Lewis and Clark: trailblazers who opened the continent.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.

Every society has a need for heroes who serve as role models. The U.S. is no exception and has produced its share of them -- Pres. Abraham Lincoln, aviator Charles Lindbergh, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the astronauts, to name a few. Heroes belong to the ages, and we can refresh our pride and patriotism by recalling their deeds.

In the early 19th century, two relatively unsung heroes, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, braved the perils of a vast unknown territory to enlarge knowledge, increase commerce, and establish a relationship with unknown Indians. Their journals produced eight detailed volumes of data ranging from maps, climate, geography, and ethnic observations to the discovery of new species of plants and animals.

In the late 18th century, America's western border was constituted first by the Allegheny Mountains and later the Mississippi River. Little was known of the geography immediately beyond the Father of Waters, and less yet of what lay west of the Missouri River. This was to change, however, for Pres. Thomas Jefferson had an unquenchable yearning for such knowledge and did something about it.

As early as 1784, he conferred with George Rogers Clark about exploring this uncharted area. In 1786, he hired John Ledyard, a former marine associate of British explorer James Cook, to walk from west to east, beginning in Stockholm, Sweden. The intent was to traverse Russia, Alaska, the western Canadian coast, and thence across the Louisiana Territory. Ledyard walked from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Russia, in two weeks. The Russians stopped him at Irkutsk, Siberia, and Jefferson was disappointed again. Undaunted, Jefferson made plans for Andre Michael to explore the area, but this, too, failed.

After being inaugurated in 1801, Jefferson had the power to make his pet project a reality. He appointed as his private secretary Meriwether Lewis, a wellborn young army captain. In January, 1803, in a secret message to Congress, the President asked for funding to realize his exploratory project of what lay between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. The sum of $2,500 was appropriated. (The project eventually was to cost $38,000, an early case of a governmental cost overrun.)

Jefferson asked Lewis to head the project. Lewis had served under William Clark (younger brother of George Rogers Clark) in earlier times and offered him co-leadership of the expedition, designated The Corps of Discovery. Clark accepted Lewis' offer to "participate with him in its fatiegues, its dangers and its honors." Clark, no longer on active army status, was told he would receive a regular army captaincy, but Congress refused to grant it. Nevertheless, Lewis designated Clark as captain and co-commander; expedition's men so regarded him and the journals so record it.

Lewis and Clark were scientist-explorers and singularly complementary. Although both were leaders of men and strict disciptinarians, Lewis was somewhat aloof, with a family background of bouts of despondency; Clark was more the extrovert and father figure. Lewis had great scientific interests in flora, fauna, and minerals, and Clark's surveying and engineering skills fit well with the demands of the expedition. While Lewis tended to view Indians fundamentally as savages, Clark, like Jefferson, saw the Indian as a full member of the human race and child of nature. At all times, the two soldiers were a team, each leading the expedition every other day. No known quarrel between them ever was recorded, although on a few occasions they thought it expedient to separate, probably to cool off...