The Lewis and Clark Expedition Quiz

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

On January 18, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson requested that Congress make $2,500 available for a small United States Army unit to be assembled for an expedition to explore the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. Jefferson picked Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the unit, so began his assignment by studying a slew of different scientific topics while in Philadelphia.

Lewis gathered supplies and armaments from Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, and a crew of boatmen from Pittsburgh. By now Lewis had his co-commander, Captain William Clark, and they began down the Ohio River, recruiting more expedition members along the way between Pittsburgh and St. Louis, all with various skills and expertise.

Answer: The Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery

On May 14, 1804, William Clark set out from Camp Wood, aka Camp Dubois, in Illinois, and rendezvoused with Meriwether Lewis and ten other members of the Corps of Discovery, aka the Corps of Volunteers, for Northwestern Discovery, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Their journey began up the Missouri River up over the Rocky Mountains, and back down via the Snake River and Columbia River. In so doing they were able to map out extensive areas of the territory despite the physical hardships and near starvation.

Much of their trip succeeded due to the generosity of Native Americans who offered supplies and shelter.

Answer: Shoshone

In those 2 years, 4 months, and 9 days, they walked, rode, and paddled westward and then back east. The Wampanoag, Powhatan, and Cayuga tribes are eastern Native American tribes, but Sacagawea was a Shoshone, which is from "Sosoni", a Shoshone word for "high-growing grasses". The tribe inhabited the western part of the country.

Lewis and Clark met Sacagawea in 1804, in North Dakota along the Missouri River at Fort Mandan. The men had been interviewing, looking for someone to help as an interpreter along the way. They hired trapper Toussaint Charbonneau and his pregnant wife, Sacagawea. Almost immediately, Sacagawea proved valuable when she rescued important supplies and Clark's journals when they fell out of a canoe. For the rest of the adventure, she consistently interpreted for the team, and suggested routes that they take.

Answer: Nez Perce

While the Coharie, Chocataw, and Cherokee Native American tribes inhabited the American Southeast, the Nez Perce inhabited the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark first encountered the Nez Perce on September 10, 1805, when one of the most valuable members of the expedition, John Colter met them on Lolo Creek in Idaho.

When William Clark and some of the expedition ran into trouble that same month, they had been lost, trapped in snow and starving, but in the nick of time they came upon a Nez Perce encampment drying fish and baking bread. The explorers were saved. The Nez Perce accompanied the explorers until the two peoples bid farewell on October 25, 1805, at Fort Rock, a natural fortification along the Columbia River in Oregon. They would, however, reunite on April 23, 1806, at Rock Creek, Montana, on the Columbia River. Their final day together would be on the Fourth of July, 1806, at Missoula, Montana.

Answer: Teton Sioux and the Blackfeet

The expedition had several confrontations with the Teton Sioux in September 1804, one of the few times Lewis and Clark met up with hostilities among the many different tribes they encountered. The first run-in with the Teton Sioux occurred at the mouth of the Bad River in South Dakota, and then more hostilities occurred five miles further up the river. There were councils held to try and settle matters that seemed to work out, but then more hostilities rose up several more times. The expedition adopted an attitude to be on alert when in the Teton Sioux area.

On July 27, 1806, after William Clark carved his name and the date on a large rock formation near the Yellowstone River, Meriwether Lewis encountered eight Blackfeet warriors at the Marias River in Montana, and killed two of the Blackfeet when they tried to steal weapons and horses. The incident became known as Two Medicine Fight Site.

Answer: Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga, an 18th-century fort near Lake Champlain in New York, was captured by the Americans during a surprise attack in May 1775 during the American Revolution. The British recaptured it in 1777, but then abandoned it for good later that year. It was nowhere near the Lewis and Clark trail.

Fort Atkinson, in Nebraska was the site where on August 3, 1804, the expedition held the first council with Indian tribes. The two explorers recommended it as an army outpost, which it became in 1819.

Rock Fort was where the expedition established a defensive position in Oregon on both the westward journey and the home bound trip. They were there during the height of the fishing and trading season, so it is the site where they met the most Indians.

Fort Leavenworth in Kansas is on the site of a prominent bluff that Lewis and Clark encountered on July 2, 1804. The very last botanical specimen of the more than 200 the explorers collected was from this site.

Answer: Sergeant Charles Floyd

Lewis died on October 11, 1809, at age 35, shortly after the expedition was finished. It has been debated whether it was murder or suicide, but most of the circumstances would point to suicide: he was known to be depressive, drank heavily, was having financial difficulties, had made a suicide attempt prior to the expedition, and drafted a will while making the expedition.

York was the only Black man on the expedition, a slave owned by Clark, and he was the rare slave that was permitted to carry a gun, which he used in hunting and defending the expedition. When the journey ended, he asked Clark for his freedom, which Clark, unfortunately, refused to grant.

While preparing for the trip in Pennsylvania, Meriwether Lewis paid $20 for a Newfoundland dog named Seaman that is believed to have completed the entire expedition with the crew. Lewis appreciated the dog for "his docility and qualifications for my journey."

It was Sergeant Charles Floyd who was the only person who died during the expedition, presumably from a ruptured appendix, on August 20, 1804. His grave is in Sioux City, Iowa, at the Floyd Monument National Historic landmark, a 100-foot tall stone obelisk.

Answer: Cape of Disappointment

Settling first at Station Camp, the highest point they could find on the northern bank of the Columbia River estuary, they ventured further west.
Capes Fear, Sable, and Lookout, are all on the east coast of the United States. Sighting the Pacific for the first time on November 7, 1805. From Station Camp along the Columbia, the expedition traveled almost 7 miles more and reached Cape Disappointment.

It was given that name in 1788 by John Meares, a British fur trader, who had sailed down from Canada in search of the Columbia River. But he couldn't locate the river and so named that spot where he sailed to Cape Disappointment. Anyway, low on food, the expedition voted to move camp across the river to the south, that being Oregon, and they set up Fort Clatsop. There, Lewis wrote a copious amount of what he had learned in his journals. They stayed until March 23, 1806, when the journey back east began.

Answer: Pompey's Pillar National Monument

On the return trip, Captain William Clark sailed down the Yellowstone River and came upon an outcrop made of sandstone. On July 25, 1806, Clark carved his own name and date into a rock that would become known as "Pompeys Tower," named after Sacagawea's son. Clark nicknamed the boy "Pomp." The national monument is located 30 miles east of Billings, Montana.

Katahdin Woods and Waters is in Maine, Fort Stanwix is in New York, and Petroglyph is in New Mexico - all are national monuments, but nowhere near the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Answer: Fort Charles

With help from the Missouri River's current, the expedition covered 70 miles a day in traveling back east, and on September 23, 1806, arrived in St. Louis, the city where the expedition officially began. They brought with them a treasure trove of information about what had mostly been unexplored territory, as well as a claim to Oregon territory for the United States, and diplomatic relations with two dozen Native American tribes.

One of the original members of the expedition, Sergeant John Ordway, had helped organize encampments for the expedition, and was the only sergeant who had kept a journal with daily entries. On September 21, 1806, the explorers reached St. Charles; Ordway wrote: "Towards evening we arived at St. Charles fired three rounds and Camped at the lower end of the Town. the people of the Town gathered on the bank and could hardly believe that it was us for they had heard and had believed that we were all dead and were forgotton."

Fort Jefferson is actually in Florida, and Forts Sumter and Moultrie are in South Carolina.