Free Republic

Sept. 29, 2004 — If Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had set off on their historic expedition across what is now the northwestern United States a few years earlier, or a couple of years later, the dream of then-President Thomas Jefferson might have turned into a nightmare. The success of that venture contributed to the expansion of the West, based largely on glowing reports of lush, fertile regions where wildlife was abundant. But according to new research, Lewis and Clark were extraordinarily lucky. Unbeknownst to them, they had hit a narrow "window of opportunity" which created favorable images of the...

<p>Two hundred years ago, right about now, a 29-year-old Virginian named Meriwether Lewis was buying supplies for what was about to become America's most famous camping trip. Among other things on a very long list, Lewis was stocking up on gunpowder, fishhooks, tobacco, whiskey, trade beads (he went heavy on blue ones), mosquito netting, packets of powdered ink, flannel for clothing and nearly 200 pounds of something called "Portable-Soup" -- one of the first commercially dried foods the country had seen. William Clark wasn't yet part of the deal. The men knew each other -- Lewis had served under Clark's command in the U.S. Army -- but they weren't close friends. They would be soon enough, though, when they and the companions they called the Corps of Discovery stepped into the pages of history in May 1804.</p>