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Lewis and Clark: A Timeline of the Extraordinary Expedition

By: Dave Roos

Published: January 16, 2020

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the territory of the United States doubled overnight. Months before the $15 million deal was finalized, though, President Thomas Jefferson won approval from Congress to send a team of intrepid explorers to find a passable water route west to the Pacific Ocean.

Jefferson tapped his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis , to lead the “Corps of Discovery,” and once Lewis grasped the full scope and challenges of the expedition, he called on his Army friend and fellow Virginian, William Clark, to be his equal in command.

“If therefore there is anything… in this enterprise, which would induce you to participate with me in it’s fatiegues, it’s dangers and it’s honors,” Lewis wrote to Clark, “believe me there is no man on earth with whom I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself.”

Below is a timeline of Lewis and Clark's extraordinary expedition.

Lewis and Clark's Journey Begins

May 14, 1804

The Corps of Discovery embarks from Camp Dubois outside of St. Louis, Missouri , in a 55-foot keelboat to begin the westward journey up the Missouri River. Among the 41-man crew of volunteers, soldiers and one African American slave, is Patrick Gass, a carpenter from Pennsylvania. Gass writes in his journal about the expected dangers ahead, including “warlike nations of savages of gigantic stature” and impassable mountain ranges.

“The determined and resolute character, however, of the corps, and the confidence which pervaded all ranks dispelled every emotion of fear, and anxiety for the present,” writes Gass, “[and] seemed to insure to us ample support in our future toils, suffering and dangers.”

August 20, 1804

Sergeant Charles Floyd, the youngest man on the expedition, dies of a suspected ruptured appendix near modern-day Sioux City, Iowa. Incredibly, Floyd’s is the only death during the entire two-year expedition.

A Tense Encounter With the Teton Sioux

September 25, 1804

Of all Lewis and Clark’s encounters with Native American tribes, the meeting with the Teton Sioux (Lakota) near modern-day Pierre, South Dakota, is among the most tense. Jefferson had charged the Corps with Indian diplomacy, which consisted mainly of announcing the Louisiana Purchase and presenting tribal chiefs with peace medals and American flags.

But communication breakdowns are common during the expedition, given that Lewis and Clark often rely on three-way translation (native language to French to English and back) or sign language to converse with chiefs who often have their own political agendas.

On this day, the Teton Sioux mistake the explorers for merchants and don’t like the idea of the Americans selling weapons to rival tribes up the Missouri River. A young Teton Sioux chief, trying to insert himself into the confrontation, feigns drunkenness and stumbles into Clark, who rashly draws his sword. In an instant, Clark’s soldiers raise their rifles and the Teton braves draw their bows and arrows.

After exchanging angry threats and boasts through nervous interpreters—at one point Clark claims that he has "more ‘medicine’ on board [his] boat than would kill twenty such nations in one day"—the elder Chief Black Buffalo breaks the tension and calls for peace. After three restless days at the Teton Sioux village, the upriver journey is allowed to proceed.

Lewis and Clark Meet Sacagawea

November 11, 1804

With winter fast approaching, the Corps construct Fort Mandan in North Dakota among the hospitable Mandan and Hitatsa Indians. On November 11, Clark makes a hasty scribble in his journal about the arrival of "two Squars of the Rock Mountain, purchased from the Indians by...a frenchmen." One of those nameless women is the famous Sacagawea .

At first, Sacagawea is an afterthought. She is the 17-year-old, pregnant wife of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian trader hired by Lewis and Clark as a Hidatsa interpreter. But she soon proves to be an invaluable member of the expedition.

“Sacagawea helped [Lewis and Clark] in a number of ways,” says Jay Buckley, a history professor at Brigham Young University and author of several books about Western exploration. “Both in letting native tribes know that they came in peace, as well as helping the men with their diet, finding edible plants to improve their health.”

Two days after the Corps depart Fort Mandan in the spring of 1805, Lewis writes in his journal that “[Sacagawea] busied herself in serching for… wild artichokes… by penetrating the earth with a sharp stick… her labour soon proved successful, and she procurrd a good quantity of these roots.”

June 2, 1805

Lewis and Clark rely largely on navigation tips from Indians and white traders to chart the fastest and safest route westward toward the Pacific. But they are fully unprepared for a major fork in the Missouri River in north-central Montana . Only one fork is the true Missouri, and they will know it by a series of majestic waterfalls upstream mentioned by the Mandan-Hidatsa.

Lewis and Clark call for a vote. Thirty-one people vote for the right fork and only two vote for the left—those two were Lewis and Clark. Not willing to defy their men, Lewis and Clark send exploring parties up each fork and have them report back. A second vote is taken with exactly the same result.

“But the men, to their credit, say, ‘We’re going to follow you,’” says Buckley.

June 13, 1805

Anxious to prove he’s right, Lewis scouts ahead of the rest of the Corps and is overjoyed (at first) to find the Great Falls, describing them as a “truly magnifficent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man."

But it soon becomes clear that the portage (carrying canoes over land) around the Great Falls is going to be far more difficult and will require more than the one day he planned. To help with challenge, the men fashion crude wagons from felled trees and drag the canoes and equipment across miles of unforgiving, cactus-strewn terrain.

“It takes them almost a month and a half to take all of their gear 18 miles,” says Buckley. “It’s probably one of the slowest parts of the whole trip.”

The Expedition Finds the Shoshone

August 8, 1805

Before she was kidnapped by the Hidatsa at age 12, Sacagawea lived among the Shoshone people along the border of modern-day Montana and Idaho. By August, 1805, Lewis and Clark believe the fate of the expedition hangs on finding the Shoshone and buying horses from them. It’s the only way the Corps can hope to cross the Rocky Mountains before winter.

While Sacagawea doesn’t “guide” the expedition, her childhood memories provide valuable clues that they are on the right path. On August 8, Lewis writes in his journal:

“The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains. . . . this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived resemblance. . . . she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river on the river immediately west of it's source. . . . as it is now all important with us to meet with those people as soon as possible.”

August 17, 1805

After Lewis and Clark finally make contact with the Shoshone, Sacagawea is joyfully reunited with her brother Cameahwait, who is now the Shoshone chief.

Crew Gets Lost in Snow, Nearly Starves to Death

September 11, 1805

Even with horses and a Shoshone guide named Old Toby, the crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho proves to be the most grueling and life-threatening section of the entire journey.

It was only mid-September, but the snow on the western flank of the Bitterroots is already deep and Old Toby gets lost. Horses slip and tumble down the mountain. The men, who have grown accustomed to eating five to seven pounds of meat daily in the game-rich plains, begin to starve. They become so desperate they start eating the colts.

Eleven days later, they stumble out of the forest snow-blind and weak with hunger, and are taken in by a village of Nez Perce Indians. Buckley says that the Nez Perce debate killing the half-dead intruders, who are accompanied by a Shoshone woman, their bitter enemy. But a Nez Perce woman named Watkueis, who lives among white men as a captive, convinces them to spare the strangers and befriend them.

The Nez Perce hospitality has one drawback. Lewis and Clark’s men make themselves sick from overindulging on piles of dried fish and boiled roots.

Clark writes in his journal, “I find myself verry unwell all the evening from eateing the fish & roots too freely.” A week later, he adds, “Capt Lewis & myself eate a Supper of roots boiled, which Swelled us in Such a manner that we were Scercely able to breath for Several hours.”

They Reach the Pacific...or Not

November 7, 1805

After paddling dugout canoes down the treacherous Columbia River for weeks, Clark believes the men have finally reached the Pacific.

“Great joy in camp we are in View of the Ocian,” writes Clark with his trademark creative spelling. “This great Pacific Octean which we been So long anxious to See. and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores (as I Suppose) may be heard distictly.”

Alas, to Clark’s dismay, they have only arrived at the edge of Gray’s Bay, a storm-tossed brackish estuary 20 miles inland from the Pacific. Powerful waves and strong winds swamp and paralyze the canoes.

In a typical journal entry marked November 14, Clark writes, “rained all the last night without intermition, and this morning. wind blows verry hard but our Situation is Such that we Cannot tell from what point it comes—one of our Canoes is much broken by the waves dashing it against the rocks.”

The Corps finally crosses the estuary with the help of local Clatsop Indians and their large, ocean-going canoes.

Lewis and Clark Reach the Pacific Ocean

November 24

After finally reaching the Pacific Coast, it‘s time to hunker down in Winter quarters. Lewis and Clark put the decision to a vote as to where to build Fort Clatsop, their home for the next five months. A tally of the votes is recorded in Clark’s journal, including historic votes from York, the African American slave, and Sacagawea, an Indian woman.

“Janey [one of Sacagawea’s nicknames] is in favour of a place where there is plenty of Potas,” wrote Clark, referring to Wapato, a type of native root vegetable.

December, 1805 - March, 1806

Conditions at Fort Clatsop are “horribly miserable,” says Buckley. “From December to March, it rained all but 12 days. They were stuck in cramped, smoky quarters subsisting on lean elk meat. They were ready to start the return journey as soon as they thought possible, and they actually left too soon.”

Long-Needed R&R With the Nez Perce

Returning to the Nez Perce, Lewis and Clark go against the natives’ advice and try to cross the thickly forested Bitterroots before the snow fully melts. “It was their only retreat during the whole expedition,” says Buckley.

June 8, 1806

The month spent with the Nez Perce waiting for the snow to melt is one of the most enjoyable and leisurely of the entire two-year journey. By day, Lewis and Clark’s men and the Indians compete in foot races and boyhood games like “prison base,” a type of tag. And by night, they stay up late dancing and playing the fiddle around the fire.

"Last evening the indians entertained us with seting the fir trees on fire,” writes Lewis, describing one of their last nights among the Nez Perce. “This exhibition reminded me of a display of fireworks. The natives told us that their object in seting those trees on fire was to bring fair weather for our journey."

July 3, 1806

After easily crossing the Bitterroots with the help of Nez Perce guides, the Corps split into four different groups for the next leg of the journey. Clark leads a group to explore the Yellowstone River. Lewis takes another up the Marias River, which includes the northernmost edge of the Louisiana Territory. Without any way to communicate with each other, they plan to reunite at Fort Mandan.

July 25, 1806

Clark etches his name and the date into a sandstone outcropping near modern-day Billings, Montana that he names Pompy’s Tower after Sacagawea’s son. It remains rare physical evidence of Lewis and Clark’s expedition that survives today.

Lewis Kills a Blackfoot Brave

July 26, 1806

Lewis’s group is met by a small band of Blackfeet warriors in Montana. After camping together overnight, Lewis catches the Blackfeet trying to steal their guns and horses, and kills a young brave.

“That was the only native death on the whole expedition,” says Buckley. “And Lewis was so concerned that the Blackfeet would come after him, he and his men jump on their horses and ride for almost 24 hours straight to get down to the Missouri River and meet up with the rest of the party.”

Lewis and Clark Arrive Back in St. Louis as Heroes

September 23, 1806

A month after Lewis and Clark reunite at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone, and weeks after saying goodbye to Sacagawea at Fort Mandan, the Corps of Discovery arrive back in St. Louis, where the exhausted explorers are greeted as heroes.

“Even though there were all these difficulties with mountains and rivers and climates and natives, they all live—they all come back,” says Buckley. “And the Lewis and Clark expedition becomes America's odyssey.”

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Lewis and Clark: How the Explorers' Corps of Discovery Transformed North America

The trip was the first American expedition to cross west of the Mississippi River.

On July 4, 1803, Jefferson announced that the United States had bought the vast western territory of Louisiana – over 825,000 square miles of land, mostly inhabited by Native Americans – from the French. The problem? Most of the land had never been seen by a citizen of the United States of America.

To remedy this situation, the same day President Jefferson announced the Louisiana Purchase, he also authorized Lewis to lead an exploration of the new land. According to Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West , Lewis instantly knew who he wanted to lead the journey with him: Clark, who he had known in the U.S. military.

Lewis and Clark had similar backgrounds but different personalities

The two men shared a similar background, but very different temperaments. Born to a landed family in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1774, Lewis served as personal assistant to President Jefferson, who had long recognized the young man’s sensitivity, brilliance and observant nature. But Lewis also suffered from some form of mental illness, which could lead to long stretches of melancholy and despair.

Luckily, his chosen co-commander, Clark, was a natural leader, with a strong, steady temperament that rarely faltered. Born in 1770 in Virginia, Clark had spent most of his life in the wilds of Kentucky before joining the Army and later running his family plantation. The two men would present a united front on their adventure West, complementing each other remarkably well.

President Jefferson ordered the Corps to 'explore the Missouri River and those of its principal tributaries'

As the Corps of Discovery set off from Camp River Dubois, their charge from President Jefferson was clear. “The aim of your expedition is to explore the Missouri River and those of its principal tributaries that, by their course and by linking with the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct and practical fluvial communications across this country to commercial ends," the President wrote .

By November 1804, the Corps had made its way to North Dakota, where its core of 33 adventurers was cemented. The group included two invaluable members who America had not treated kindly – York, a Black man owned by Clark, and a 16-year old pregnant Lemhi-Shoshone called Sacagawea , who had been forced into marriage after being purchased by a French-Canadian trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. He would also join the expedition. The Corps were soon joined by Sacagawea’s baby, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who the doting Clark called “Pomp.”

Despite hardships, danger and the constant threat of the unknown, positivity would reign throughout most of the expedition. “I can foresee no material or probable obstruction to our progress, and entertain therefore the most sanguine hopes of complete success,” Lewis wrote in 1805. “At this moment, every individual of the party are in good health, and excellent sperits; zealously attatched to the enterprise, and anxious to proceed… all in unison, act with the most perfect harmoney. With such men I have everything to hope, and but little to fear.”

The Corps' goal was to create friendly relationships with Native people, which included Sacagawea

One of the main missions of the Corps was to establish a friendly, commerce-based relationship with the many Native people they would encounter on their journey. According to historian James Ronda , Lewis and Clark shared “a naive optimism typical of so much Euro-American frontier diplomacy. [They] believed they could easily reshape upper Missouri realities to fit their expectations... [But] to the surprise of the explorer-diplomats, virtually all Indian parties proved resistant to change and suspicious of American motives.”

