two hundred years ago today
Mar. 23rd, 2006 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacEarly afternoon on March 23, 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition abandoned Fort Clatsop, the Pacific Coast winter quarters where they'd spent nearly four months, to head home. It would take them six months to get back to Saint Louis, which they'd left a year and a half before reaching the Pacific. The greater time required to head west was mostly due to the time spent lugging boats upstream on the Missouri, but also to inexperience in the mountains.
The year 1804, which only took them as far as North Dakota, was the shakedown cruise. The men learned to work together, and a few who weren't up to the rigors ahead washed out. The second year, 1805, was the year of exploration. Now they were in lands no whites had visited before, and it took all their grit and ingenuity to find a way to the Pacific.
Those two years are the ones most Lewis and Clark fanciers concentrate on. But my favorite part of their story is 1806, the year of mastery. This is the year when they knew where they were and what they were doing. They explored byways, alternate routes, and side areas. They split up to do more things. They gave all three of their wilderness-tested sergeants independent commands. At one point in July, the Lewis and Clark expedition consisted of five separate parties wandering around different parts of what is now Montana. And they all got back together again as planned, with very little hitch.
More updates later on.
The year 1804, which only took them as far as North Dakota, was the shakedown cruise. The men learned to work together, and a few who weren't up to the rigors ahead washed out. The second year, 1805, was the year of exploration. Now they were in lands no whites had visited before, and it took all their grit and ingenuity to find a way to the Pacific.
Those two years are the ones most Lewis and Clark fanciers concentrate on. But my favorite part of their story is 1806, the year of mastery. This is the year when they knew where they were and what they were doing. They explored byways, alternate routes, and side areas. They split up to do more things. They gave all three of their wilderness-tested sergeants independent commands. At one point in July, the Lewis and Clark expedition consisted of five separate parties wandering around different parts of what is now Montana. And they all got back together again as planned, with very little hitch.
More updates later on.
