Following Lewis and Clark

 

Roland and I just returned from a cruise on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, following part of Lewis and Clark’s route. Actually, I’m not sure “following” is the right word, since we started closer to the end and moved backwards. Or maybe it is, because they used the same route to return to St. Louis.

The photo shows the confluence of the Snake (on the right) and the Columbia (on the left). Lewis and Clark came up the Snake to the Columbia, which they followed to the Pacific Ocean.

Most people don’t know that their mission was a failure. That is to say, they failed in their first objective, which was to find a water route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. They failed for the simple reason that no such route exists.

In a broader sense, though, the mission was a huge success. The Corps of Discovery, as it was officially called, mapped its way from St. Louis to the Pacific, making friends with the Native Americans and recording new plant and animal species along the way.

It was a success in another way, as well. The men suffered much hardship, but in a day when explorers had a high death rate, only one man died, and he had a burst appendix. That may be because of the medical information the expedition carried in its library of books on plants, animals, and medicine. The next photo lists the contents of the traveling library.

I thought about trying to write a middle-grade historical novel about the expedition, but the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery was probably about seventeen or eighteen and I’m not sure how well I would be able to portray him to a younger audience. Besides, I have lots of other plot ideas vying for my time.

Still, I may reconsider someday.