The Expedition of Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-1806 provided the country with its first western heroes and revealed a land so bounteous and alluring that nature itself appeared to have smiled upon the American republic. In 1803, the year of the Louisiana Purchase, the United States was a strong, confident nation with a population of six million. Americans were building canals, bridges, factories, and highways and experimenting with steamboats and gas lamps. But there was another America, totally unknown to the people of the East. In 1800, tens of thousands of Native Americans living within the boundaries of the future United States had never seen a white person. The United States was bordered by a mystery.
The existence of this unknown land fascinated and challenged President Thomas Jefferson. …