Over the course of their journey, the Corps would encounter tribes including the Nez Perce, Mandans, Shoshones and Sioux. Many of these tribes would offer invaluable assistance in the form of directions, food and wisdom regarding the West. They would also introduce the Corps to traditions never seen by Americans, including the Sioux scalp dance. Clark described the scene:

A large fire made in the Center, about 10 musitions playing on tamberins made of hoops & skin…with Deer & Goats Hoofs tied So as to make a gingling noise and many others of a Similer kind, those men began to Sing & Beet on the Temboren, the women Came forward highly Deckerated in theire way, with the Scalps an Trofies of war…& proceeded to Dance the war Dance.

With the invaluable Sacagawea, who acted as a translator and guide, the men journeyed up the Missouri River into Montana. In June 1805, working with descriptions given them by Native Americans, they discovered the Great Falls of the Missouri, making them the first Americans to see them. Lewis described the awe-inspiring sight:

I had proceded on this course about two miles ... whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arrise above the plain like a collumn of smoke. ... [It] soon began to make a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.

They reached the Pacific Ocean 18 months after the expedition began

After crossing the continental divide through the Lemhi Pass, at the present-day Montana-Idaho border, it became evident that there was no fabled all-water route to the Pacific that President Jefferson had hoped for. The Corps then started a difficult 200-mile trek over the Bitterroot Mountains (the northern segment of the Rocky Mountains) before taking the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia Rivers to what is now the coast of Oregon, where they beheld the Pacific Ocean for the first time in November 1805.

“Ocian in view! O! the joy,” Clark wrote. “Great joy in camp we are in view of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we been So long anxious to See.”

The Corp set up camp, building Fort Clatsop near present-day Astoria, Oregon. Here, they spent the winter, while Lewis and Clark compiled reports describing all that they had learned and seen, which included intricate sketches made by Lewis of everything from the maple leaf to the vulture. According to the National Park Service :

These reports contained measurements and observations of its course and its surrounding flora, fauna, tributaries and inhabitants…Lewis and Clark described at least 178 plants and 122 animals - including mammals, birds, reptiles and fish … New species that the Corps of Discovery encountered included pronghorn, bighorn sheep… mountain beaver, long-tailed weasel, mountain goat, coyote and various species of rabbit, squirrel, fox and wolf… They sent back descriptions, zoological specimens, and even a few live animals. One of the animals sent to President Jefferson in 1805 was a "barking squirrel," or “black-tailed prairie dog.”

Lewis and Clark were hailed as heroes in America

In March 1806, the expedition began its journey back East. It was during this final leg of the expedition that the one violent skirmish – with the Blackfeet tribe at the Two Medicine Fight Site in Montana – occurred.

The Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806. Lewis and Clark headed to Washington, D.C., to tell President Jefferson all they had seen. They were hailed as heroes – but this was from a purely American perspective. Intentionally or not, the Corp’s charting of the Pacific Northwest signaled the beginning of the end for the Native peoples of the West, who had lived in the area for thousands of years.

The expedition’s success should have signaled the beginning of illustrious careers for both Lewis and Clark. However, fate had other plans. Post-expedition life proved difficult for the fragile Lewis, who was named Governor of the Louisiana Territory. He died by suicide (or murder?) at the Grinder’s Stand Inn, 70 miles outside of Nashville, on Oct. 11, 1809.

Clark would prosper, serving as both Governor of the Missouri Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He also sponsored the education of Sacagawea’s son, who would become a legendary world traveler, mayor, fur trader, military scout and gold miner. Clark died in St. Louis in 1838.

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The Journey of Discovery

It was Thomas Jefferson's vision that enabled the journey of Lewis and Clark. He dreamed of discovering an all- water route through the continent to the Northwest Passage, the sea route through the Arctic Ocean that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His prime motivation was to advance trade and settlement, and he started making preparations for an expedition as early as 1792. His strongest incentive for westward expansion came in 1802, after he heard of Alexander McKenzie's overland journey across Canada. Fearing that the British might gain control of the Western territories, Jefferson sought funding for an American expedition to the Pacific -- this, in turn, led to the Louisiana Purchase [source: University of Virginia].

On April 30, 1803, Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase, Treaty with France, undoubtedly the most important legacy of his presidency. He paid less than 3 cents an acre for the roughly 828,000-square-mile area, which doubled the size of the country [source: Encyclopedia Britannica ]. The land stretched south from just above the Canadian border to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, west to the Continental Divide in Colorado, and east to the Mississippi River. If it weren't for the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition of Lewis and Clark would not have been possible.

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Educator Resources

Lewis & Clark Expedition

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson guided a splendid piece of foreign diplomacy through the U.S. Senate: the purchase of Louisiana territory from France. After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was made, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West. He chose Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition, who in turn solicited the help of William Clark. Together they formed a diverse military Corps of Discovery that would undertake a two-year journey to the great ocean. Read More...

Related Primary Sources

Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

President Thomas Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Concerning Relations with the Indians

President Jefferson's Message to the Senate Asking for Advise and Consent to the Louisiana Purchase Treaty

President Jefferson's Message to Congress After the Senate Approved the Louisiana Purchase Treaty

Agreement to Pay France for the Louisiana Purchase

Letter to James Madison Announcing the Surrender of Louisiana

Receipt for Wine and Kegs Purchased by Meriwether Lewis for the Expedition to the West

Receipt for 130 Rolls of Pigtail Tobacco Purchased by Meriwether Lewis for the Expedition to the West

List of "Indian Presents" Purchased by Meriwether Lewis

President Jefferson's Message to Congress About Lewis and Clark's Discoveries

Overlooking the Columbia River on the Lewis and Clark Trail

The Plains of the Missouri River, Described by Lewis and Clark as Having Much Tall Grass and an Abundance of Game

Tallgrass Prairie as Described in the Lewis and Clark Journals, on the Outskirts of Atchison, Kansas

Petroglyphs Mentioned in the Lewis and Clark Expedition Journal  on a Limestone Cliff Near Troy, Kansas

Teaching Activities

Lewis & Clark's Expedition to the Complex West , available on DocsTeach.org,   can be used as an introduction or for a closer study of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Students will learn that the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore west of the Mississippi River in 1804 — though the land was already inhabited and politically complicated. Primary sources demonstrate various political interests, including those of the Spanish, French, British, and several Native American tribes. Students will plot these documents on a historic map of the West.

Additional Background Information

Meriwether Lewis was an intelligent and literate man who also possessed skills as a frontiersman. Lewis solicited the help of William Clark due to Clark's abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman, which were even stronger than Lewis's. Lewis so respected Clark that he made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, even though Clark was never recognized as such by the government.

Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark would find a water route linking the Columbia and Missouri rivers. This water link would connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River system, thus giving the new western land access to port markets out of the Gulf of Mexico and to eastern cities along the Ohio River and its minor tributaries. At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail up the Missouri several miles to the trapper headquarters at Fort Mandan and up the Columbia just a bit over a hundred miles to a point a little beyond present-day Portland, Oregon.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition paddled its way down the Ohio as it prepared the Expedition to be launched officially from Camp Wood, just outside St. Louis, in the summer of 1804. That summer and fall the company of explorers paddled and pulled themselves upstream, northwest on the Missouri River to Fort Mandan, a trading post, where Corps of Discovery set up camp, wintered, and prepared for the journey to the Pacific.

When the spring of 1805 brought high water and favorable weather, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on the next leg of its journey. They traveled up the Missouri to present-day Three Forks, Montana, following the western-most tributary, the Jefferson River. This route delivered the explorers to the doorstep of the Shoshone tribe, who were skilled at traversing the great rock mountains with horses. Once over the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps of Discovery shaped canoe-like vessels that transported them swiftly downriver to the mouth of the Columbia, where they wintered (1805-1806) at Fort Clatsop, on the present-day Oregon side of the river.

With journals in hand, Lewis, Clark, and the other members of the Expedition returned to St. Louis by September 1806 to report their findings to Jefferson. Along the way, they continued to trade what few goods they still had and set up diplomatic relations with Native American tribes. Additionally, they recorded their contact and described (and at times drew) the shape of the landscape and the creatures of this western world that were new to them. In doing so, they fulfilled many of Jefferson's wishes for the Expedition. Along the way, William Clark drew a series of maps that were remarkably detailed, noting and naming rivers and creeks, significant points in the landscape, the shape of river shore, and spots where the Corps spent each night or camped or portaged for longer periods of time. Later explorers used these maps to further probe the western portion of the continent.

The Expedition of the Corps of Discovery shaped a crude route to the waters of the Pacific and marked an initial pathway for the new nation to spread westward from ocean to ocean, fulfilling what many Americans would claim to be their obvious destiny.

Over the next two centuries, new Americans and many immigrants would wash across the central and western portions of what would eventually become the contiguous 48 United States. This wave of settlement would significantly transform virgin forests and grasslands into a landscape of cities, farms, and harvested forests – displacing fauna such as the buffalo and squeezing the Native American tribes who survived onto reservations.

This text was adapted from an article written by Linda Darus Clark, a teacher at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio.

Discover Lewis & Clark

2300+ pages of all things Lewis and Clark

Day-by-Day with Lewis & Clark

May 18, 1803

Tackle and Indian gifts

In Philadelphia, Israel Whelan buys Indian gifts and fishing tackle. Spain announces the retrocession of Louisiana and Washington City learns that the port of New Orleans has reopened to American trade.

May 18, 1804

Shifting the cargo

Based on what was learned coming up the Missouri, Clark shifts weight to the front of the boats. Drouillard leaves for St. Louis where Lewis is working. Some of the men dance with St. Charles ladies.

May 18, 1805

Hills and headwinds

The men tow the boats against a headwind in the present-day Fort Peck Reservoir area of Eastern Montana. Clark kills four deer and notes that the men are using the hides to make leggings and moccasins.

May 18, 1806

Signs of salmon

An eagle with a salmon signals that the salmon will soon arrive at Long Camp. Clark gives medical aid, Lewis gives some meat to three unlucky Nez Perce hunters, and Sacagawea gathers more Yampah roots.

Latest Additions

Indian breadroot.

Pediomelum esculentum

The day Sacagawea gathered Indian breadroot, Lewis wrote a detailed ethnobotanical description. The specimen he prepared a year prior is now used as the primary identifier of the species.

Zebulon Pike

Forgotten explorer

Like his contemporaries Lewis and Clark, Pike also provided information on flora and fauna and discovered several new species. His southern exploration paved the way for a viable route linking the United States and Santa Fe.

Searching for Lead

In the afternoon of 4 June 1804, William Clark decided to investigate the purported occurrence of lead in the vicinity of a rather unique prominence he named “Mine Hill,” but which is known today as Sugar Loaf Rock. The search was unsuccessful, but Lewis’s previous inquiries while in St. Louis resulted in 11 specimens sent to Thomas Jefferson.

Clark, York, and Slavery

The mistake should never be made that the two men were friends. They were master and slave, owner and property, superior and inferior. As close as that relationship was for the many years and countless miles they were by each other’s side, for all the dangers and hardships they shared their relationship always was based on William as master and York as servant.

Building the Barge

Was it Jacob Myers?

Valuable reevaluation of the evidence has accumulated about the building of the Lewis and Clark barge some two hundred years ago. Much of this evidence supports the conclusion that Jacob Myers was the principal builder.

Native Nations Encountered

Northwest Coast

• Wasco and Wishram
• Chilluckittequaw
• Lower Chehalis

Plateau / Southwest

• Flathead Salish
• Walla Walla
• Coeur d’Alene
• Lemhi Shoshone
• Lenape Delaware
• Sauk and Fox
• Otoe and Missouria
• Assiniboine

Tools and Techniques

Explore the methods they used to get stuff done—from building canoes to making rope.

Starting at Pittsburgh, traveling to the Pacific Ocean, and then returning to St. Louis, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled approximately 10,600 miles. Of that, 85%—over 9,000 miles—was by boat. To understand travel in the early 1800 American West is to understand the boats and challenges of river navigation.

Horse Travel

To cross the Rocky Mountains, the Lewis and Clark Expedition needed horses and the skills to manage them. Despite their seemingly constant struggle to find missing and stolen horses, as a kind of calvary unit, they left hoof prints on approximately 1,500 miles of western terrain.

Because of the literate journalists, historians and visual artists can tell the Expedition’s story. When they celebrated with song and dance, we too can share in the experience.

Synopsis of the Expedition

The entire story is told in these five webpages.

Trail Diplomacy

Lewis and Clark left behind among many Indians a legacy of nonviolent contact. Those who came later enjoyed that legacy and too often betrayed it.

Expedition Calendar

Links to every day-by-day page in a calendar format spanning 31 August 1803 to 26 September 1806. A page every day!

From clichés and colorful sayings of the time to Native American languages, these pages feature the art of language.

Related Explorers

Lewis and Clark were among several significant explorers of North America both before and after the expedition.

The Fur Trade

Given President Jefferson’s directive to establish commerce, the captains worked extensively within a long-established network of North American fur trade. Part of their mission was to help establish the United States of America’s position within that industry.

Starting with its genesis in Jefferson’s Monticello, Lewis’s training and preparations in Philadelphia, and the barge’s excursion down the Ohio River, the route they took, often called the Lewis and Clark Trail, crosses the continent weaving an epic tale of western exploration treasured by many today.

A Military Corps

Throughout the expedition the soldiers were expected to conform to the rules and routines of the frontier soldier of 1803.

Medicine on the Trail

From major crisis such as the death of Sgt. Floyd, Lewis’s gunshot wound, and the illness of Sacagawea to minor events such as sexually transmitted diseases, mosquito-born illnesses, and deep cuts, the medical aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition provide an interesting topic of study.

Expedition Members

Learn about the people—and one dog—who were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was due to its many members and the people they met, including politicians, Eastern gentleman scientists, traders, and the many people already living in the American west.

Legacy is a very slippery sort of term. If we could erase our myth concepts of Lewis and Clark … it might reawaken something really extraordinary in our national consciousness.

Hunting and Fishing

Although hunting and fishing were often considered a ‘gentleman’s sport’ especially in Europe, hunting and fishing for Native Americans and Americans alike were a matter of survival. The success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition depended on the success of its hunters.

Scientific Explorations

Their work in the emerging fields of botany, ethnography, geography, geology, and zoology are now considered classics of early American scientific literature.

Native American Nations

The Lewis and Clark Expedition benefited from the Indians’ knowledge and support. Maps, route information, food, horses, open-handed friendship—all gave the Corps of Discovery the edge that spelled the difference between success and failure.

