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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...

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A project by a team of history buffs to retrace Lewis and Clark's expedition has proved historically accurate in at least one respect: The adventurers have encountered hostile Indians. A group of about 25 Indians told the expedition members to turn their boats around and go home last week as they made their way up the Missouri River near Chamberlain, where the rolling prairie opens to a grand vista on the lofty banks of the river. The Indians condemned the re-enactors for celebrating a journey that marked the beginning of the end for traditional Indian culture. The confrontation was laced...

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A group re-enacting the Lewis and Clark expedition was confronted in South Dakota by American Indian leaders who questioned the legacy of the 200-year-old trip and its effects on native culture. An American Indian delegation greeted the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles over the weekend with protest signs, including one suggesting the original expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led to genocide of their people and destruction of their culture. The re-enactors were asked to go back home. "I went as a peaceful emissary and asked in a kind way if they would leave," said...

WASHINGTON - There's change in store for Thomas Jefferson — on the nickel that is. He's getting his first makeover since his likeness was put on the coin in 1938. The makers of the nation's coins, the U.S. Mint, was unveiling Thursday designs for two new nickels. It's the latest in a series of design changes for the coins to honor two important events in U.S. history: the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The revamped nickels will be issued in 2005. A new likeness of Jefferson, the third president, will be on the front of the two...

CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (AP) — A group led by a man from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is planning "an action of the Lakota people" against Lewis and Clark re-enactors who are coming to Chamberlain this weekend. "They're just opening up all the old wounds that we're still trying to heal from," Alex White Plume said. "They should have been a little bit more courteous and asked us about what they are doing, and maybe they could have joined in the healing effort. Instead, they're just coming through and bragging about what they did 200 years ago." About 20 people who...

On Saturday we traveled from our home in Lakewood to Simi Valley to visit friends and accompany them to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. They have struck up a friendship with an extraordinary person who is a docent at the Library and we couldn’t resist the promise of a private tour. The tour was wonderful. The grounds magnificent, the exhibits awe inspiring including the replica of the Oval Office. Then we got to the Lewis and Clark exhibition. There were canoes and a authentic reproduction of one of their Keel Boats, an Indian village, the supplies and trinkets they carried...

It was almost exactly 200 years ago: Three dozen men, tough as mule meat, departed the last outpost of civilization on an American odyssey that would take them more than 8,000 miles by foot, canoe paddle, and hoof. Before they finally returned to St. Charles, Missouri an amazing 864 days later, nearly everyone except the man who sent them assumed they had long since perished on their journey. The man who never lost hope was Thomas Jefferson--the Commander in Chief who more than doubled the size of the United States by purchasing "Upper Louisiana" from France in 1803, then dispatched...

By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Before the going got tough, the tough went shopping: opium, inkstands, sealing wax and "portable soup" were all on the list of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who launched an epic journey into the unknown American West exactly 200 years ago.   To mark Friday's anniversary, the National Archives offered a glimpse of documents that shed light on the careful planning and provisioning for the Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific and back. "We were now about to penetrate a country of at least 2,000 miles in width, on...

Illinois site marks place where Lewis, Clark and 11 Kentuckians, spent bitter winter BERRY CRAIG Associated Press HARTFORD, Ill. - Pvt. John Colter was cold or bored, or maybe both. The young Kentuckian and three other soldiers left Camp River Dubois allegedly for "hunting or other business." They sneaked off to a "neighboring Whiskey shop" and got caught. Their commander confined them to camp for 10 days. The officer was Capt. Meriwether Lewis of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806. The party of explorers, which included 11 Kentuckians, wintered in 1803-1804 at Camp River Dubois near Hartford, Ill....

Miller: Agents of empire, The Lewis and Clark expedition Posted: March 22, 2004 - 10:27am EST by: Robert J. Miller / Associate Professor / Lewis & Clark Law School Meriwether Lewis and William Clark rank high in the pantheon of American folk heroes. Even today, at the 200-year commemoration of their expedition, Lewis and Clark are viewed as brave adventurers who went where no one had gone before and explored and conquered the wilderness for the betterment of America. There is another way, however, to view Lewis and Clark, which is closer to the truth. Lewis and Clark were...

