Lewis & Clark -- A Beginning and an End
Monday, June 30, 2008 -- near Edwardsville, IL Yesterday, Sunday, dodging rain showers and flooded roads, we found the point where, in May of 1804, the Corps of Discovery -- The L&C Gang, as I've been referring to them -- more or less formally began their trip into the unknown western lands of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. They had wintered over on land near the L&C Discovery Center at the mouth of a small stream known as Wood River, or Riviere DuBois at the time -- Camp River DuBois as one of them wrote in their journal. Because the formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase hadn't taken place yet, they stayed for the winter, here, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi (the western edge of the United States at that time) close to the mouth of the Missouri River. For the Gang, Camp DuBois was a beginning. For us, it was an end. Our beginning was at their destination -- the mouth of the Columbia River, where the Gang stayed during the winter of 1805 - 1806. The