Great Achievements

"Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o'clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage." So wrote intrepid explorer Meriwether Lewis in his journal on August 31, 1803, the day he and William Clark set out to reach the Pacific coast of the United States overland and return alive. Less than three years later, they accomplished that feat, having produced some of the first accurate maps of the largely unexplored region; survived a harrowing 11-day journey across the craggy heights of the Rocky Mountains (previously thought to be a day's journey); and proved that there was not a lateral waterway across the continent. Along the way, Lewis was shot, forts were built, grizzly bears were killed, boats were constructed, Native American relations were established and a caged prairie dog was shipped to President Thomas Jefferson.