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Dubois
http://lewisandclarktrail.com/section1/illinoiscities/Woodriver/interpretivecenter.htm
http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/3021
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