When President George W. Bush officially announced the new space initiative at NASA Headquarters on January 14, he invoked the memory of a famous pair of explorers, Lewis and Clark. As Bush put it: Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They made that journey in the spirit of discovery, to learn the potential of vast new territory, and to chart a way for others to follow. America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons. A closer reading of history, though, suggests that the...

WASHINGTON -- The site where the Lewis and Clark reached the end of their journey West and first spied the Pacific Ocean would become part of the National Park system under legislation the Bush administration proposed Monday. The site near the mouth of the Columbia River, known as Station Camp, along with two other spots along the Columbia in Washington would become part of a new Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. "This will be the single most compelling legacy for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial in Washington state," said Dave Nicandri, director of the Washington State Historical Society in...

What parallels can be drawn, and what lessons can be learned, from the Lewis and Clark expedition 200 years ago? In the spring of 1804, a hardy band of explorers left St. Louis and pushed their boats northwest, up the Missouri River. They were grandly called the Corps of Discovery, and were commanded by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. It was the beginning of one of the most extraordinary adventures in American history, the brainchild of one of its most extraordinary men, President Thomas Jefferson. The expedition would return more than two years later, bringing with them news of dazzling...

<p>Necklace made of grizzly-bear claws had been misplaced with other items in Peabody Museum.</p> <p>Dec. 17 began like any other work day for Kara Gniewek, a curatorial assistant at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Sliding on her white laboratory coat and snapping on latex gloves, she dove into her ongoing, three-year-old assignment - cataloging thousands of artifacts from the South Pacific in a large, musty storage room.</p>

Prescott: Have you heard what the president is proposing now? Howell: Something about exploration, isn't it? Prescott: Right. He wants to send a crew out into the great beyond to explore uncharted territory. Have you seen the price tag? Howell: Yeah. And I understand that much of the funding goes into the pockets of the president's close buddies. One of the guys in charge served as his personal secretary for years, and the other is his good friend, William Clark. Prescott: There should be an investigation. Howell: Definitely! Prescott: It's almost as bad as that Louisiana Purchase deal earlier in...

Source: Oregon State University Date: 2003-11-20 Lewis And Clark Notes Reveal History Of Human Impacts CORVALLIS – Native Americans had a major impact on the wildlife of the American West for hundreds of years prior to European settlement, a report from Oregon State University indicates, based on data from one of the most accurate surveys of its time – the journals of Lewis and Clark. It is a myth that vast areas of the West existed in some sort of pristine state, largely unaffected by humans until the 1800s, the research concludes. In fact, the larger wildlife such as deer,...

<p>YORK (CNN/Money) - In April of this year, the U.S. Mint announced that it would redesign the five-cent coin, with a new nickel to be released in 2004. Today, the Mint unveiled designs for not one new nickel, but two.</p>

(WASHINGTON) -- After 65 years, the American nickel is getting its first makeover. But you'll have to flip it over to see a difference. Thomas Jefferson's face will still be on the front. But the back will be different. Instead of Jefferson's home, Monticello, it will depict scenes from the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis-and-Clark expedition to commemorate their bicentennials. Jefferson arranged the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States. He also was the force behind the expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Pacific coast and back. The U.S. Mint, which makes the nation's...

PORTLAND — On May 14, 1804, William Clark wrote in his journal that "under a jentle brease," the boats of the Corps of Discovery headed up the Missouri with "46 men, 4 horses and 1 dog." With the Lewis and Clark expedition's bicentennial, narratives and edited journals are flying off the presses. Much of what there is to tell has been told. At least two new books tell the tale of the voyage supposedly from the dog's point of view. The shaggy, black, bearlike Newfoundland dog that accompanied them on the 8,000-mile, 28-month trek into the unknown remains largely in...