Corps of Discovery
On May 21, 1804, under a threatening sky,
blusterous winds, and later, hard rain, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and 43 men left the town of St. Charles, Missouri on the north bank of the Missouri River. Shoving off to three rounds of cheers from "gentlemen on the bank" (Clark) they began a journey like no other in the short history of the United States, and like none since.
There were many purposes for the expedition, which President Thomas Jefferson handed down to Lewis in a set of charges. Among with them was the recording and collecting of plant and animal specimens.
"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions . . . The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States; The remains and accounts of which may be deemed rare or extinct."
In keeping with Jefferson's orders, and through meticulous journal writings, Lewis and Clark have left America with a detailed record of the diversity and vitality of the natural world some 200 years ago.
Their journals provide a view of nature that is as remarkable for their closeness to it as for the unfathomable abundance of wildlife-rivers choked with salmon, thunderous waves of bison, elk, and pronghorn followed closely by ever present wolves. Their journals, too, are a window from which we may see splendors since extinguished, the plains grizzly bear, elk, wolf, and boundless grassy plains and canopied forests now long decimated by an expanding nation.
blusterous winds, and later, hard rain, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and 43 men left the town of St. Charles, Missouri on the north bank of the Missouri River. Shoving off to three rounds of cheers from "gentlemen on the bank" (Clark) they began a journey like no other in the short history of the United States, and like none since.
There were many purposes for the expedition, which President Thomas Jefferson handed down to Lewis in a set of charges. Among with them was the recording and collecting of plant and animal specimens.
"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions . . . The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States; The remains and accounts of which may be deemed rare or extinct."
In keeping with Jefferson's orders, and through meticulous journal writings, Lewis and Clark have left America with a detailed record of the diversity and vitality of the natural world some 200 years ago.
Their journals provide a view of nature that is as remarkable for their closeness to it as for the unfathomable abundance of wildlife-rivers choked with salmon, thunderous waves of bison, elk, and pronghorn followed closely by ever present wolves. Their journals, too, are a window from which we may see splendors since extinguished, the plains grizzly bear, elk, wolf, and boundless grassy plains and canopied forests now long decimated by an expanding nation.
Today your group will present your summary about your group's article.
Be sure to include the 5w's!
When you are finished please attempt the ch 4 study guide for the test on 3-5-14.
When you are finished please attempt the ch 4 study guide for the test on 3-5-14.
2/27 Starter:Read the following passages. We will discuss the lessons Lewis and Clark left for us. Then you can click the link and answer the questions below.
Is there any lesson we can take from the story of Lewis and Clark?
Interview with Stephen Ambrose
Teamwork
"The number one story is "there is nothing that men can’t do if they get themselves together and act as a team". Here you have 32 men who had become so close, so bonded, that everyone of them could recognize a cough in the night and know who it was. They could hear a footstep and know who it was. They knew who liked salt on their meat and who didn't. They knew who’s the best shot on the expedition. Who is the fastest runner. Who is the man who could get a fire going the quickest on a rainy day. They knew, because they sat around the campfire, talking about each other’s parents and loved ones. Each other’s hopes and they had come to love each other. To the point that they would sell their own lives gladly to save a comrade. They had developed a bond, they had become a band of brothers, and together they were able to accomplish feats that we just stand astonished at today when we look at them. The crossing of the continent with nothing but rifles to depend on in the face of dangers, of the, the greatest possible imaginable dangers and physical difficulties. To, to manage the portage of the Great Falls, to get over the Lolo Trail, to go down that Columbia River, these are feats that, had they not welded themselves together into that team, they just could not possibly have accomplished. So, I think the number one human lesson of the Lewis and Clark expedition is, what can be accomplished by a team of disciplined men who are dedicated to a common purpose."
They weren't just men.
"Very much so. It’s not just a team of men. It includes a young Indian girl, who saved the expedition on numerous occasions, sometimes even from starvation, when she could find roots that nobody else knew about. And obviously in dealing with Cameahwait and the Shoshonis. And she brought a woman’s touch to this expedition. I like to think as she was nursing Pomp at night around the campfire, that scene had to have had a great effect on the men, to hear a woman’s laugh at night around the campfire bolstered spirits. To have Sacagawea say to them, “That’s the Beaverhead, we’re getting close to the Three Forks, we’re on the right trail.” All that lifted spirits when spirits were very low and they thought they’d never come to an end of this journey."