Other Topics

Other topics include music, holidays, High Potential Historic Sites, and an index of articles from We Proceeded On .

Louisiana’s Purchase

The President’s representatives in Paris had bargained successfully with Napoleon’s bureaucrats not only to buy the port of New Orleans, then the keystone of the continent, but also to acquire, at three cents an acre, an area extending from the Mississippi River to . . . where? No one knew until Meriwether Lewis stood at the crest of the Rocky Mountains at a place known today as Lemhi Pass, on 12 August 1805.

Discover More

• The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
• The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
• The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• Montana Committee for the Humanities
• Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
• The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
• Yellowstone Public Radio

Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition , edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).

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Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

The story of the most important American exploration expedition in American history and the participants in it. The story of the most important American exploration expedition in American history and the participants in it. The story of the most important American exploration expedition in American history and the participants in it.

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Corps of Discovery: The Lewis and Clark Expedition Timeline and Trail Route

A cool spring breeze whispers through the tall trees. The waves of the Mississippi River lap lazily against the bow of the boat — the one you helped to design. 

There are no maps to guide you and your party, for what lies ahead. It is land unknown and should you continue deeper in, that will only become more true.

There is the sudden sound of oars splashing as one of the men fights against the current, helping to move the heavily laden craft further upstream. Months of planning, training, and preparation have gotten you to this point. And now the journey is underway. 

In the quiet — only broken by the rhythmic thrum of the oars — the mind begins to wander. Flickers of doubt creep in. Is there enough of the correct supplies packed to see this mission through? Were the right men chosen to help achieve this goal?

Your feet rest solidly upon the deck of the boat. The last remnants of civilization are disappearing behind you and all that separates you from your goal, the Pacific Ocean, is the wide open river… and thousands of miles of uncharted land.

There may be no maps right now, but when you return to St Louis — if you return — anyone who makes the journey after you will benefit from what you are about to accomplish. 

If you don’t return, nobody is going to come looking for you. Most Americans may never even know who you were or what you gave your life to accomplish.

This is how the voyage of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with a small group of volunteers also known as “The Corps of Discovery” began. 

They had their objective — cross North America and reach the Pacific Ocean — and a best guess on how to accomplish it — follow the Mississippi River north from New Orleans or St. Louis and then chart navigable rivers westward — but the rest was unknown. 

There was the possibility of encountering unknown diseases. Stumbling across indigenous tribes that were equally likely to be hostile or friendly. Getting lost in the expansive uncharted wilderness. Starvation. Exposure. 

Lewis and Clark planned and equipped the Corps to the best of their ability, but the only certainty was that there was no guarantee of success. 

Despite these dangers, Lewis, Clark, and the men following them pushed on. They wrote a new chapter in the history of American exploration, opening the door to westward expansion .

Table of Contents

What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

What Lewis and Clark set out to do was find and chart out a water route that could connect the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. It was commissioned by then-president, Thomas Jefferson, and was technically a military mission. Sounds simple enough.

The expedition left St. Louis in 1804 and returned in 1806, after having made contact with countless Native American tribes, documenting hundreds of plant and animal species, and mapping the way to the Pacific — although they found no water route that took them all the way there, as was their original intention.

READ MORE: Who Invented Water? History of the Water Molecule

Although the mission sounds straightforward, there were no detailed maps that could possibly help them in understanding the challenges they might face during such a task. 

There was sparse and undetailed information available regarding the enormous plains that lie ahead and no knowledge or expectation of the vast range of the Rocky Mountains even farther west. 

Imagine that — these men set out across the country before people knew that the Rockies existed. Talk about uncharted territory.

Even so, two men — Meriwether Lewis and William Clark — were chosen based on their experience and, in the case of Lewis, their personal connection to President Thomas Jefferson. They were tasked to lead a small band of men into the unknown and return to enlighten people in the already settled eastern states and territories to what possibilities lay in the West. 

Their responsibilities included not only charting out a new trade route, but also to gather as much information as they possibly could about the land, plants, animals, and indigenous peoples present. 

A tall task, to say the least.

Who Were Lewis and Clark?

Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in 1774, but at the age of five his father passed away and he moved with his family to Georgia. He spent the next several years absorbing all that he could about nature and the great outdoors, becoming a skilled hunter and extremely knowledgeable. Much of this came to an end at the age of thirteen, when he was sent back to Virginia to get a proper education.

He apparently applied himself as much to his formal education as he had to his natural upbringing, as he graduated at the age of nineteen. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in the local militia and two years later joined the official United States Army, receiving a commission as an officer.

He gained rank over the next couple of years and served, at one point, under the command of a man named William Clark. 

As fate would have it, just after leaving the army in 1801, he was asked to become the secretary of a former Virginia associate — the newly elected president, Thomas Jefferson. The two men got to know each other very well and when President Jefferson needed someone he could trust to lead an important expedition, he asked Meriwether Lewis to take command.

William Clark was four years older than Lewis, having been born in Virginia in 1770. He was raised by a rural and agricultural slave-holding family that profited from maintaining several estates. Unlike Lewis, Clark never received a formal education, but loved to read and was, for the most part, self-educated. In 1785, the Clark family relocated to a plantation in Kentucky.

In 1789, at the age of nineteen, Clark joined a local militia that was tasked with pushing back the Native American tribes that desired to maintain their ancestral homelands near the Ohio River. 

A year later, Clark left the Kentucky militia to join the Indiana militia, where he received a commission as an officer. He then left this militia to join another military organization known as the Legion of the United States, where he again received an officer’s commission. When he was twenty-six years old, he left military service to return to his family’s plantation.

That service must have been somewhat remarkable, though, as, even after having been out of the militias for seven years, he was quickly chosen by Meriwether Lewis to be second in command of the newly forming expedition into the uncharted West.

Their Commission

President Jefferson hoped to know much more about the new territory the United States had just acquired from France, during the Louisiana Purchase .

He tasked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to chart a suitable route that crossed through the lands west of the Mississippi River and ended in the Pacific Ocean, to open the area for future expansion and settlement. It would be their responsibility to not only explore this strange new land, but to map it out as accurately as they could.

If possible, they also hoped to make peaceful friendships and trading relationships with any native tribes they may encounter along the way. And there was also a scientific side to the expedition — in addition to mapping their route, the explorers were responsible for recording natural resources, as well as any plant and animal species they encountered.

This included a particular interest of the president’s, to do with his passion for paleontology — the search for creatures he still believed to exist (but were actually long extinct), such as the mastodon and giant ground sloth.

This journey was not only exploratory, however. Other nations still held interest in the undiscovered country, and borders were loosely defined and agreed upon. Having an American expedition cross the land would help to establish an official presence of the United States in the area. 

Preparations

Lewis and Clark started by establishing a special unit within the United States Army called the Corps of Discovery, and the latter was tasked with finding the best men for the almost unimaginable job ahead. 

This would not be easy to accomplish. The men chosen would have to be willing to volunteer for an expedition into an unknown land with no tangible conclusion planned in advance, understanding the hardships and potential deprivations inherent in such an operation. They would also need to know how to live off the land and handle firearms for both hunting and defense. 

These same men would also have to be the roughest, toughest type of adventurers available, but also amicable, dependable, and willing enough to take orders that most people would never be able to fulfill.

In the remote land ahead of them, loyalty was paramount. There would most certainly be unforeseen situations to arise that required quick action without time for discussion. The young democracy in the newly created United States was a wonderful institution, but the Corps was a military operation and its survival depended on it running like one.

Therefore, Clark carefully chose his men among the active and well-trained soldiers in the United States military; tried and true veterans of the Indian Wars and the American Revolution. 

And with their training and preparations as complete as they could be, with their party standing at 33 men strong, the only sure date was May 14, 1804: the start of their expedition. 

Lewis and Clarke Timeline

The full journey is covered in detail below, but here’s a brief overview of the timeline of the Lewis and Clark expedition

1803 – Wheels in Motion

January 18, 1803 – President Thomas Jefferson requests $2,500 from Congress to explore the Missouri River. Congress approves the funding on February 28th.

July 4, 1803 – The United States completes its purchase of the 820,000 square miles west of the Appalachian Mountains from France for $15,000,000. This is known as the Louisiana Purchase. August 31, 1803 – Lewis and 11 of his men paddle their newly constructed 55 foot keelboat down the Ohio River on its maiden voyage. October 14, 1803 – Lewis and his 11 men are joined in Clarksville by William Clark, his African-American slave York, and 9 men from Kentucky December 8, 1803 – Lewis and Clark setup camp for the winter in St. Louis. This allows them to recruit and train more soldiers as well as stock up on supplies

1804 – The Expedition is Underway

May 14, 1804 – Lewis and Clark depart Camp Dubois (Camp Wood) and launch their 55 foot keelboat into the Missouri River to begin their journey. Their boat is followed by two smaller pirogues laden with additional supplies and support crew. August 3, 1804 – Lewis and Clark hold their first council with Native Americans – a group of Missouri and Oto chiefs. The council is held near the present-day city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. August 20, 1804 – The first member of the party dies only three months after setting sail. Sergeant Charles Floyd suffers a burst appendix and is unable to be saved. He’s buried near present-day Sioux City, Iowa. He is the only member of the party to not survive the journey. September 25, 1804 – The Expedition encounter their first major obstacle when a band of Lakota Sioux demand one of their boats before allowing them to proceed any further. This situation is diffused with gifts of medals, military coats, hats, and tobacco. October 26, 1804 – The Expedition discovers the first large Native American village of their journey – the earth-lodge settlements of the Mandan and Hidatsas tribes. November 2, 1804 – Construction begins on Fort Mandan on a site across the Missouri River from the Native American villages November 5, 1804 – A French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea, who have been living amongst the Hidatsas, are hired as interpreters. December 24, 1804 – Construction of Fort Mandan is complete and the Corps take refuge for the winter.

1805 – Deeper into the Unknown

February 11, 1805 – The youngest member of the party is added when Sacagawea gives birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. He’s nicknamed “Pompy” by Clark. April 7, 1805 – The Corps continue the journey from Fort Mandan up the Yellowstone River and down the Marias River in 6 canoes and the 2 pirogues. June 3, 1805 – They reach the mouth of the Marias River and reach an unexpected fork. Unsure of which direction is the Missouri River, they make camp and scouting parties are sent down each branch. June 13, 1805 – Lewis and his scouting party sight the Great Falls of Missouri, confirming the correct direction to continue the expedition June 21, 1805 – Preparations are made to complete an 18.4 mile portage around the Great Falls, with the journey taking until July 2. August 13, 1805 – Lewis crosses the Continental Divide and meets Cameahwait, the leader of the Shoshone Indians and returns with him across Lemhi Pass to establish Camp Fortunate to hold negotiations

August 17, 1805 – Lewis and Clark successfully negotiate the purchase of 29 horses in return for uniforms, rifles, powder, balls, and a pistol after Sacagawea reveals that Cameahwait is her brother. They will be guided over the Rocky Mountains on these horses by a Shoshone guide named Old Toby. September 13, 1805 – The journey across the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass and Bitterroot Mountains depleted their already meager rations and, starving, the Corps were forced to eat horses and candles October 6, 1805 – Lewis and Clark meet the Nez Perce Indians and exchange their remaining horses for 5 dugout canoes to continue their journey down the Clearwater River, Snake River, and Columbia River to the ocean. November 15, 1805 – The Corps finally reach the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River and decide to camp on the south side of the Columbia River November 17, 1805 – The construction of Fort Clatsop begins and is completed December 8. This is the winter home for the Expedition.

1806 – The Voyage Home

March 22, 1806 – The Corps leave Fort Clatsop to begin their journey home

May 3, 1806 – They arrive back with the Nez Perce tribe but are unable to follow the Lolo Trial over the Bitterroot Mountains due to snow still remaining in the mountains. They establish Camp Chopunnish to wait out the snow. June 10, 1806 – The Expedition is led on 17 horses by 5 Nez Perce guides to Travellers Rest via Lolo Creek, a route that was some 300-miles shorter than their westward path . July 3, 1806 – The Expedition is split into two groups with Lewis taking his group up the Blackfoot River and Clark leading his through Three Forks (Jefferson River, The Gallatin River, and the Madison River) and up the Bitterroot River. August 12, 1806 – After exploring different river systems, the two parties reunite on the Missouri River near present-day North Dakota. August 14, 1806 – The reach Mandan Villiage and Charbonneau and Sacagawea decide to remain. September 23, 1806 – The Corps arrive back in St. Louis, completing their journey in two years, four months, and ten days.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition in Detail

The trials and tribulations of a two and a half year journey through uncharted and unexplored territory cannot be described adequately in a short point-by-point form.

Here is a comprehensive breakdown of their challenges, discoveries, and lessons:

The Journey Begins in St. Louis

With motors having yet to be invented, the boats belonging to the Corps of Discovery ran purely on man-power, and the trip upstream — against the strong torrents of the Missouri River — was slow going.

The keelboat that Lewis had designed was an impressive craft that was aided by sail, but even so, the men had to rely on paddles and the use of poles to push their way northward.

The Missouri river, even today, is known for its uncompromising currents and hidden sandbars. A few hundred years ago, traveling by small boats that were loaded down with men, enough food, equipment, and the firearms deemed necessary for the long voyage would have been difficult enough to maneuver traveling down stream; the Corps had persisted north, fighting all the way against the river. 

This task alone took a great deal of strength and perseverance. The progress was slow; it took the Corps twenty-one days to reach the last known White settlement, a very small village named La Charrette, along the Missouri River. 

Beyond this point, it was uncertain whether or not they would encounter another English-speaking person.

The men on the expedition were made aware, long before the journey began, that part of their responsibilities was going to be that of establishing relations with any Native American tribes they came across. In preparation for these inevitable encounters, packed with them were many gifts, including special coins called “Indian Peace Medals” that were minted with the likeness of President Jefferson and included a message of peace. 

And, just in case these items were not enough to impress those they met, the Corps was equipped with some unique and powerful weaponry. 

Each man was equipped with the standard issue military flintlock rifle, but they also carried with them a number of prototype “Kentucky Rifles” — a type of long-gun that fired a .54 caliber lead bullet — as well as a compressed air-fired rifle, known as the “Isaiah Lukens Air Rifle”; one of the more interesting weapons they possessed. The keelboat, on top of carrying additional pistols and sporting rifles, was also equipped with a small cannon that could fire a lethal 1.5 inch projectile. 

