When it comes to the history of Oregon, what immediately comes into mind is the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This is the nationally-taught history of the Pacific Northwest. Although there was a story before and there is a story after, the expedition is a good starting point for a first course in Oregon.

The purpose of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, & such principal stream of it as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this Continent for the purposes of commerce.

                                                                                                                             ～ President Thomas Jefferson

Before Lewis and Clark

The well-known explorers that have trekked the Pacific Northwest long before Lewis and Clark were the Spanish Juan Rodriguez in 1543. He sailed from Mexico to Oregon. Then came the British Sir Francis Drake in 1592. The British continued to take interest in this region (mostly due to the fur trade), and in the 1770s came James Cook, George Vancouver and Peter Puget. In around the same time period, the American fur trader Captain Robert Gray discovered the Columbia River.

The Beginning of a Legend

After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the size of the United States doubled with the westward territory extending beyond the Mississippi River, covering Louisiana. Oregon lied beyond this expanded version of the United States. It was President Jefferson’s vision that the young nation’s territory would eventually stretch across the whole continent, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

President Jefferson commissioned Merriweather Lewis, a neighbor of his in Virginia, to commence on an exploration all the way from the Mississippi River to the farthest western shore at the Pacific Ocean. Lewis then approached his army friend William Clark to serve as co-captains on this voyage, named Corps of Discovery.

The team consisted of the two captains and thirty other men. They embarked at St. Louis, in Missouri. That is where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi River. It was also going to be the largest outpost for the crew before heading west to a land hitherto unknown to Americans.

The Expedition Begins in 1804

In May 1804, the expedition began, carrying with it three vessels. An interesting point to note is that the crew fished for food. On one summer morning, they caught 490 catfish in just a few hours. The Missouri River remains a key habitat for catfish today.

This roundtrip would take 8,000 miles back and forth St. Louis. A key difficulty was the abundance of mosquitoes and gnats, which bothered the crew consistently. The team were very good documentarians. The two team leaders aside, the other team members also compiled diaries of their observations of the American west. Together they returned hundreds of pages recording the journey.

The journey west was not wholly unknown to men, however. The Frenchmen conducted fur trade with the tribes and they had some records that assisted the crew, including some descriptions of the American Indian Tribes and maps. The crew did not quite know what to expect in terms of seeing fierce animals, but they surely expected to meet some American Indians that might be somewhat hostile. The American Indians have inhabited in this land since they migrated here 15,000 years ago.

The Lakota tribe, of present-day South Dakota,for example, demanded more gifts from the explorers than the coffee and tobacco that was offered. There was a moment of tension, where Clark drew his sword. Eventually, he managed to take the bowline of the canoe from the Lakota chiefs and coolly returned to the main keelboat.

The Corps of Discovery passed through what is now South Dakota, then onwards through the Great Plains. Their next stop was what is now North Dakota, meeting the chiefs of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians by the fall of 1804. Soon, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains also came into their view.

At now-Montana, the crew faced the Great Falls of the Missouri River. They had to carry their boats for 24 days before they reached the upstream for safe voyage. They met a Frenchman Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife, who was an Indian girl turned into slave. The explorers took in the man and his wife Sacagawea.  Together, the team soon met the Shoshone tribe. The Shoshone tribe recognized Sacagawea as their own. They provided the explorers with horses and a guide to climb the Rockies, until they made it safely to the level terrains—what is now Idaho.

The team assembled canoes for the next leg of journey. They aimed to reach the Pacific northwest by boat, on the Columbia River, which is the riverway that runs in this territory. In American Indian language, this river is called Origan. Obviously, this territory would become known as now Oregon. On their way, they met the Nex Perce Indians and the Chinook. The meeting with the Chinook indicated to the crew that their destination, the shore of Pacific Ocean, was near.

On one fateful day, November 7, 1805, about 1.5 years after the Corps of Discovery embarked their journey, the team finally had the Pacific Ocean in view from their camp, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Pacific Ocean was going to be miles away, but it was within sight.

President Jefferson provided a letter of credit from the United States Government that whatever ship that takes the crew back to the East Coast would be fully paid for. However, after camping a whole winter at Astoria, Oregon, the explorers did not meet any ship. In  March 1806, they began heading back by trekking the way of return. It took them six months to reach St. Louis in September 1806, since they already knew what to expect on the return journey.

The Significance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

One prominent feature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is its scientific nature. The team had first-hand experience with the nature and peoples that lied in previously unknown territory. For one thing, they encountered the first coyote and grizzly bear that they had seen in their lives.

It was also an exceedingly successful adventure because only one life was lost to sickness early on in the journey. The first version of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Journal was published in 1807, containing a trove of valuable information on the geographic and natural discovery, as well the ethnographic information of the American Indian tribes encountered.

In terms of business insights, Lewis and Clark recommended the establishment of fur trading posts on the route to counter the increasing business presence of the British Canadians in this region. Due to the rapids and falls of the Columbia River, he recommended to President Jefferson that he should not rely on the Columbia River system as a commercial waterway.

Sources

Conrad Stein, Lewis and Clark (1997).

Eyewitness Travel Guides, USA (2006).

Oregonhistoryproject, The Lewis and Clark Expedition.