Instructor: Mark Jordan
Wednesdays, January 15, 22, 29, February 5, 12, 26, 3:00 – 5:00 PM, Berger Center
6-week session: Cost: $95
(Please note: No class on February 19)
Course Description:
In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson designated Meriwether Lewis to lead an Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, up the Missouri River, exploring the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Lewis, joined by William Clark, led 29 men, one woman and her infant son on the first great exploration conducted by the United States. Discover it through the eyes and words of these intrepid explorers as they encounter Native America tribes, an enormous wilderness, cross the unknown Rocky Mountains and eventually reach the Pacific Coast. Then return to report all they had seen and experienced.
Course Details:
At the request of President Thomas Jefferson, Captain Meriwether Lewis and his friend, William Clark led a select group of U.S. Army volunteers [and several other interesting persons, including a teen-age girl and her baby, west from Pittsburg in 1804, across the Continental Divide all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and back again to St. Louis. The Expedition’s initial objective was to explore the vast territory acquired with the Louisiana Purchase, and locate the mythical Northwest Passage. Mr. Jordan offers us a close study of the stages of the epic journey: the preparation and organization for this massive undertaking, leading Lewis and Clark to St Louis; from St. Louis to a wintering in the Mandan Villages of North Dakota; from the Mandan Villages to the Pacific; and then, after a wintering on the Pacific shore, the journey back to St. Louis. The Expedition is a great adventure story, and it’s also an event rich in historical, scientific, and political significance for the young American republic.
Week One:
Background Leading to the Expedition
From Columbus to the search for the Northwest Passage; Thomas Jefferson and the search for the Northwest Passage; Jefferson as President and the hiring of Meriwether Lewis.
To Start an Expedition
Jefferson’s proposal to Congress; Lewis embarks on putting expedition together; Harpers Ferry; Lancaster; Philadelphia; Lewis invites Clark to join him.
Lewis goes to Pittsburg
The barge and supplies; Waiting to hear from Clark; Getting underway.
Lewis travels down Ohio River
River difficulties; Early recruits; Meets Clark and other recruits.
Reaching the Missouri
St Louis and Camp Dubois; Wintering on the Missouri; Getting ready to ascend.
Setting out
Near disasters and river problems; Encounters with natives; Facedown with Teton Sioux; Reaching the Mandan villages.
Week Two:
Winter at the Mandan Villages
Mixing with the natives; Spending a winter at 40 below; meeting with Sacajawea/Sagawea.
Departure Into The Unknown on April 7
Six canoes and two pirogues leave for the “unknown;” Struggling up the Missouri; Seeking the right path at the undisclosed Fork.
The Great Portage
Discovering the Great Falls; the grueling portage; the failure of Lewis’ iron boat.
Into Sacajawea’s homeland
Struggling on the Upper Missouri; Sacajawea leads them along the rivers; Facing the Missouri forks, then the Jefferson forks and then the Beaverhead’s – making key decisions.
Week Three:
Divide and Discover
Looking for the Shoshone; Lewis crosses the Divide; discovering the Shoshone; geographical disappointment
Reunited and Reunited
Lewis and Clark reunite and plan for another portage; a grander moment of reuniting; The Corps moves over the Divide.
To Make the Great Crossing
No river trip to the ocean from here; getting horses and moving Northward; meeting the Salish; a disappointing piece of news; turning west into the Bitterroots; a brutal crossing.
The Waters of the Columbia
Emerging at Weippe Prairie; meeting the Nez Perce; planning the trip down the Clearwater; heading out in the brand-new canoes; along the Snake to the confluence with the Columbia.
To the Ocean
Where have all the Salmon gone? Frightening rapids, bare prairies, new tribes; reaching tidewater; reaching the Columbia estuary; reaching the river’s mouth.
Week Four:
Settling in for the Winter
Caught in a deluge; looking for relief; momentous decision making; seeking the winter campsite.
The Making of Fort Clatsop
Locating the campsite; heading to the ocean; building the Fort and meeting the natives; year-end Celebrations.
The Miserable Winter
Setting up the salt works; the daily routine; visiting the whale; visits from the natives – and rain.
Getting Ready to Return
Rain; daily routine; hunting, fishing, record keeping and map-making; and rain.
Week Five:
Departing from Fort Clatsop
Setting out; getting caught; working their way upstream; troubling native encounters.
The News is not Good
The fish are not jumping; the snows are too high; the river is difficult; and the natives make it difficult to advance.
Escaping the Coastal Tribes
Canoes do not make it easy; they need horses but cannot buy; getting back to the Nez Perce; seeing the huge barrier of snow; settling in with the Nez Perce; and waiting impatiently.
Trying to Cross the Bitterroots
Set out to cross the mountains; cannot get very far and are forced to turn around.
Week Six:
Crossing the Bitterroots
Ultimately have to rely on natives to guide them over the mountains.
Splitting the Party
Lewis heads north and east; Clark heads south and east; they plan to reunite. Lewis leaves, and finds a shorter way across the divide; Clark leaves and finds an easy way back to the canoes.
Clark’s Adventure
Down to the canoes and up the Missouri to the Three Forks; down the Gallatin to the Yellowstone; and along the Yellowstone to the confluence with the Missouri, to wait for Lewis.
Lewis’s Adventure
Lewis heads into Blackfoot country; Lewis meets Blackfoot members; the interaction and the across prairie flight; back on the Missouri, looking for Clark; and a strange day hunting.
The Party Reunites and Heads Home
Lewis catches up with Clark; they proceed down the Missouri; stop at the Mandan Villages; leave Sacajawea; roll on down Missouri; meet traders see “civilization;” and paddle their way to St Louis.
Afterlife of some of the Expedition members
Sergeant Patrick Gass
Alexander Willard
George Drouillard
John Colter
York
Toussaint Charbonneau
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Sacajawea
William Clark
Meriwether Lewis
Web Biography:
Mark Jordan, J.D. University of California Berkeley, has scoured the journals and the literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for the last 40 years. He has traveled the explorers’ route in car, on foot and in his canoe. He has published articles about the expedition and has lectured at the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation meetings both nationally and locally. He has taught the Expedition at the California State University of the East Bay, the University of South Carolina Beaufort, Santa Clara University and the University of California Berkeley for the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute. Mr. Jordan has extensive wilderness experience, having canoed across Canada to Hudson Bay, and on other rivers in Canada and the United States. In 2020, he was awarded the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Meritorious Achievement Award for bringing the Expedition to a broad public through his teaching, lecturing and writing.