A lot of firepower for a peaceful mission of exploration, but defense was an important aspect to seeing their quest to fruition. Though, Lewis and Clark hoped that these weapons could primarily be used to impress the tribes they encountered, handling the weapons to avoid conflict instead of handling them for their intended purpose. 

Early Challenges

On August 20th, after months of travel, the Corps reached an area now known as Council Bluffs in Iowa. It was on this day that tragedy struck — one of their men, Sergeant Charles Floyd, was suddenly overcome and fell violently ill, dying from what is thought to be a ruptured appendix. 

But this wasn’t their first loss in manpower. Only a few days before, one of their party, Moses Reed had deserted and turned to trek back to St. Louis. And to add insult to injury, in doing so — after lying about his intentions and abandoning his men — he stole one of the company’s rifles along with some gunpowder . 

William Clark sent a man by the name of George Drouillard back to St. Louis to retrieve him, as a matter of military discipline that was recorded in their official expedition log. The order was carried out and, soon, both men returned — only days before the death of Floyd. 

As punishment, Reed was ordered to “run the gauntlet” four times. This meant passing through a double line of all other active Corps members, who were each ordered to strike him with clubs or even some small bladed weapons as he passed. 

With the number of men in the company, it is likely that Reed would have received more than 500 lashes before being officially discharged from the expedition. This may seem a harsh punishment, but during this time, the typical punishment for Reed’s actions would have been death.

Although the incidents of Reed’s desertion and Floyd’s death occurred within only days of each other, the real troubles had yet to begin. 

For the next month, each new day brought with it exciting discoveries of unrecorded plant and animal species, but as the end of September drew near, instead of encountering new flora and fauna, the expedition encountered a inhospitable tribe of the Sioux Nation — the Lakota — who demanded to keep one of the Corps’ boats as payment to continue their journey up the river. 

The following month, in October, the party suffered another loss and was once again reduced in number as member Private John Newman was tried for insubordination and subsequently relieved of his duty. 

He must have had an interesting time, during his journey alone back to civilization.

The First Winter

By the end of October, the expedition was well aware that winter was fast approaching and that they would need to establish quarters to wait out the harsh, freezing temperatures. They encountered the Mandan tribe near present-day Bismark, North Dakota, and marvelled at their earthen-log structures. 

Received in peace, the Corps was allowed to make winter quarters across the river from the village, and build their own structures. They dubbed the encampment “Fort Mandan” and spent the next few months exploring and learning about the surrounding area from their newfound allies 

Perhaps the presence of an English speaking man named Rene Jessaume, who had been living with the Mandan people for many years and could serve as an interpreter, made the experience of living next to the tribe easier.

It was during this time that they also encountered another friendly group of Native Americans, known as the Hidatsa. Within this tribe was a Frenchman named Toussaint Charbonneau — and he wasn’t a solitary man. He lived with his two wives, who came from the Shoshone Nation. 

Women by the names of Sacagawea and Little Otter.

Spring, 1805

The spring thaw arrived in April and the Corps of Discovery once again ventured off, heading towards the Yellowstone River. But the number of the company had grown — Toussaint and Sacagawea, who had just given birth to a baby boy only two months earlier, joined the mission. 

Eager to have local guides as well as someone to help communicate so as to build friendly relations with any Native American tribes they encountered, Lewis and Clarke were likely very happy with the additions to their party.

Having survived nearly a year — and the first winter — into their journey, the men of the expedition were confident in their abilities to survive their exploration of the frontier. But as is probable to happen after extended periods of success, the Corps of Discovery perhaps happened to be a little too confident.

A sudden and strong storm blew up as they traveled along the Yellowstone River, and the expedition — rather than seek shelter — chose to continue moving forward, confident they had the skills to navigate the bad weather.

This decision was nearly catastrophic. A sudden wave dumped one of their canoes over, and many of their valuable and irreplaceable supplies, including all of the Corps’ journals, found themselves sinking with the boat. 

Whatever happened next isn’t recorded in detail, but somehow the boat and supplies were recovered. In his personal journal, William Clark gave credit to Sacagawea for quickly rescuing the items from being lost.

This close call may be partially responsible for the precautions the Corps later took throughout the rest of their journey; showing that the real threat they had been facing was their own overconfidence. 

The men began storing a few morsels of essential supplies, hidden in various places along their route, as they entered more difficult and perhaps more treacherous terrain. They hoped this would help to provide some measure of safety and security on their journey home, equipping them with any supplies necessary for their survival.

After the dramatic events of the storm, they continued. It was slow going, and as they approached the heavier rapids along the mountain rivers, they decided it was time to try and assemble one of their pre-planned projects — that of an iron boat. 

As if the journey wasn’t already challenging to begin with, the entire voyage, they had been carrying with them an assortment of heavy sections of iron, and now was the time to put them to use. 

These cumbersome parts were designed to build a rigid boat that could endure the danger of the raging rapids the Corps were soon to encounter. 

And it probably would have been a great solution, had it worked. 

Unfortunately, everything didn’t quite fit together as it was designed to. After nearly two weeks of work to assemble the craft, and after only a single day of use, it was determined that the iron boat was a leaking mess and not safe for the journey, before it was then disassembled and buried.

Making Friends

As the old saying goes, “It’s better to be lucky than good.” 

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, despite its crew possessing a large combined knowledge base and skillset, was in need of some good fortune. 

They struck upon just that when they arrived in the territory of the Shoshone Indian Tribe. Traveling through a wilderness as vast as the one they found themselves in, the chances of encountering other people were rather low to begin with, but there, in the middle of nowhere, they stumbled across none other than Sacagawea’s brother. 

The fact that Sacagawea had joined their number only to encounter her own brother on the frontier seems an act of tremendous fortune, but it may not have been only luck — where the village was located was along a river (a reasonable place to settle), and it’s likely that Sacagewea led them there on purpose.

Regardless of how it came to be, meeting the tribe and being able to establish peaceful friendship with them was a great relief from the series of unfortunate events that the Corps of Discovery had endured. 

The Shoshone were wonderful horsemen, and, seeing an opportunity, Lewis and Clark reached an agreement with them to trade some of their supplies for a number of their horses. These animals, the expedition thought, would make their journey forward much more amenable.

Ahead of them lay the Rocky Mountains, a terrain the party had very little knowledge of, and if not for meeting the Shoshone, the outcome of their journey across them may have ended very differently. 

Summer, 1805

The further the Corps journeyed west, the more the land sloped upward, bringing with it cooler temperatures. 

Neither Meriwether Lewis nor William Clark expected the Rocky mountain range to be as vast or as challenging to pass as it had revealed itself to be. And their trek was about to become an even more difficult struggle — between man, terrain, and unpredictable weather.

Treacherous to traverse through, with loose rock and dangerous storms that arrive with little notice; no sources of heat, and game for hunting becoming very scarce above the tree-line, mountains have been a source of wonder and fear to people for thousands of years. 

For Lewis and Clark, with no maps as a guide — tasked with being the first to create them — they had no idea how steep and dangerous the land ahead of them would be, or if they were walking into a dead end marked by surrounding insurmountable cliffs.

Had they been forced to try and make this crossing on foot, the expedition may have been lost to history. But, thanks to the agreeable nature of the Shoshone people and their willingness to trade away several valuable horses, the Corps stood at least a slightly better chance of surviving the harsh geography and weather that lay ahead.

Plus, besides being beasts of burden, the horses served the expedition well in a land of little sustenance as a source of emergency nourishment for a starving group of explorers. Wild game and other foods were relatively scarce in the higher altitudes. Without those horses, the bones of the Corps of Discovery could have ended up hidden and buried out in the wilderness. 

But that legacy was not what was left behind, and it is most likely due to the graciousness of the Shoshone Tribe.

The sheer amount of relief felt by each member of the expedition can be imagined as they witnessed — after weeks of exhausting travel — the mountain terrain open up into not only the majestic vistas from the western side of the Rockies, but also the view of a downward slope winding into forests below. 

The return of that tree-line offered hope, as once again there would be wood for warmth and cooking, and game to hunt and eat. 

With months of hardship and deprivation behind them, the comparably hospitable landscape of their descent was welcomed.

As October of 1805 rolled around and the party descended the western slope of the Bitterroot Mountains (near the borders of present-day Oregon and Washington state), they met with members of the Nez Perce tribe. The remaining horses were traded to over, and canoes were carved from the large trees that marked the landscape. 

This put the expedition back on the water again, and with the current now flowing in the direction they were traveling, the going was much easier. Over the next three weeks, the expedition navigated the fast-flowing waters of the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia Rivers. 

It was during the first week of November that their eyes finally took in the rolling blue waves of the Pacific Ocean.

The joy that filled their hearts at finally seeing the coastline for the very first time, after fighting tooth and nail against the elements for more than a year, is unimaginable. To have spent so long away from civilization, the sight had to bring many emotions to the surface. 

The victory of reaching the ocean was tempered a bit by the reality that they had only reached the half-way point; they still had to turn around and make the return journey. The mountains loomed, just as they had a few weeks before.

Wintering Along the Pacific Coast

Now armed with the experience and knowledge of the area they would be returning through, the Corps of Discovery made the wise decision to spend the winter next to the Pacific, rather than head back into the Rocky Mountains ill-prepared. 

They established a camp at the junction of the Columbia River and the ocean, and, during this short stay, the company set about preparations for the return trip — hunting for food saves and much needed clothing materials. 

In fact, during their winter stay, the Corps spent time crafting up to 338 pairs of mocassins — a type of soft leather shoe. Footwear was of the utmost importance, especially in the face of crossing the snowy mountain terrain once again.

The Journey Home

The company departed for home in March of 1806, acquiring a suitable number of horses from the Nez Perce tribe and setting out, back over the mountains. 

The months passed, and, in July, the group decided to take a different approach on their return trip by splitting into two groups. Why they did this isn’t totally clear, but it’s probable that they wanted to take advantage of their still strong numbers, covering more area by splitting up.

Navigation and survival was a strength among these men; the entire Corps met back up in August. Not only were they able to rejoin ranks, they were also able to locate what was left of the supplies they had buried a year earlier, including their failed iron boat. 

They arrived back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806 — minus Sacagawea, who chose to remain behind when they reached the Mandan village she had left a year earlier. 

Their experiences included creating and maintaining peaceful relationships with around twenty-four individual Native American tribes, documenting the numerous plant and animal life they encountered, and recording a route from the eastern coast of the United States all the way to the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away. 

It would be Lewis and Clark’s detailed maps that paved the way for generations of explorers to come; those that eventually settled and “conquered” the West.

The Expedition That May Have Never Been

Remember that little word “luck” that seemed to travel alongside the Corps of Discovery? 

It turns out that, at the time of the expedition, the Spanish had become well established in the New Mexico Territory and they were not very pleased with the idea of this journey to the Pacific Ocean through disputed territories. 

Determined to make sure it never happened, they sent out several large armed parties with the goal of capturing and imprisoning the entire Corps of Discovery. 

But these military detachments apparently were not held by the same fortune as their American counterparts -— they never managed to come in contact with the explorers.

There were also other, actual encounters along the expedition’s travels that could have ended far differently and potentially changed the outcome of their entire mission. 

Reports from trappers and others familiar with the land — before the journey — informed Lewis and Clark of several tribes that potentially posed a threat to the expedition, should they come across them.

One of these tribes — the Blackfoot — they did happen to stumble across in July, 1806. A successful trade was said to have been negotiated between them, but the next morning, a small group of Blackfoots attempted to steal the expedition’s horses. One of them turned towards William Clark aiming an old musket, but Clark managed to fire first, and shoot the man in the chest. 

The rest of the Blackfoot fled and the party’s horses were retrieved. When it was over, the man who had been shot lay dead, as well as another who was stabbed during the altercation. 

Understanding the danger they were in, the Corps quickly packed up their camp, leaving the area before any more violence erupted.

Another tribe, the Assiniboine, held a certain reputation for being hostile towards intruders. The expedition encountered many signs that the Assiniboine warriors were close, and went to great lengths to avoid any contact with them. At times, they would alter their course or halt the entire journey, sending out scouts to ensure their safety before continuing.

The Costs and the Rewards

In the end, the total cost of the expedition totalled about $38,000 (the equivalent of nearly a million US dollars, today). A fair sum in the opening years of the 1800’s, but probably nowhere near what such an undertaking would cost if this expedition were to take place in the 21st century.

In recognition of their accomplishments over the two and a half year long journey, and as a reward for their success, both Lewis and Clark were awarded 1,600 acres of land. The rest of the Corps received 320 acres each, and double pay for their efforts.

Why Did the Lewis and Clark Expedition Happen?

Early European settlers in America had spent much of the 17th and 18th centuries exploring the east coast from Maine to Florida. They established cities and states, but the more they moved westward, closer to the Appalachian Mountains, the fewer the settlements and the fewer the number of people there were. 

The land west of this mountain range was, at the turn of the 19th century, the wild frontier.

The borders of many states may have extended as far west as the Mississippi River, but the population centers of the United States all trended towards the comfort and safety afforded by the Atlantic Ocean and its coastline. Here, there were ports frequented by ships that brought all manner of goods, materials, and news from the “civilized” European continent.

Some people were content with the land as they knew it, but there were others who had great ideas for what may lay beyond those mountains. And because there was so much unknown about the West, secondhand stories and outright rumors provided average Americans the opportunity to dream of a time when they could own their own land and experience true freedom. 

The tales also inspired visionaries and wealth-seekers with plenty of resources to seek out a much greater future. Thoughts of overland and waterway trading routes that could reach the Pacific Ocean occupied the minds of many. 

One such person was the third, and newly elected, President of the United States — Thomas Jefferson.

The Louisiana Purchase

At the time of Jefferson’s election, France was in the middle of a great war that was being led by a man by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. On the American continent, Spain had traditionally controlled the area west of the Mississippi River that later became known as the “Louisiana Territory.” 

After some negotiations with Spain, in part brought on by protests in the West — most notably the Whiskey Rebellion — the US managed to gain access to the Mississippi River and the lands to the west. This allowed goods to flow into and out of its far and remote borders, increasing trade opportunities and the ability for the US to expand.

However, soon after Jefferson’s election in 1800, word arrived in Washington D.C. that France had gained the official claim from Spain to this vast region due to its military successes in Europe. This acquisition by France brought a sudden and unexpected end to the friendly trade agreement between the United States and Spain. 

