The life of Captain Lewis
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Born on 18 August 1774, he was exactly eight months old when Paul Revere made the legendary ride that signaled the beginning of the War of Independence, and the birth of the new United States of America, which Lewis was to serve with distinction.
Explore the complex character and history of Meriwether Lewis before, during, and after the expedition.
Was it suicide or murder?
by Clay S. Jenkinson
Lewis was about to journey to Washington to face his accusers. He only made it as far as Grinder’s Stand. But did he commit suicide or was he murdered?
As ethnographers, the captains provided “names of the nations & their numbers” and recorded the strange cultures they encountered. Their work as ethnographers is examined here by James Ronda.
Prior to Jefferson’s annual message to Congress on 15 December 1802, Lewis prepared a roughly itemized estimate of $2500 as the cost of the expedition.
David Douglas in London
by Jack Nisbet
David Douglas returned to England with many hundreds of flora and fauna specimens to process. During his stay he wrote or contributed to more than a dozen scientific papers, several of which build on the seminal first collections of Lewis and Clark.
A missing mineral specimen
by John W. Jengo
Near Wallula Gap, Meriwether Lewis apparently collected an enigmatic and long-missing mineral specimen that was never documented in the expedition journals.
The trail 100 years later
by Barbara Fifer
The story Wheeler wished to tell can be found in his book’s subtitle: “A story of the great exploration across the Continent in 1804-06; with a description of the old trail, based upon actual travel over it, and of the changes found a century later.”
Aerial photographer Jim Wark and scholar Joseph A. Mussulman offer a fascinating new perspective on the Corps of Discovery’s historic journey. From Monticello in the east to Fort Clatsop on the Pacific Ocean, the entire 2004 book is provided online with updates by Mussulman.
The author proposes a few metaphors for the Lewis and Clark story, not in any definitive way, but merely to help us all think about the legacy of the expedition.
Thomas Jefferson not only brought Meriwether Lewis under his own tutelage, he made sure Lewis was trained and befriended the best minds of the day. Lewis appeared to be an eager and quick learner.
A "sadly interesting passage"
by Joseph A. Mussulman
It has been remembered as “the most gloomy self-examination of the entire journal,” and “a passage of unreasonable melancholy,” of poignant sadness and self-doubt.
Cameahwait's gift
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Cameahwait and some of his people agreed to help the Corps of Discovery carry its baggage over the divide. In the early afternoon. “We now dismounted,” wrote Lewis, “and the Chief with much cerimony put tippets about our necks such as they temselves woar.”
As the President’s private secretary, the 28-year-old Army captain wasn’t in the same league with the political heavy-weights on the new American Board of Agriculture.
Lewis’s meteoric progress through the first three degrees of Masonry signified confidence on the part of the most prominent men of Albemarle that the 23-year-old Lewis was similarly destined for moral, civic, and political leadership.
Education for the young gentleman
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Land management introduced the pupil to the practical aspects of natural history. Jefferson recalled Lewis’s “talent for observation, which had led him to an accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of his own country, would have distinguished him as a farmer.”
As you find each one and try to check each identifying clue, you cannot help but know much of the same challenge, the same success—or frustrations—that kept Lewis and Clark birdwatchers to the end.
The 1802 Army's Reduction in Force
by Stephen S. Witte
In his capacity as the President’s secretary, Meriwether Lewis prepared a report in which he classified the Army’s officers by military merit and by political affiliation, if known. Both of these factors were considered in identifying candidates for dismissal.
Training and shopping
by Charles F. Reed
When Meriwether Lewis traveled to Philadelphia in 1802, his guide to the city was Mahlon Dickerson who gave him a survey of people and places well beyond the privilege or opportunity of most Philadelphians of the time.
Jefferson's ciphers
by Joseph A. Mussulman
It was Thomas Jefferson who gave cryptography in America its greatest impetus. Sometime in 1803 Jefferson presented Meriwether Lewis with a cipher based on a square table or tableau used to create a substitution cipher.
This page was funded in part by a grant from the National Park Service's Challenge Cost Share Program.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
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).