Lewis & Clark Trivia

1. Who asked Congress for the funds to prepare an expedition for the monumental trek that Lewis & Clark undertook?

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

Farmers in Western Pennsylvania were angered by an excise tax on the illegal distilling of whiskey imposed in 1791 and began taking out their frustrations on tax collectors. Fearing that the unrest would spread, President George Washington organized a militia on August 7, 1794. Meriwether joined the militia and eventually rose to the rank of Captain. The Whiskey Rebellion was the first anti-government movement in the fledgling United States.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: President Jefferson's personal secretary

Lewis was hired because of his knowledge of the Western country and the personnel of the Army, of which he was a Captain. He was paid $500 annually in salary. This was paid personally by Jefferson out of his salary.

From Quiz Lewis & Clark- Quirky Jerky

Answer: Alcohol

Members would steal stores of alcohol while on night watch as others were sleeping. Even though it wasn't likely that anyone would try to attack the expedition while on the river, it was a major problem for Lewis and Clark, as they had been in the Army together and conducted the Corps as such.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: George Rogers Clark

George Rogers Clark, a hero of the Revolutionary War, and Jefferson had originally discussed a western expedition in the 1780's. Clark, by the way, was the brother of William Clark.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: Alexander Mackenzie

Mackenzie's 1802 book "Voyages from Montreal through the continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793, with an Account of the Rise and State of the Fur Trade", described the first European crossing of the North American continent. Disappointed that he had not found the fabled 'Northwest Passage', Mackenzie nonetheless urged the British government to develop a route to the Pacific in order to increase their trade with the Orient. Jefferson feared that this might result in the entire Northwest coming under British control.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: Dr. Benjamin Rush

Dr. Rush was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He sent along lancets, forceps, syringes, opium, and 50 dozen of "Rush's Pills." (a purgative of explosive power) Rush sent along a questionnaire with dozens of questions about the native Indians. The others listed were advisors to the trip also, in areas of botany and fossils.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: Andre Michaux

The Frenchman, Andre Michaux, was originally slated to go west. However, he was pulled from the assignment when it was learned he was a spy.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: A powerful laxative

Pity the poor person who took a 'Thunderbolt'! Used to 'cure' almost any ailment, it was an explosive, fast-acting laxative that rendered the user weak for several days. A mixure of such ingredients as coloynth, mercurous chloride, jalap resin, and gamboage, a milder form of the original 'Thunderbolt' was used until the 1940's.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: May 14, 1804

They left at 4:00 in the afternoon that day, and made four miles up the Missouri River before nightfall.

From Quiz Lewis & Clark- Quirky Jerky

Answer: roots

Most of them stayed in bed for almost a week. Although they were going down the Columbia, with the best salmon in the world, they preferred to eat dog and even their horses. When the Native Americans offered them boiled Camas root, which acts as a laxative, they gorged themselves on it and got wretchedly sick.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: Taking whiskey from the company supply

Collins received 100 lashes and Hall 50 lashes for this indiscretion. The expedition members were more than anxious to apply the punishment. Everyone wanted their fair share of the whiskey, which would run out on the July 4 celebration the following year.

From Quiz Lewis & Clark- Quirky Jerky

Answer: Prairie Dog

They spent almost a day trying to catch one coming out of its hole. Once captured, they sent it back live with Jefferson. It ran around the grounds of Monticello for the remainder of its life.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: smallpox

Jefferson suggested that Lewis and Clark take along cowpox so they could teach the Native Americans how to inoculate against smallpox.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: 41

The crew was made up of three sergeants, eight French boatmen, and 30 soldiers. Only one person died during the entire time of the expedition - Charles Floyd, a sergeant and a relative of William Clark, died on July 31, 1804.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: coyote

They called it a "prairie wolf." All of the others had been previously known to Americans.

From Quiz Lewis & Clark- Quirky Jerky

Answer: Sacagawea

It's true -- Sacagawea saved the legacy of Lewis and Clark. On the wild river one of the canoes with all of Lewis and Clarks's journals and scientific instruments capsized. Had it not been for Sacagawea's lucidness, it all would have been lost.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: Corps of Discovery Expedition

Jefferson's goal for them was to bring back specimens of plants, animals, and mineral as well as maps of the west. He also asked them to record all of their findings in a journal, which they did.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: Otos

Lewis addressed them as "Children," and told them of Thomas Jefferson, "The Great Chief of the Great Seventeen Nations of America."

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: It was where William Clark inscribed his name

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was the son of Sacagawea and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. Born in 1805, the baby became a favorite of William Clark and he named an unusual rock outcropping along the Yellowstone River 'Pomp's Tower.' Clark climbed the 'Tower', enjoyed the extensive view, and carved his name into the rock. His graffiti remains the only physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition on the entire trail. On the same day that he signed a the bill designating Pompey's Pillar as a National Monument, President Clinton gave William Clark his long overdue promotion to Captain and made York and Sacagawea honorary sergeants in the U.S. Army. In 1814, Nicholas Biddle wrote the first extensive book on the expedition and accidentally changed the name from 'Pomp' to 'Pompey.'

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: First U.S. soldier to die west of the Mississippi River

He died from a ruptured appendix.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: Louisville, Kentucky

Lewis and Clark met up in Louisville, Kentucky. This is also where they went about recruiting men for the trip.

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Expedition

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.

From Quiz "We are in view of the Ocian": Lewis & Clark

Answer: He was shot in the butt by a one-eyed fiddle player

Lewis and Clark had separated to explore two different rivers. Clark was on the Yellowstone River and came across some elk. The men hadn't had much meat and were eager to add elk steaks to their larder. Unfortunately, Pierre Cruzatte, the one-eyed fiddle player, shot Clark instead of an elk. Clark thought he had been shot by Indians, but soon found out that the bullet lodged in his breeches came from a U.S. Army rifle.

From Quiz A Bicentennial Salute to Lewis and Clark

Answer: trade with the Mandan Indians

The list of "firsts" these Americans achieved is indeed a long one. If you want to know more, I recommend Stephen Ambrose's book, "Undaunted Courage."

From Quiz The Lewis and Clark Exploration

Answer: May 14, 1804

The expedition left from Camp Dubois on the 14th of May in the year 1804.

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