Many businesses and traders already engaged in utilizing the Mississippi River for their livelihood began urging the country towards a war, or at the very least armed confrontations, with France to gain control of the territory. As far as these people were concerned, the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans must remain in the operational interest of the United States.

However, President Thomas Jefferson had no desire to go up against the well-supplied and expertly-trained French army. It was imperative to find a solution to this growing problem without becoming entangled in another bloody war, especially against the French, who had, only a few years prior, helped the United States gain victory over England during the American Revolution.

Jefferson also knew that France’s protracted war had exacted quite a toll on the country’s finances; Napoleon diverting a large portion of his fighting force to defend the newly-acquired North American territory might have likely appeared to be a tactical disadvantage. 

All of this equated to an excellent opportunity for resolving this crisis diplomatically, and in a way that would favor both sides.

So, the president set his ambassadors into action to find some way of finding a peaceful solution to this potential conflict, and what followed was a rapid series of brilliant diplomatic decision making and immaculate timing. 

Thomas Jefferson went into the process having authorized his ambassadors to offer up to $10,000,000 for the purchase of the territory. He had no idea if such an offer would find amicable reception in France, but he was willing to try. 

In the end, Napoleon was surprisingly receptive to the offer, but he too was highly skilled at the art of negotiation to take it without some discourse on his end. Seizing upon the opportunity to rid himself of the distraction of a divided fighting force — as well as to get some much needed financing for his war — Napoleon settled on the final figure of $15,000,000. 

The ambassadors agreed to the deal and, suddenly, the United States had doubled in size without a single shot being fired in anger. 

It was soon after acquiring the territory that Jefferson commissioned an expedition to explore and map it, so that it could one day be organized and settled — which we now know as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

How Did the Lewis and Clark Expedition Impact History?

The initial and lasting impacts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition are probably much more debated today than they were in the first few decades after the expedition arrived safely home. 

Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny

For the United States, this expedition proved that such a journey was possible and ushered in a time of westward expansion, fueled by the idea of Manifest Destiny — the collective belief that it was the inevitable future of the United States to extend from “sea to shining sea,” or from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This movement inspired a great number of people to flock to the West. 

These newcomers to the land were spurred on by reports of a great bounty to be had in both lumber and trapping. Money was to be made in the vast new territory and both companies and individuals alike set out to make their fortunes.

The great era of westward growth and expansion was a great economic boon to the United States of America. It seemed the abundant resources of the West were nearly inexhaustible

However, all of this new territory forced Americans to confront a key issue in its history: slavery. Specifically, they would have to decide if the territories added to the United States would permit human bondage or not, and the debates over this issue, fueled also by territorial gains from the Mexican-American War, dominated 19th century Antebellum America and culminated in the American Civil War.

But at the time, the success of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition helped to encourage the establishment of numerous trail and fort systems. These “ highways to the frontier” brought an ever-increasing number of settlers westward, and this undoubtedly had a profound impact on economic growth in the United States, helping turn it into the nation it is today. 

Displaced Natives

As the United States expanded throughout the 19th century, the Native Americans who called the lands home were displaced and this resulted in a profound change in the demographics of the North American continent. 

Natives who weren’t killed by disease, or in wars waged by the expanding United States, were corralled and forced into reservations — where the land was poor and economic opportunities were few. 

And this was after they had been promised opportunities in the US country, and after the United States Supreme Court had ruled that the removal of Native Americans was illegal. 

This ruling — Worcester vs. Jackson (1830) — occurred during Andrew Jackson’s presidency (1828–1836), but the American leader, who is often revered as one of the nation’s most important and influential presidents, defied this decision made by the nation’s highest court and forced Native Americans off their land anyway.

This led to one of the greatest tragedies in American history — “The Trail of Tears” — in which hundreds of thousands of Native Americans died while being forced from their lands in Georgia and onto reservations in what is now Oklahoma.

Today, very few Native Americans remain, and those that do are either culturally repressed or suffering from the many challenges that come from life on a reservation; mainly that of poverty and substance abuse. Even as recently as 2016/2017, the US government was still unwilling to recognize Native American rights, ignoring their arguments and claims made against the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline . 

The way in which the United States government has treated Native Americans remains one of the great stains on the country’s story, on par with that of slavery, and this tragic history began when first contact was made with the native tribes of the West — both during and after the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Environmental Degradation

The collective view of the land acquired from the Louisiana Purchase as a well-spring of material and income generation was taken advantage of by many people with very closed minds. Little thought was given to any possible long-term impacts — such as the destruction of Native American tribes, soil degradation, and the depletion of wildlife — that sudden and rapid westward expansion would bring about.

And as the West grew, larger and more remote areas became safer for commercial exploration; mining and lumber companies entered the frontier, leaving behind a legacy of environmental destruction. With each passing year, old growth forests were completely erased from the hills and mountain sides. This devastation was coupled with careless blast and strip mining that resulted in massive erosion, water pollution, and habitat loss for local wildlife.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition in Context

Today, we can look backwards in time and think about the many events that took place after the US acquired the land from France and after Lewis and Clark explored it. We can wonder how things may be different, if more strategic and long-term planning had been considered.

It is easy to look at the American settlers as nothing more than greedy, racist, uncaring foes to both the land and the native people. But while it is true that there was no shortage of this as the West grew, it is also true that there were many honest, hard working individuals and families who just wanted an opportunity to support themselves. 

There were many settlers who traded openly and honestly with their indigenous neighbors; a number of those indigenous people saw value in the lives of these newcomers and so tried to learn from them. 

The story, as usual, is not as cut and dry as we might like.

History is in no way short of stories from around the globe of expanding populations overcoming the lives and traditions of the people they encountered as they grew. The expansion of the United States from the East coast to the West is another example of this phenomenon.  

The impacts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition can still be seen and felt today in the lives of millions of Americans, as well as in Native tribes that managed to survive the turbulent history their ancestors experienced after the Corps of Discovery paved the way for settlers. These challenges will continue to write upon the legacy of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, the entire expedition, and President Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a greater America.

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Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities (9) (For Kids series) Paperback – June 1, 2000

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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., lewis and clark for kids, their journey of discovery with 21 activities, chicago review press incorporated.

Their Place in Time

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were born before the United States was a nation. In the year of Clark's birth, British troops fired into a crowd in Boston. Around the time of Lewis's birth, the colonists rebelled with the Boston Tea Party and Daniel Boone blazed a trail from the east to the far-off land of Kentucky.

1774 Heriweiher Lewis is born

When Thomas Jefferson became president, he wrote to a trusted young friend and asked him to be his personal secretary. Meriwether Lewis was honored by the request.

Lewis was born in 1774, at a place very close to Jefferson's family home in Albemarle County, Virginia. Like President Jefferson, he was a planter's son. When Meriwether was just a young boy, his father, Lieutenant William Lewis, fought with George Washington against the British in the Revolutionary War. Meriwether rarely saw his father, so it must have been a special time when Lieutenant Lewis came home to visit in the fall of 1779. Sadly, when Meriwether's father left to rejoin the army, his horse fell while crossing a flooded and raging river. Lieutenant Lewis swam ashore and made his way back to his family's home, wet and bitterly cold. He developed pneumonia and died. Meriwether's mother remarried, and her new husband moved the family to Georgia, where they made a home in the wild, wooded country.

From a very early age, it seemed as if Meriwether Lewis was destined to become a great explorer. He was curious and fearless, and he loved to roam. Barefoot, with his eager dogs at his side, he tramped through the woods surrounding his family's Georgia home. The land was rich with wildlife, and on their walks the light-haired, blue-eyed boy and his dogs surprised deer and birds, and even an occasional black bear. By age eight, Lewis was skilled at fishing and hunting. Late at night he roused his dogs and went hunting for opossum and raccoon. When Lewis was nine, he was already so brave and confident that when he was charged by a crazed bull he held his ground, raised his gun, and shot the animal.

Lewis's mother, Lucy, taught him about the wild plants and trees surrounding their home. Lucy knew everything about how plants could be used as medicine, and she taught her young son how to recognize the plants and use them to treat illnesses. From her, Lewis also inherited a love for learning. Lucy's books were the most precious objects in their home.

Though he loved tramping around the woods of Georgia, Lewis wanted an education. As the oldest boy in his family, he knew it would someday be his responsibility to take over his father's plantation. He also had a natural curiosity about the world and was eager to learn. Because there were no public schools at that time, Lewis set out to find a tutor. At age 13, he returned alone to Virginia and lived with a teacher.

Lewis poured himself into his studies. He learned grammar, "figurs" (math), geography, botany, and history. He read great books, poems, and plays. More than anything, Lewis loved to read the journals of Captain James Cook, a British navigator who explored the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.

When he had time, Lewis stretched his long legs on hikes to the mountains of Virginia or to his mother's home in Georgia. He grew into a tall, handsome young man. Moody and somewhat shy, he felt more comfortable alone in the wild.

Lewis wanted to see the world and wanted to continue his education, but after five years of schooling he received a letter from his mother asking for his help. Her husband had died and she wanted to come back to Virginia. At age 18, Lewis moved his mother, brothers, and sisters back to his family's home in Virginia and became the head of their 2,000-acre plantation.

Lewis worked hard at managing the estate. He saw that the crops were planted and harvested, directed all the daily tasks, and planned for his family's future. His days were full, but the life of a plantation owner was not for him. Lewis was restless. Whenever he had time, he rode his horse far and wide or tramped on foot all over the countryside.

When Lewis turned 20, word spread throughout the country of a rebellion in the west. President Washington called for a militia (volunteer soldiers) to bring an end to the Whiskey Rebellion, and Lewis couldn't resist the urge to join up.

The long march over the Allegheny Mountains, from his Virginia home to western Pennsylvania, and the nights camping under stars agreed with Lewis. When the Whiskey Rebellion ended, he signed up for the regular army. "I am quite delighted with a soldier's life," he wrote his mother. He served as ensign under General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, who had gotten his name because of his reckless bravery during the Revolutionary War. (Wayne had led his soldiers against an alliance of Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the territory of Ohio. The treaty signed after that battle opened the land for settlers from the United States.)

Lewis became army paymaster. He traveled up and down the Ohio River on a large, flat-bottomed boat (called a keelboat), visiting different forts. For a time, he was assigned to the Chosen Rifle Company, an elite company of sharpshooters. The tall, red-headed captain of that company became a good friend of his. The captain's name was William Clark.

The two men had much in common. Clark was born in 1770 only a few miles away from Lewis's family home. Clark's father was a planter also. Lewis and Clark easily could have been childhood playmates. But while Lewis was shy and sometimes gloomy, Clark was friendly and outgoing.

Clark was the ninth of 10 children. When the Revolutionary War began, six-year-old Clark watched as his five older brothers rode off to fight the British. His oldest brother never came home again; he died as a British prisoner. Another brother, George Rogers, was a great hero of the war and close friend of Jefferson. His actions in battle secured the land that would someday become the states of Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Young William Clark must have been tremendously proud of his heroic brothers.

When Clark was 15 years old, his family settled in the frontier land of Kentucky. The family built a log house, and Clark's father carved a plantation out of the wilderness. There were no towns, no schools, and very few neighbors in the new land. Clark wasn't able to get any formal education. He learned to read and write at home, and his brothers took the time to teach him about history, philosophy, and science. Clark, like Lewis, spent long hours tramping through the woods, hunting, and fishing. Out in Kentucky, in addition to being wary of bears and other wild animals, young Clark had to stay on the alert for Indians. The Indians who had lived here for so long were threatened by the new settlers and waged war against them. One of Clark's brothers was killed when Indians attacked the new settlement.

When Clark was 19, he followed in his brothers' footsteps and joined the military. He rose to captain, serving under Mad Anthony Wayne. When Lewis joined Clark's company, they quickly became friends. The two men saw in each other a trustworthy and honest companion. Lewis served in Clark's company for six months.

In 1796 the Indian wars in Ohio ended and Clark retired from the army. He was 26 years old and anxious to start a new life. He had learned a lot about the Native American people while he served in the army, and had great respect for Indian ways. He also had a passion for the wilderness. He wanted a life of adventure. He made a plan to travel up to the northern reaches of the Mississippi River and establish trade with the Indian tribes there.

Clark's plans were thwarted when he reached home. His brother, George Rogers, had fallen on difficult times, and Clark set aside his own dreams to help his brother get back on his feet. A few years later, their father died and Clark inherited a great deal of land in Kentucky. Instead of being free to pursue a life of adventure, he was tied to a large Kentucky plantation.

Lewis, in the meantime, remained in the army. He enjoyed traveling as army paymaster. In December 1800, he was promoted to captain. Then two months later he received the letter that would change his life forever.

1801 Lewis becomes President Jefferson's secretary

Jefferson was about to be inaugurated as president of the United States. He needed an assistant, someone trustworthy and intelligent. Lewis fit the bill. His military experience and contacts would be of great help to the president. Jefferson wrote to Lewis and asked him to join him "as one of my family," to live at his house and help him with all the duties he would take on as president of the country. Lewis replied that he would "with pleasure accept the office." He took leave from the army and set out immediately for the capital in Washington.

For the next two years, Lewis lived and worked in the president's house. He was the president's right-hand man, helping him with all the duties of running the government. He even delivered President Jefferson's State of the Union address to Congress. (The president hated giving speeches!)

For years President Jefferson had thought about the lands to the west of the Mississippi River. Many countries were trying to lay claim to them. Spain, France, England, and Russia had all raised flags on some portion of North America. President Jefferson dreamed of a United States that would reach across the continent and hoped to stop these other countries from colonizing the western lands. The first step toward his dream would be to explore the length and breadth of the land. Even before the Louisiana Purchase, he wanted to send an expeditionary force to the west to find out about these unknown lands and report back on their discoveries. He hoped such an expedition would find a water route to the Pacific Ocean that would prove useful as a future trade route. Also, President Jefferson had a scientist's curiosity. What was out there in the western lands? What undiscovered peoples, animals, and plants? He thought about it constantly.

1802 President Jefferson asks Lewis to command an expedition to the west

In 1802 President Jefferson offered a challenge to his young assistant. Would Lewis lead an expedition through the unknown lands of the west? Lewis was the perfect choice. He was a skilled outdoors-man, brave and clear-headed. He had great strength of character, intelligence, and curiosity. Jefferson was confident that Lewis, now 28 years old, had all the qualities required for such a great challenge and would prove to be an outstanding leader for the expedition.

