1. The Louisiana Purchase
Lewis and Clark

2. The Louisiana Purchase
1803: United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million
Stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border
Contained all or parts of fifteen present-day states
Doubled the size of the United States

3. Lewis and Clark
President Thomas Jefferson wanted his secretary, Meriwether Lewis to search for a river route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (Northwest Passage)
Lewis asked William Clark to help plan and lead the expedition
Lewis and Clark formed a team called the Corps of Discovery
Corps explored the western United States from 1804 to 1806

4. ". . . the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal streams 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 . . ."

5. The Expedition
Began on May 14, 1804 at Camp Wood River, or Camp Dubois, north of St. Louis, Missouri
Traveled north up the Missouri River in a keelboat
Reached the Mandan-Hidatsa villages of present-day North Dakota by October
Allowed the explorers to build a small fort called Fort Mandan where they lived through the winter
1805: Hired French fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, and his wife, Sacagawea, to help with the expedition

6. Sacagawea Shoshone Indian who was kidnapped by the Hidatsa as a child
Translated for the Corps
Negotiated for horses and supplies
Served as a peacemaker

7. Great Falls of the Missouri River
The Expedition
Struggled around the Great Falls of the Missouri River
Searched for a pass over the Continental Divide, a mountain ridge that divides the flow of water into east and west directions
Found there was no direct water passage to the Pacific Ocean
Great Falls of the Missouri River

8. Split up to explore more land in Montana
Near the Idaho-Washington border, the Corps built canoes and traveled down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia Rivers
November 1805: reached the Pacific Ocean and built a winter camp called Fort Clatsop on the Oregon coast—returned east the following spring
Split up to explore more land in Montana
Lewis traveled along the Missouri River
Clark traveled along the Yellowstone River
Returned to St. Louis in September, 1806

9. Lewis and Clark on the Columbia River

10. Outcome of the Expedition
Explorers’ journals, maps, plant and animal samples, and notes about Native American groups offered valuable information about the Louisiana Territory
The Corps established peaceful relationships with some of the Native American groups, making it easier for future explorers
Opened the West for future exploration and settlement