MISTER EASE

When our country was founded, we laid claim to a lot of territory we knew nothing about.  It was a mystery to all but the native Americans.

Near the start of the 19th century, when our country was just a few years old, President Jefferson authorized an expedition to explore and map the territory of the western part of the continent which we had claimed.   Don't confuse this with the Northwest Territory which was the name for the territory North and West of the Ohio River (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.) Young army officers, Lewis and Clark were chosen to lead the expedition.  It was imperative that we acted quickly because France and Spain were also interested in claiming that area.

They started just north of St. Louis where the Missouri River feeds into the Mississippi.  The Missouri is the longest river on the continent.  It was thought that it might lead all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  It doesn't go quite that far.  It's headwaters are in western Montana - fed by three streams out of the Rocky Mountains.  The Missouri ambles from Montana easterly through North Dakota and then southeasterly into South Dakota and acts as the border in parts of that state and Nebraska and Iowa and Kansas and Missouri.   At the South Dakota and Nebraska border, it flows through what we now call Lewis and Clark Lake near Yankton, South Dakota (home of the world-famous tarp systems manufacturer Shur-Co).

The Lewis and Clark expedition lasted two years and four months.  They did make it all the way to the Pacific and back.  Lewis was 29 and Clark was just 33 when they departed from St. Charles, Missouri.  Young men and brave to be sure.  They ventured into the unknown much as our astronauts do today.  They traversed through Lakota (Sioux) Indian territory with the help of guides and interpreters they met along the way.   They solved the mystery - finding a way to the west coast and secured the vast territory for us all.
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