It was decided. Lewis would lead a corps of men up the length of the Missouri River, scaling any mountains along their path, which would end at the continent's edge. On the way, he would study and make notes of the climate, animal and plant life, and the presence of minerals. He would collect specimens of plants and animals for President Jefferson. He would meet with the Indian tribes who lived along the route, study their customs and languages, and speak with them about the new U.S. government in the east. He would map the vast area the expedition would cover, from the mouth of the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.

There were so many things President Jefferson and Lewis did not know about what lay ahead for the expedition. One thing they did know was that the expedition would have to travel a very great distance to reach the Pacific Ocean. In 1792 Boston seafarer Captain Robert Gray had rounded the Americas in his ship, the Columbia, and traveled far up the western coast of North America. He had reached a great river, which he named after his ship, and had calculated the river's location. By using special instruments and calculating the position of the sun and stars, Gray had pinpointed his position at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Ocean. With these measurements, President Jefferson and Lewis had a rough idea of the width of the North American continent — 3,000 miles. Jefferson thought that the expedition would be able to travel by boat up the great Missouri River, make a short crossing overland to the Columbia River, then travel down the Columbia to the ocean.

It took Lewis a very long time to prepare for the journey. He had a lot of decisions to make. How many men should he take? The company should be large enough to accomplish its many tasks but not so large that it would look like a war party to the Native Americans they would meet. What supplies should he bring? He needed to feed and clothe the group for an undetermined (but definitely long) period of time. What kind of boat would they need? Lewis ordered a special keelboat constructed for the journey.

1803 Lewis invites Clark to join him in command of the expedition

Lewis's hands were full and his mind was bursting. There were so many tasks involved with getting ready for the expedition, to say nothing of the many things he would have to accomplish once it was underway. As he thought of the journey ahead, he came to the conclusion that it would require more than one commander. Lewis wanted a strong leader to help him command a corps of men through the vast west. This person would need to be a skilled woodsman who could help with the many challenges they would face in the wilderness, an equal partner who could take over all the tasks should something happen to Lewis. In June 1803, Lewis wrote a letter to the man he knew would fit the bill perfectly: his one-time commander, William Clark.

In his letter, Lewis described the nature of the expedition and the path it would take — down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Mississippi River, then up the Missouri River to its source. From there, Clark read, the expedition would travel by land to find the Columbia River, where it would once again take to the water, following the river all the way to the Pacific ocean. It was the grandest, most exciting adventure Clark had ever heard of. He was thrilled when, at the end of the letter, Lewis asked him to join him in "its dangers and its honors." "There is no man on earth with whom I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself," said Lewis. Clark replied immediately. "This is an undertaking fraught with many difficulties," he said. "But my Friend I do assure you that no man lives with whome I would perfur to undertake Such a Trip. I join you with hand and Heart." One of the most famous partnerships in history was formed. Lewis and Clark would serve as captains of the expedition to the west.

Lewis left Washington for Pittsburgh after receiving President Jefferson's instructions. Besides the main object of the expedition, to find a route to the Pacific Ocean, the explorers were instructed to measure latitude and longitude along the way and to draw maps of the country. They were to learn about the Indian tribes along the route, studying their languages, customs, and hunting practices. If any chiefs should wish to visit Washington, Lewis and Clark should arrange for them to come to the east. The captains were told to take careful notes of the climate and plant and animal life of the country they passed through.

Lewis spent long weeks in Pittsburgh waiting for his special boat to be finished. He grew more anxious every day to begin the journey. He hired several men who would help him take the boat down the Ohio River on the first leg of its journey. While he waited, he heard from Clark, who was waiting for him in the town of Clarksville, in Indiana Territory. Clark had been swamped with applications from young men who wanted to join them on their great adventure. He thought some were excellent young woodsmen. Lewis added a member to the expedition, too — a large, black Newfoundland dog he named Seaman.

After a long delay, the keelboat for the expedition was completed. Lewis had designed it, and it was named the Discovery. It was 55 feet long and 8 feet wide at its middle, tapering to 4 feet wide at the ends. It had a tall mast, and center poles that held up an awning. Eleven benches were made to seat 22 men at their oars. Its flat bottom would help it navigate shallow rivers. A cannon pointed out from the bow (the forward part of the boat), and a cabin was at the stern (the rear of the boat). Lewis also purchased another, smaller, boat, which was called a pirogue. (Pirogue is a French word for a flat-bottomed canoe made from a hollowed-out log.) And because Lewis knew that at some point in the journey they would have to leave the river and the keel-boat behind, he had another special item built — a collapsible boat. It was a special lightweight iron frame that men could easily carry overland. Then when they got to water again, they could cover the frame with animal hides and turn it into a boat.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicago Review Press; First Edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1556523742
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1556523748
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 6 - 12 years, from customers
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 6
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 0.33 x 8.5 inches
• #422 in Children's Exploration Books
• #444 in Children's American History of 1800s
• #21,689 in Children's Activity Books (Books)

About the author

Janis herbert.

I love history! And I hope my books will inspire kids to feel the same way. Find out more about me and my award-winning books at www.janisherbertforkids.com.

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How to Begin Your Self-Discovery Journey: 16 Best Questions

As part of this process, we must not only search to determine what constitutes our true selves, but let go of objects of identification we’ve long mistaken for ourselves, requiring a balance of introspection and new experiences.

So let’s set sail.

In this article, we’ll give you a range of powerful questions to help you along your journey of self-discovery and point you toward further reading and resources.

Before you continue, you might like to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free . These creative, science-based exercises will help you learn more about your values, motivations, and goals and will give you the tools to inspire a sense of meaning in the lives of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is self-discovery according to psychology, fostering self-discovery skills: 10 examples & tips, why is the process important, a look at self-discovery coaching, 3 exercises, games, and activities for adults, best worksheets and journal prompts, 16 questions to ask yourself or your clients, helpful books & apps for your journey, tools from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Drawing often from the field of philosophy , psychologists point to the illumination of our daimon (or ‘true self’) as the ultimate goal of self-discovery.

Formally defined, this true self is

“the central inner force common to all human beings and yet unique to each, which is the deep source of growth… [that is] free, healthy development in accordance with the potentials of one’s generic and individual nature.”

Horney, 1950, p. 17

As part of the process of searching for our true selves, we are ultimately working to identify three things (Waterman, 2011):

• Personal potentials
• Our purposes for living
• Opportunities to act upon those potentials and purposes in living

The search for our true selves, therefore:

“refers to those processes, both intuitive and reasoned, by which those [personal, purpose-related] potentials are discovered and come to attain the status of personally concordant goals that are to be actualized.”

Waterman, 2011, p. 360

According to this view, a person’s true self essentially lies beneath the surface, and our task is to find, recognize, or understand that which already exists. Once you have, you can then make choices about your life and identity that are more consistent with this self-knowledge (Waterman, 2011).

Seek a supportive atmosphere

The more time we spend in the presence of supportive family, friends, lovers, and communities , the sooner we will be likely to discover our true nature. This is because warm and encouraging atmospheres facilitate feelings of inner security while providing the freedom to have our own feelings and thoughts (Horney, 1950).

To this end, here are some ideas to consider:

• Seek quiet spaces and time out to facilitate reflection or journaling .
• Join a social group whose interests and passions align with your own, such as a painting, writing, or poetry group.
• Find a coach or therapist for a safe space to pursue self-discovery.
• Set boundaries with people who discourage your individuality, negatively affect your emotions, or put you down.
• Seek the company of people who inspire you, make you feel positive, and challenge your perception of yourself.

Identify your drifts

Pay close attention to the things you naturally love doing, or drifts, particularly those that are personally expressive . By paying attention to the subconscious pull of these activities, you can allow them to guide you toward your true self, stemming from your genetic makeup, upbringing, and experiences (Pagedar, 2021).

• Our drifts tend to emerge when the mind is still, so try selecting a quiet day to do some meditation or practice some relaxation techniques.
• Try to notice activities that cause you to slip into the state of flow , as these often point us toward our drifts.
• Consider which activities you possess a natural aptitude or talent for, perhaps using a strengths-finding exercise .
• Think about which activities you find intrinsically motivating . These are the activities you would undertake in the absence of external rewards, such as money or the approval of others.
• Notice times when you feel a strong sense of personal responsibility to do something or have a unique vision about how something should be carried out.

Download 3 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find meaning in life help and pursue directions that are in alignment with values.

Download 3 Free Meaning Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

To understand why self-discovery is so important, we must consider the consequences of failing to identify our true selves.

According to Horney (1950), when a person experiences a large discrepancy between their lived and real selves, they are likely to experience a sense of alienation from themselves. This remains true even if the person is successful in their activities and receives external rewards.

Such a person may often notice themselves wondering, “ Why am I doing this when it’s not who I really am? ” The consequence is a feeling of guilt or dissatisfaction if we fail to live up to an idealized version of ourselves that we cannot be.

Besides this negative emotional toll, the problem with pursuing such an ideal is that it will be rooted in externally derived standards of worth.

To illustrate, here are some examples:

• A student feels pressure from their parents to pursue a prestigious career in law, even though this line of work does not inspire them.
• A famous musician has mistaken their true self with their like of the status, prestige, and social validation they receive while performing.
• A woman’s family talks her into finding a husband and settling down when she’d rather travel the world with her friends.
• A son feels obligated to take over the family business when he’d prefer to start his own venture.

When we cannot live in alignment with our true selves, we must spend energy attempting to deny and distort our experiences to make sense of a pervasive lack of happiness and personal fulfillment. This ongoing effort can go so far as to produce psychological states and conditions such as depression (Waterman et al., 2010).

This is why self-discovery is so important.

Our goal in life should not be to pursue imagined or externally derived ideals, but rather to develop a more realistic understanding of our strengths and limitations. By doing so, we can avoid negative psychological states and self-actualize , feel contentment, and make better contributions to the world.

A growing trend in coaching, self-discovery coaching is about looking beyond specific goal pursuits (e.g., “I want to improve my self-esteem ”) to discover how we can live authentically and be truly happy .

Self-discovery coaching has many components, including (Elevate Life Project, n.d.):

• Exploring your values to live in congruence with what’s most important to you
• Discovering grounded confidence, centeredness, and strength
• Identifying your abilities for making easier decisions

The role of a self-discovery coach in this process is to act as co-pilot on a client’s journey toward authentic fulfillment by challenging them, imbuing them with courage, and showing compassion.

If you or your clients are looking to set off on a self-discovery journey, consider the following fun and insightful activities to get you started.

This exercise is a useful starting point for viewing yourself clearly in terms of values, beliefs, and more. The exercise guides users through a two-step process of considering themselves from the perspective of others, followed by a consideration of their self-perceptions at different times in their life.

Spontaneous collage

Collage is a fun and cathartic method of self-discovery that helps people bypass the socially protective aspects of the mind and reveal aspects of their authentic self. Best of all, no previous art experience is required.

For a great resource, check out Shelley Klammer’s 12-week online course and check out the #collageforselfdiscovery hashtag on Instagram to get inspired by others’ collages.

Kokology: The Game of Self-Discovery

Created by famous Japanese psychologists Tadahiko Nagao and Isamu Saito, kokology , the study of kokoro (“mind” or “spirit” in Japanese), is a fun and sometimes hilarious game for learning about yourself.

The game invites players to answer questions about seemingly innocent topics, such as the color of an imaginary bird that has flown in their window, to reveal profound insights in their answers.

Journaling and worksheets can both be hugely helpful for this purpose.

To help, look at some of the following free resources from our site:

• Self-Awareness Worksheet for Adults This worksheet poses a series of 15 questions to help you discover more about your true self. Specifically, the questions tap into topics such as your talents/strengths, values, and barriers to living more authentically.
• What Are My Qualities and Traits? This worksheet invites you to identify your top five and weakest two qualities from a list of 100 strengths. It then invites you to consider how you might shape, develop, and use your toolkit of identified strengths to better your life.
• Reflecting on Three Things This worksheet invites you to explore what defines who you are. These reflections can include statements, objects, roles in life, people you admire, and ambitions.

If you’re more into journaling, see if any of the following prompts might inspire some of your upcoming entries (Hollis, 2019):

• What things have you been doing lately that may be positively or negatively affecting your mental health ?
• What ways can you touch or move your body that makes you feel good?
• If you could spend the day doing anything, what would you do?
• How do you show love to other people?
• What are some things about you that you wish other people knew?

How to discover your authentic self – at any age – Bevy Smith

For more ways to get started on your journey of self-inquiry, consider the following questions, drawn from leading books designed to guide you toward self-discovery (see Helpful Books & Apps for Your Journey ):

Mindful self-discovery questions

• What’s going on inside your body at the moment (e.g., sensations, flows of energy)?
• Is there joy, ease, and lightness in what you are doing at the present moment?
• Do you really have any problems right now in this present moment ?
• Is there anything you can do to change, improve, or remove yourself from a present dissatisfactory situation? If not, how can you move toward accepting your present circumstances?

Exploring values

• What are your top five personal and professional values?
• How are you living outside your values?
• In what areas do you feel a personal sense of responsibility to better the world?
• How are you living outside of your integrity?

Questions about fear and courage

• What do you fear the most?
• What fears have actually come true in your life?
• What would happen if you treated the actions you fear as an experiment?
• For which pending decision could you use 10% more courage?

Considering worthwhile experiences

• What has made your childhood worthwhile?
• What lessons did you learn last week?
• What makes life worthwhile for you?
• What trip have you always wanted to take, and how could you make this trip happen?

More questions for self-discovery

For even more powerful coaching questions, be sure to check out some of the dedicated articles throughout our blog:

• 73 Powerful Coaching Questions to Ask Your Clients
• 100 Most Powerful Life Coaching Questions [+PDF]
• Self-Coaching Model Explained: 56 Questions & Techniques for Self-Mastery

Here are some of our favorite books and apps to support greater self-insight and discovery.

1. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment – Eckhart Tolle

A critical first step toward greater self-insight involves ceasing to confuse your true self with the endless stream of thoughts flowing through your mind.

The bestselling book The Power of Now  takes readers on a journey to find their deepest self through the lens of mindfulness and spirituality.

The book guides the reader through steps to help recognize and free themselves from ego in the form of defense mechanisms, automatic negative habits, and over-identification with thought. From here, readers can then discover their true nature and lasting contentment, rooted in the present moment.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. Self-Discovery Questions: 155 Breakthrough Questions to Accelerate Massive Action – Barrie Davenport

Not all of us have the resources to employ a self-discovery coach, making it all the more important to know what questions to ask on your self-discovery journey.

