Any history buffs here?

[stef]

Past week I've been reading, reading, reading about The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery in 1803 and their efforts to find a water route across the rockies in order to reach the Pacific.

You either walked, rode a horse or went by boat. There was no faster means of transportation than the horse. No trains, cars, bikes. Lewis and Clark, and the men they assembled for their adventure were in their 20's and 30's. The youngest was 18. They were tough as nails, and they needed to be. They slept on the ground, rowed the keel boat, when the waters were nagivable. Otherwise they portaged their supplies, while others moved the vessel to where it would float again.

Their whole round trip took over two and a half years, totalled more than 7,000 miles. Over that period of time they lost only two of their original group. One young man died of appendicitis. The other deserted. They had many encounters with Indians. By far the best time they spent was at the Mandan Indian settlement on the upper Missouri. It was well near a mutual admiration society.

However, there was an altercation with the corps on their return trek where one Indian got killed for stealing a rifle.

Not done reading yet. An amazing time in US history.
Within days of Lewis and Clark leaving for their adventure, Napoleon sold New Orleans to President Jefferson, and the United States. It added about two thirds more land and transferred sovereignty of great tracts of Indian territory from the French and English to that of the United States, which allowed the explorers to go as ambassadors of the United States, rather than trespassers on foreign soil.
Stef

[ladycat]

I love history!!

[Up North]

Stef - That sounds like a good read. If you enjoy history, I think you would enjoy The 3- Volume Set, "Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln"...Very thorough,
yet entertaining.....cheers.

[stef]

The laying of the trans-continental railway sounds fascinating, too.

[DocM]

Are you reading "Undaunted Courage"? (just finished it myself)

[haypoint]

While the stated mission was to find a waterway passage to the west coast, they collected many specimens of plants and animals and documented some herbal uses employed by the Natives. Perhaps those discoveries were of as great a significance as their mapping.

[fordy]

................Think I'll run by my local county library and see what selections they have on L&C . I watched a 2 hour documentary on PBS couple years back that was extremely interesting . I need something too occupy time here in the trailer during this rainy , wet weather . thanks stef , fordy...

[Bruce in NE]

I read the L&C transcripts years ago and it was truly fascinating.

[Christiaan]

Only member who died was felled by appendicitis, not by a bear. I forget if it was Lewis or Clark who received a painful wound in the buttocks from a hunting accident.
Dog was the only reliable source of meat along some parts of the trail. Some of the Indian tribes thought they were quite barbaric for eating dog. They also got extremely sick and tired of salmon while they wintered on the Oregon coast.
One of the truly interesting things about the expedition is how little real impact it had on the nation at the time. Parts of their route was followed many years later in the migration to the Oregon country but that was about the extent of it. The Oregon country itself was claimed and exploited from ships sailing round the horn and trappers with the Hudsons Bay company. It wasn't until Bernard De Voto edited and published the journals and wrote about the journey in the 1930's that Lewis and Clark caught the publics imagination. Around the same time you also have the very interesting expeditions of Zebulon Pike and Bonneville. The histories of the Spanish settlements near Nootka on Vancouver Island are also intriquing.
If you read about the early settlements on the East Coast it is amazing that any succeeded. The death tolls of the early colonists are astronomical. Luckily Europe was able to produce men faster than American could kill them.

[dale]

When in School I hated History couldnt understand how it would help me when I was out in the everyday life.
but now i watch much of the History Channel and Military Channel to learn more of the History i didnt learn while in school
May be the reason is I have researched my family history and by doing that found many member in different wars like the revolutionary war, and others

dale

[pancho]

Wasn't Lewis the one who committed suicide?

[dcross]

Originally Posted by Christiaan

One of the truly interesting things about the expedition is how little real impact it had on the nation at the time.

Wasn't there something in Undaunted Courage about the expedition giving a fairly rosy assessment of winter in North Dakota leading to a rush of poorly prepared settlers who then died? L&C thought it wasn't too bad, but they had a big advantage due to all the Mandan corn?

[dcross]

Originally Posted by pancho

Wasn't Lewis the one who committed suicide?

Maybe

http://www.hnn.us/articles/1758.html

[JJ Grandits]

Amazing how we hate history in school and then find it so fascinating. Being a western New Yorker I once read everything the county library had on the construction of the Erie Canal. A really fantastic story of inginuity. Several of the books gave great detail about the history of the towns in the area and the people who lived there. It gives you an entirely different awareness of where you live. Anyone ever get into Marco Polo?

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by JJ Grandits

Amazing how we hate history in school and then find it so fascinating.

I LOVED history in school. I even made good grades in my history classes.

[FarmboyBill]

alongside a creek, tht on the 4th of July, they named Independance creek. If you can locate tht, and go up 2/3 miles, then you would be thereabouts 500ft from where I was born raised

[teresab]

We watched Lewis and Clark at our local IMAX and found it facinating. I plan on reading up on them when I get a chance. I do remember studying them in school but not a lot of time was spent on them. I find history facinating....it shapes who we are as a nation. ave

[FarmboyBill]

Farming history from 1850 to 1950, Civil War, Spanish American War, WW1, Indian Wars, Old West, Prohibition, Depression era, with some minor lapses in time from either side of those above dates, and I used to be good at European history from around 500 to 1200 thereabouts

[DW]

I, too, never cared for it in school but now I am so interested. My husband & I are trying to get to all the forts in the west around us. Ft Laramie in WY is probably our favorite but Bents Fort in SE Colorado is pretty cool, too.

[swollen tongue]

the weak perished and the strong forged on..........just like it is done today.............