Barrie Davenport’s book of 155 powerful questions is a perfect companion for self-reflection and journaling, helping readers become less reactive and take charge of their lives and destiny.

Once you become acquainted with your answers, you can strengthen self-awareness , break out of automatic patterns, and feel empowered to make positive new life changes.

3. The 365 Self-Discovery Journal: One Year of Reflection & Development – Created by 21 Exercises

Journaling remains one of the best ways to pursue self-discovery and greater self-insight (Charles, 2010).

This book provides journal lovers with a year’s worth of challenging and original questions to guide self-discovery.

By combining each prompt with thought-provoking poems and quotes, this book is an excellent tool to help steadily expand the reader’s comfort zone and curiosity across domains ranging from career and finances to love and relationships.

4. The Quenza app

Quenza was designed by our very own team as a one-stop resource for coaches and psychologists wishing to remotely support their clients’ self-inquiry between scheduled sessions.

The app links with an online dashboard and growing library of science-backed activities you can customize and send directly to your clients’ smart devices, including audio meditations, guided visualizations, and many thought-provoking reflections.

Try the app, platform, and entire library of pre-built activities for 30 days for just $1.

5. The Waking Up app

While Western takes on meditation tend to emphasize health and stress reduction, there is much more we can discover about ourselves through this powerful practice.

Waking Up , developed by philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, features a rich array of audio-based meditations, exercises, and conversations with leading experts and teachers to help you make profound discoveries about the nature of your own mind.

This app is a top-rated resource for those seeking to dismantle illusions of the self and rediscover their true nature and purpose.

6. The Reflectly app

With the growing recognition of journaling as a tool for self-insight, new technologies are emerging to support this powerful practice.

Reflectly is a modern journaling app for self-care and greater happiness. Drawing on evidence-based approaches from positive psychology, mindfulness, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, this app serves as an AI companion to help you manage negative thoughts and find greater happiness.

Among its personalized functions, the app includes daily quotes, a mood tracker , and personalized insights via its reporting features.

Throughout this post, we’ve discussed the importance of clarifying values to better understand what brings meaning throughout one’s journey of self-discovery. To this end, we invite you to check out our free Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

This pack features three of our top tools from the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, all of which center on the theme of values-based living:

• The Top 5 Values This exercise draws on key principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients begin brainstorming their values. Following this, clients will then prioritize these values in a list to identify those most central to who they are.
• Self-Eulogy This exercise invites clients to consider how they’d like to be remembered at their funeral as a means to identify and clarify values. Based on this, they can then consider how well they are living in alignment with these values.
• The Scoreboard Metaphor This exercise helps clients recognize how to enact their values through goal-setting. In particular, it draws on the metaphor of a basketball game to illustrate how living into one’s values is an ongoing process and that the paths by which we pursue our goals are opportunities to enact our values in daily life.

You can access all three exercises for free by downloading our Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others discover meaning, this collection contains 17 validated meaning tools for practitioners. Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them.

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

This 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises [PDF] pack contains our best exercises for helping others discover their purpose and live more fulfilling, value-aligned lives.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Self-discovery is an ongoing process of stripping away that which is unimportant, reviewing our core values, and seeking to live in greater alignment with these inner truths.

Importantly, anyone can take steps toward greater self-knowledge . All that’s required is an attitude of curiosity and regular time out for meditation, reflection, or self-questioning.

We hope this article has left you feeling equipped for your journey of self-discovery, and if you decide to try out any of the tools or exercises we’ve explored, be sure to let us know in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free .

• 21 Exercises. (2018).  The 365 self-discovery journal: One year of reflection & development.  Author.
• Charles, J. P. (2010). Journaling: Creating space for “I”. Creative Nursing , 16 (4), 180–184.
• Davenport, B. (2015).  Self-discovery questions: 155 Breakthrough questions to accelerate massive action.  Bold Living Press.
• Elevate Life Project. (n.d.). Self discovery coaching . Retrieved October 11, 2021 from https://elevatelifeproject.com/self-discovery-coaching/
• Hollis, B. (2019, July 16). Who am I? Journaling prompts for self-discovery and self-reflection. Learning to Be Free . Retrieved October 11, 2021 from https://www.learningtobefree.com/2019/07/16/journaling-prompts-for-self-discovery/
• Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth: The struggle toward self-realization . Norton.
• Pagedar, A. (2021). Finding awareness: The journey of self-discovery . Author.
• Tolle, E. (2004).  The power of now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment.  New World Library.
• Waterman, A. S. (2011). Eudaimonic identity theory: Identity as self-discovery. In S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 357–379). Springer.
• Waterman, A. S., Schwartz, S. J., Zamboanga, B. L., Ravert, R. D., Williams, M. K., Bede Agocha, V., … Brent Donnellan, M. (2010). The Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being: Psychometric properties, demographic comparisons, and evidence of validity. The Journal of Positive Psychology , 5 (1), 41–61.

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What our readers think.

This is a great article for self-discovery, I recommend it to all, it’s a must read for the young minds.

Thanks to a great counselor. I appreciate your encouragement and efforts that have served as an eyes opener to self discovery and other resources that is helpful.

You have some great resources listed here in this article. Thanks for the great read! -Ryan

Appreciated, Nicole, for insight well done to start kicking where need be. Keep up te good work!

Thanks Nicole. I will explore some of the resources which sounds great. I work with medical students, some of whom are at the very beginning of learning reflective approaches to enhance their self knowledge. The challenge is always to find a variety of ways to promote engagement. You have given me some helpful ideas.

Thank You Dr, Nicole.

I have left you a message on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for this wonderful article. Very useful and helps in the journey of self awareness and so helpful to the therapist and counselors who are using these resources to support clients. Heartfelt thanks and gratitude for all the resources that benefit the clients and counselors who otherwise would not be able to access such great quality articles and resources. Thank you. As a counselor who is doing a lot of free counseling these resources and articles are so helpful, cause I cannot afford them otherwise. Thanks for supporting the counselors and therapist and clients who ultimately benefit.

Thanks, Nicole … you shared a very interesting set of perspective.

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Discovering Your True Identity: A Journey of Self-Reflection and Purpose

• August 26, 2023
• Achieve Your Goals

Hey, you! Ready to embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery? In this article, we’ll dive deep into the realm of self-reflection and purpose, guiding you towards uncovering your true identity. It’s time to take control of your actions and align them with who you really are. By questioning external expectations and prioritizing your well-being, you’ll unlock your best self and leave a lasting legacy. So, let’s get started on this innovative path to self-realization!

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Being conscious of your finite time motivates you to focus on what you want out of life.
• Take control of your actions and align them with your true identity.
• Prioritize your health as the foundation for success in all areas of life.
• Reflect on how you want to be remembered and the impact you want to make on others.

The Power of Self-Reflection

Reflect on your own thoughts and actions to gain a deeper understanding of who you truly are and what you want out of life. The importance of introspection cannot be overstated. By reflecting on past experiences, you can uncover valuable insights about yourself. Take the time to ask yourself important questions: What truly makes you happy? What are your core values and beliefs? Reflecting on past experiences allows you to identify patterns and learn from them. It helps you make better decisions and set goals that align with your true identity. Through introspection, you can gain clarity on your passions, strengths, and areas for growth. It is a powerful tool for personal development and a necessary step on the journey of self-discovery.

Uncovering Your True Identity

Imagine peeling back the layers of who you think you are to reveal the authentic version of yourself. This journey of self-discovery involves exploring your passions and finding your true authenticity. By delving into your passions and interests, you can uncover the aspects of your identity that bring you joy and fulfillment. Embracing your authentic self allows you to live a life that aligns with your values and desires, leading to a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction. Through self-reflection and introspection, you can identify the activities and experiences that make you feel most alive and connected to your true self. By embracing your authentic identity and pursuing your passions, you open yourself up to a world of innovation and creativity, allowing you to make a meaningful impact on the world around you.

Aligning Actions With Purpose

Take control of your actions and align them with what truly drives you, paving the way for a life of purpose and fulfillment. Finding clarity in purpose requires introspection and reflection. Start by identifying your core values and beliefs, and then integrate them into your daily actions. Ask yourself if your choices align with your values and if they contribute to your overall sense of fulfillment. It’s essential to bridge the gap between what you believe and how you live. By consciously aligning your actions with your values, you create a sense of congruence and authenticity in your life. This integration leads to a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment, as you are living in accordance with what truly matters to you.

Nurturing Health and Well-being

Prioritize your health by making small changes to your daily habits and routines, ultimately leading to a greater sense of well-being. By prioritizing self-care and maintaining a healthy mindset, you can unlock your full potential and thrive in all aspects of life. Start by envisioning the kind of health you desire and make yourself a priority. Imagine the benefits of healthier habits, such as increased energy and productivity. Visualize how improved health can contribute to achieving your career goals and a higher quality of life. Remember that taking care of your body is the foundation for success in all areas of life. By making conscious choices and incorporating healthy habits into your daily routine, you can prioritize your health and create a solid foundation for a fulfilling and innovative life.

Leaving a Lasting Legacy and Impact

Shift your focus from superficial achievements to the impact you want to make on others and the lasting legacy you want to leave behind. Creating meaningful connections and leaving a positive imprint are the keys to leaving a lasting legacy and impact. In a world that craves innovation, it is essential to go beyond the surface level and strive for deeper connections that can truly make a difference. By investing time and effort into building genuine relationships, you can inspire and uplift others, leaving a positive imprint on their lives. Whether it’s through acts of kindness, sharing knowledge and expertise, or simply being a source of support, your actions can have a ripple effect that extends far beyond your own sphere of influence. So, don’t just chase accomplishments for the sake of it; focus on creating meaningful connections and leaving a positive imprint that will endure long after you’re gone.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i overcome the fear of change and step out of my comfort zone during the journey of self-reflection and purpose.

You can overcome the fear of change and step out of your comfort zone by embracing it as an opportunity for growth and self-discovery. Recognize that staying stagnant won’t lead to personal fulfillment. Take small steps outside your comfort zone and gradually increase the level of challenge. Surround yourself with a supportive network and celebrate your successes along the way. Embrace the unknown and trust in your ability to adapt and thrive.

What Are Some Practical Strategies to Identify and Overcome the External Pressures That May Be Influencing My Choices and Desires?

To identify and overcome external pressures, start by examining your internal motivations. Reflect on whether your choices are driven by societal expectations or your own fulfillment. Consider if your desires align with your true identity and purpose. Challenge the status quo and question the narratives that influence your decisions. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who support your journey of self-discovery. By staying true to yourself and breaking free from external pressures, you can forge a path that is authentic and fulfilling.

How Can I Effectively Incorporate Self-Care and Healthy Habits Into My Daily Routine to Support My Overall Well-Being?

Incorporating self-care and healthy habits into your daily routine is essential for supporting your overall well-being. Research shows that dedicating just 30 minutes a day to activities like exercise, meditation, or journaling can have a significant impact on your mental and physical health. Prioritize self-care by scheduling it into your day, setting boundaries, and making it a non-negotiable part of your routine. Remember, taking care of yourself is not selfish, but necessary for your overall happiness and success.

Are There Any Specific Exercises or Practices That Can Help Me Deepen My Understanding of My True Character and Align My Actions Accordingly?

To deepen your understanding of your true character and align your actions accordingly, try personal growth exercises. Engage in self-reflection activities like journaling, meditation, and introspection. Explore your values, strengths, and passions to uncover your authentic self. Seek feedback from trusted individuals to gain valuable insights. Experiment with new experiences and challenges to push your boundaries. Remember, self-awareness is a lifelong journey that requires consistent effort and a willingness to embrace growth.

How Can I Measure and Track the Impact I Am Making on Others and Ensure That It Aligns With the Legacy I Want to Leave Behind?

To measure and track the impact you’re making on others and ensure it aligns with your desired legacy, start by setting clear goals and objectives. Define what success looks like in terms of the impact you want to have. Then, establish measurable metrics to track progress. Regularly evaluate your actions and their outcomes against these metrics. Adjust and refine your approach as needed to stay on track and make a lasting impact that aligns with your legacy.

"THE JOURNEY IS THE REWARD."

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When Did Everything Become a ‘Journey’?

Changing our hair, getting divorced, taking spa vacations — they’re not just things we do; they’re “journeys.” The quest for better health is the greatest journey of all.

By Lisa Miller

Drew Barrymore has been talking with Gayle King about her perimenopause “journey ,” and the soccer phenom Carli Lloyd has just divulged her fertility “journey .” By sharing her breast cancer story, Olivia Munn has said she hopes she will “help others find comfort, inspiration, and support on their own journey.” A recent interview with Anne Hathaway has been posted on Instagram with a headline highlighting her “ sobriety journey ,” and Kelly Clarkson has opened up about what Women’s Health calls her “ weight loss journey .” On TikTok, a zillion influencer-guides lead pilgrims on journeys through such ephemeral realms as faith, healing, grief, friendship, mastectomy, and therapy — often selling courses, supplements or eating plans as if they were talismans to help safeguard their path.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“Journey” has decisively taken its place in American speech. The word holds an upbeat utility these days, signaling struggle without darkness or detail, and expressing — in the broadest possible way — an individual’s experience of travails over time.

It’s often related to physical or mental health, but it can really be about anything: “Putting on your socks can be a journey of self-discovery,” said Beth Patton, who lives in Central Indiana and has relapsing polychondritis, an inflammatory disorder. In the chronic disease community, she said, “journey” is a debated word. “It’s a way to romanticize ordinary or unpleasant experiences, like, ‘Oh, this is something special and magical.’” Not everyone appreciates this, she said.

According to the linguistics professor Jesse Egbert at Northern Arizona University, the use of “journey” (the noun) has nearly doubled in American English since 1990, with the most frequent instances occurring online. Mining a new database of conversational American English he and colleagues are building, Egbert could show exactly how colloquial “journey” has become: One woman in Pennsylvania described her “journey to become a morning person,” while another, in Massachusetts, said she was “on a journey of trying to like fish.”

Egbert was able to further demonstrate how the word itself has undergone a transformative journey — what linguists call “semantic drift.” It wasn’t so long ago that Americans mostly used “journey” to mean a literal trip, whereas now it’s more popular as a metaphor. Egbert demonstrated this by searching the more than one billion words in a database called COCA for the nouns people put before “journey” to clarify what sort they’re on. Between 1990 and 2005, the most common modifier was “return,” followed by words like “ocean,” “train,” “mile,” “night,” “overland,” and “bus.”

But between 2006 and 2019, usage shifted. “Return” remains the most common noun modifier to journey, but now it’s followed closely by “faith,” “cancer,” and “life.” Among the top 25 nouns used to modify “journey” today are: “soul,” “adoption,” and “hair.”

In almost every language, “journey” has become a way to talk abstractly about outcomes, for good reason: According to what linguists call the “primary metaphor theory,” humans learn as babies crawling toward their toys that “‘purpose’ and ‘destination’ coincide,” said Elena Semino, a linguist at Lancaster University who specializes in metaphor. As we become able to accomplish our goals while sitting still (standardized tests! working from home!), ambition and travel diverge. Yet we continue to envision achievement as a matter of forward progress. This is why we say, “‘I know what I want, but I don’t know how to get there,’” Semino explained. “Or ‘I’m at a crossroads.’”

So it’s not surprising, perhaps, that as Americans started seeing good health as a desirable goal, achievable through their own actions and choices — and marketers encouraged these pursuits and commodified them — the words “journey” and “health” became inextricably linked. In 1898, C.W. Post wrote a pamphlet he called “The Road to Wellville,” which he attached to each box of his new product, Grape-Nuts. In 1926, the Postum Cereal Company republished the pamphlet as a small book , now with the subtitle, “A Personally Conducted Journey to the Land of Good Health by the Route of Right Living.”

The language (and business) of self-help so completely saturates culture, “it gets kind of hard to trace where a word started and where it came from,” said Jessica Lamb-Shapiro, author of “Promise Land: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.” Americans like to put an optimistic, brave spin on suffering, and “journey” seeped in because, Lamb-Shapiro speculated, it’s bland enough to “tackle really difficult things,” yet positive enough to “make them palatable and tolerable.”

“Journey” had fully entered medical speak by the 2010s. Many cancer patients recoiled from the “battle” language traditionally used by doctors, as well as by friends and relatives. In “Illness as Metaphor,” Susan Sontag had noted back in 1978 that “every physician and every attentive patient is familiar with, if perhaps inured to, this military terminology.” But now, opposition to the notion of disease as an enemy combatant reached a crescendo. To reflexively call an experience of cancer a battle created “winners” and “losers,” where death or long suffering represented a failure — of will, strength, determination, diet, behavior, or outlook — on the part of the patient.

Many patients “detest” the military metaphor, Robert Miller conceded in Oncology Times in 2010. Knowing this, Miller, then a breast cancer oncologist affiliated with Johns Hopkins, said he struggled to find the right words in composing a condolence note to a patient’s spouse. “I welcome suggestions,” he wrote.

“Journey” seemed less judgmental, more neutral. In Britain, the National Health Service had started to almost exclusively use “journey” language in reference to cancer (treatments were “pathways”). Semino, the metaphor expert whose father had died of cancer at a time when patients’ diagnoses were hidden from them, wanted to examine how patients talked about it — and whether that language caused them harm. In a research paper Semino published with colleagues in 2015, she looked at how patients talked about their cancer on forums online and found that they still used “battle” as often as they did “journey,” and that “journey” could be disempowering, as well.

For some people, talking about cancer as a “journey” gave them a sense of control and camaraderie — buddies traveling the same path — but others used the term to convey their exhaustion. Having cancer “is like trying to drive a coach and horses uphill with no back wheels on the coach,” one man wrote. Patients used “journey” to describe just how passive they felt or how reluctant to bear the burden of their disease. Separately, patients have told Semino how much they hate the word “journey,” saying it trivializes their experience, that it’s clichéd.

But it was too late: The metaphor already was everywhere. In 2014, Anna Wintour was asked which word she would like to banish from the fashion lexicon and she said, “journey.” The following year, Yolanda Foster, the mother of Gigi and Bella Hadid, told People magazine that while she was on her Lyme disease journey, two of her children were afflicted, too. Medical journals and government publications began describing insomnia , the effort to achieve health-care reform , diabetes , and the development of RSV vaccines as a journey. The term “healing journey,” in use since at least the mid-2010s, blew up around 2021. The phrase in news media referenced the experience of cancer , celebrity weight loss , trafficking of Indigenous children , Sean Combs’s creative process , spa vacations , amputation , and better sex .

On the Reddit channel Chronic Illness, one poster eloquently fumed that persistent sickness is not a journey. “It’s endless, pointless and repetitive. There’s no new ground to gain here.” The cultural insistence on illness as a journey, from which a traveler can learn useful, or even life-changing lessons, becomes something to “disassociate from, survive, endure.” It “causes social isolation.”

Although she concedes its downsides, Stephanie Swanson likes to think of herself as on a journey. Swanson, who is 37 and lives in Kansas City, was an engineer by training, with three young children, a career and a sideline as an aerialist, when she got long Covid in the summer of 2022. The things that had made her successful — her physical stamina, her ability to solve problems — evaporated. “I’ve had to give up my career, my hobbies, my physical abilities,” she said. “I’ve gained 30 pounds on my tiny dancer body. I’m doing the best I can with what I have.”

Swanson makes a distinction between “journey” and “trip”: The latter is circumscribed by a start, an end, and hotel and restaurant reservations along the way. She sees “journey” as a way to capture the arc of a whole life.

When she was running operations at a medical center at the University of Kansas, she always imagined slowing down to enjoy her kids more or to read a book, but “I felt like my head was going to explode.” Now Swanson has become a person who must rent a wheelchair for her upcoming trip to New York City, and she likes how “journey” accommodates all the challenging, unexpected circumstances she confronts. “To me, the word ‘journey’ resonates with choosing to be on a path of acceptance but not standing still,” she said. “I’m not giving up, but recognizing that this is the path I’m on.”

Ramani Durvasula uses “journey” advisedly. A clinical psychologist in Los Angeles who treats women in emotionally abusive relationships, she recognizes how “journey” has been “eye-rollingly cheapened” and has started to experiment with alternatives. She’s tried “process.” She’s tried “healing trajectory.” But she falls back on journey, because it, more than any other word, expresses the step-by-step, sometimes circular or backward nature of enduring something hard. “Arguably, a journey doesn’t have a destination,” she said. “Have you ever taken a hike in a loop? And you end up exactly where you parked your car?”

But Durvasula does object to the easy-breezy healing so many journey hashtags promote, what she calls the “post-sobriety, post-weight-loss, now-I’m-in-love-again-after-my-toxic-relationship” reels. Too many TikToks show the crying in the car then the cute party dress, skipping over the middle, when people feel ugly, angry, self-loathing, and hopeless. “I want to see the hell,” she said. “I want to see the nightmare.”

When in 2020 a Swedish linguist named Charlotte Hommerberg studied how advanced cancer patients describe their experience, she found they used “battle” and “journey,” like everyone else. But most also used a third metaphor that conveyed not progress, fight or hope. They said cancer was like “imprisonment,” a feeling of being stuck — like a “free bird in a cage,” one person wrote. Powerless and going nowhere.

Read by Lisa Miller

Audio produced by Tally Abecassis .

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‘star trek: discovery’ co-showrunner teases the final episodes and her message for fans.

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Co-showrunner Michelle Paradise with her "Star Trek: Discovery" cast and crew.

For five seasons, Star Trek: Discovery has taken audiences on the ride of a lifetime. With its series finale now in sight, I sat down with executive producer and co-showrunner Michelle Paradise at SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado to discuss the beloved show’s journey and what fans should expect from this ever-expanding television universe on Paramount Plus, before we say a proper farewell to the U.S.S. Discovery.

So for starters, what has Paradise enjoyed most about the evolution of Star Trek: Discovery , since it first premiered in September 2017?

“That’s a really great question,” Paradise said. “I have loved being a part of it. I joined halfway through season two, and it was starting to know what it was and it’s really found its way. I’ve really enjoyed the character arcs and getting to take them all to these different places. It’s also hard for me to separate out the evolution of the show from my evolution on the show and stepping into co-running it with [co-showrunner] Alex [Kurtzman] and starting to take over more of that in later seasons. It’s been the highlight of my career.”

Mary Wiseman as Tilly and Blu del Barrio as Adira in "Star Trek: Discovery" episode 7, season 5 - ... [+] streaming on Paramount+.

Paradise is no stranger to television production. She was previously an executive producer on such television projects as Exes & Ohs and The Originals , but I wondered what it might be about her Star Trek: Discovery cast and crew that perhaps feels special.

“It’s like a big family. First of all, our cast is incredible. They’re all insanely talented actors but they’re lovely human beings. They approach one another and they approach the project from just a place of love and respect for one another and for the material, which is always a wonderful place to start. You can’t say enough of [actor] Sonequa [Martin-Green], our number one and the tone that she sets on the show and on the set. We have a lot of folks on the show and the crew who come back, year-after-year. They all really love the world of Trek and they love one another. We try and go bigger and better and bolder every season, and there’s never a feeling of Oh, we can’t do that . It’s always a feeling of How do we do that? ”

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Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham in "Star Trek: Discovery" streaming on Paramount+.

Since the original Star Trek series first premiered on television in 1966, the Star Trek story and fictional sci-fi universe has evolved into several iterations, including Star Trek: The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Enterprise , Strange New Worlds and Picard - not to mention the numerous Star Trek movies over many decades, including the three recent blockbuster films, starring Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto, with another sequel in the works.

Throughout all of these years, Star Trek fans have remained quite loyal and vocal, both when they love a story and even when they don’t. So, how does Paradise and her Star Trek: Discovery creative team try to appease Trek fans, but also not allow the chatter to stop them from taking on some creative risks?

Wilson Cruz as Culber and Anthony Rapp as Stamets in "Star Trek: Discovery" episode 6, season 5 - ... [+] streaming on Paramount+.

Paradise said, “I think the best way to answer that is we always try to honor what Trek is - where it came from, what is the DNA of any Trek series, which of course goes back to the original series, and then also honoring what is this version of Trek and knowing that it’s our job to make the best version of Discovery . Someone who loves Discovery may not love Strange New Worlds or someone who loves Strange New Worlds may not love Discovery. By design, these are all very different shows. To a certain degree, it has to be okay that not everyone is going to love this iteration. We always feel like if we can do justice to the franchise as a whole - what it means, do justice to the characters and do our best version of Discovery , then we will have succeeded.”

Ever since the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes ended late last year, there have been signs of movement and optimism within the entertainment industry, but also a sense of some standstill with television and film productions. So, what is Paradise seeing around the current state of Hollywood?

“I think it depends on who you talk to,” Paradise said. “It feels a bit like a mixed bag to me. There are a lot of people who are still very much struggling - writers, crew members, directors - because things have not picked up in the way that they would normally at this particular time of year. By in large, there’s not really a pilot season, as we used to know it. That’s very difficult for people. Of course, there’s still a lot of wonderful opportunities, but it seems like the compression that happened - it’s the combo platter of the [Covid-19] pandemic and the strikes, just after that. It does feel condensed - there are fewer things but I feel like, to some degree, that had to happen because in the big balloon of streaming, that in retrospect, it doesn’t feel like it was necessarily sustainable. Hopefully it will ease up, sooner than later, and kind of calm down because there’s still a lot of people who are struggling to get back into work right now and I feel for them - it’s hard.”

On more of a positive note, when asked what Paradise is enjoying most about the television landscape today, she says that she feels there is a lot that can be done, applauding the way that every week, Star Trek: Discover y is a “cinematic storytelling into television,” though she admits that the visual design of Discovery is not sustainable for every network and studio.

While our real world faces divisive times with war, political unrest and other conflicts, I wondered if Paradise and her team keep in mind the real-life issues occurring, when crafting its stories for the screen on Star Trek: Discovery .

Mary Wiseman as Tilly, June Laporte as Ravah and Wilson Cruz as Dr. Culber in "Star Trek: Discovery" ... [+] episode 6, season 5 - streaming on Paramount+.

“That comes from just the DNA of the show itself. The original series did not shy away from what was happening societal at that time. It did not shy away from tackling those things in the way that it could. That’s one of the cool things about sci-fi - aliens can stand-in for another culture, different relationships can stand-in for whatever is happening in society at the time. That’s kind of baked into any Trek show, is that reflection of what’s happening in the world at that time via sci-fi and the different ways we could do it.”

Paradise added: “In Discovery , we were very much aware of that and very thoughtful about what are the types of stories we want to tell, how does that reflect certain things that are going on. Trek means so much to so many people and where people are actively looking to Trek to reflect themselves in some way or actively looking to Trek as an answer to what’s happening in society and for hope that, as divisive as things are right now, as challenging around the world and in our country, that there is hope and we can overcome it with our better selves.”

Blu del Barrio as Adira, Tig Notaro as Jett Reno and Mary Wiseman as Tilly in "Star Trek: Discovery" ... [+] episode 7, season 5 - streaming on Paramount+.

When asked about what fans can expect ahead in the remaining episodes of Star Trek: Discovery , which drop every Thursday during this final season, Paradise teases that fans “might see more of our bad guys this season.” She added: “We did not going into the season [knowing] that this would be our last season. We’re so fortunate - CBS Studios and Paramount Plus gave us the opportunity, after the fact, to go shoot some additional material, and I feel like the thing I just want to keep reiterating for fans of the show is it has a proper ending. Our Discovery is not going to end on a cliffhanger of Are they all going to die? and then we never find out. It was worth the investment and I do think when people finish the season/series, they will feel like this season - again, we didn’t know going in - but it does feel like if you didn’t know that, you would think we knew going in because of what we’re doing thematically and where our characters go. So, I think people will feel very satisfied.”

As the conversation with Paradise concluded, she was left with one last question: For Star Trek: Discovery fans, people who have followed these five seasons - as they soon finish these final episodes, what message do you as a co-showrunner want to say these people, after investing their time in the series over the past seven years and falling in love with these characters?

Mary Wiseman, Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Paradise.

“I just would want to say thank you. There is no Discovery without the fans and they are always so loving and supportive and passionate, even when they don’t like what we’re doing, they’re passionate. As writers and creators and actors and the directors, we love that! We love that passion and their passion means so much to us.”

Paradise added: “It was a gift. Hopefully, we’ll all get to do it again someday.”

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