A look 200 years into our past would leave you baffled, the United States in miniature and the frontier land infinite. In those lands, in those plains, on those snow-capped mountains lie the hopes and dreams of the men of our entire small developing nation. Men young and old, some skilled and others driven by passion, have taken it upon themselves to explore this no man's land. Two very lucky men and 29 of their peers were able to travel across these vast wildernesses under the will and orders of President Thomas Jefferson. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the commanding officers of a 31-member party, embarked on a mystical and fortifying adventure in which they must navigate and document what they thought was the simplest route across the American continent to the 'Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean was a faceless name, and these men would be the first white men to see rushing waters, rugged cliffs, and lush sandy beaches. These men would be the first to report the mystery of the border. On May 13, 1804, Captain Lewis and Captain Clark set out on their cross-country adventure. The men in their 54-foot boat and several small canoes began their journey down the great Missouri. The first part of the journey would be to move from their current home, Fort Dubois, to Two-Thousand-Mile Creek, home of the Sioux Indians. When these men began moving up the Missouri they could not look back, they were leaving the country, their families and their friends and now they would make one of the most powerful and necessary journeys in American history. The trip from Fort Dubois to Two-Thousand-Mile Creek was relatively easy. Around the men as they rode the Missouri Current they were surrounded by beautiful green fields, plains as long as the eye can see, and many animals that would serve as these men's entire diet. Animals that man had not witnessed were beginning to appear, one of these animals was the prairie dog or prairie wolf. Men were surprised by the similarity between this animal and the gray squirrel in developed America, but when they were close enough to see and kill these animals they noticed the differences. On this first waterway, the Missouri, men stopped in multiple places to rest, hunt, and contact Indians. Along the way the Indian captains and their translators spoke and traded with the Sioux, the Otto, and the Maha. The constant tradition these men observed among the Indians was to celebrate friendship by smoking a tobacco pipe. The white men and the Indians got along perfectly well with men who had never seen skin of this color. After successfully traveling the road to Two-Thousand-Mile Creek, the men camped for a time and witnessed the splendor of the land. Around the men were herds of animals, sometimes thousands. Buffalo roamed freely in and around the waterholes, antelope grazed the grass and roots in abundance, elk and deer in numbers never before seen waded undisturbed in the same water as these men. The men, after remaining a few days on Two-Thousand-Mile Creek, began moving toward a Shoshoni Indian camp across the Lemhi River. This stretch of the journey would cover a distance that would make a driver today let alone an early 19th century explorer shudder, 2,300 miles. Along the Lemhi River the men stopped from time to time and that's when they settledthe first contact with a great beast. This beast, the white bear, was described as a large and terrible-looking animal that required 10 pellets to kill by Captain Clark (p. 42), after they had finally killed one of the famous white bears. As the journey continues, the travelers come to a gigantic waterfall of which Captain Lewis thus spoke; "I would long for Salvator Rosa's pencil or Thompson's pen to be able to give the enlightened world a fair idea of ​​this truly magnificently and sublimely grand object..." (p.61). It was along this route that the crew and their captains first saw the snow-capped peaks of the mighty Rocky Mountains. The men spent several days at the Shoshoni camp and exchanged many things with the Indians there and celebrated their friendship by smoking. After these days of rest, on August 21, 1805, the men departed for Fort Clatsop, their destination on the beaches of the Pacific. Ocean. Along the way the travelers passed through the Bitterroot Valley and established a camp called Travelers Rest at the mouth of Lolo Creek. After meeting Flathead Indians and exchanging horses to cross the Rocky Mountains, the group began their ascent up and through the mountains. the frozen ground with only their strong will and supplies to keep them from freezing to death. When they finally crossed the mountains they were greeted by a long stretch of empty land that they had to cross with no timber to build canoes or animals to carry them. live from. Finally they heard it, the roar of the Pacific Ocean, the sound of immense power and absolute conquest. When the men arrived at the beach they were amazed by the serenity and surreal effects of its nature. The sharp cliffs, the monsters stranded from the waters (whales), the natives on the land and also the incredible salmon run. The men remained for nearly three months on these beaches, living on roots and fish, and making a living off the Indians, some of whom depended on the Captains for survival. Captain Clark was now a doctor and cared for people who had once been considered savages, people who had lived on the American frontier for hundreds of years. When time and weather were favorable, the men left their coastal home and began their return home to the United States. The two Captains who now kept journals, in elkskin-bound notebooks, would always report their discoveries and encounters back to the wealthy community from which they came. First the trip from Fort Clatsop to Musquettoe Creek on the west side of the Rockies. During this trip one of the most evident problems was, by pure coincidence, that of mosquitoes. When you inhaled or simply opened your mouth (there was one female out of 31) you swallowed a mouthful of mosquitoes, the pain and anguish that the carriers of the West Nile virus caused these people was almost unbearable. But these brave, determined and intelligent men overcame this feat on the journey and managed to rest near the Rocky Mountains. At this resting place the group would have to wait 2 months before they could travel to the Rocky Mountains and during this time the men lived in a nearby tribe called the Chinook. The Chinook were very hospitable to white men and their black servants, and offered them horses to use or kill for food when necessary. The men thanked the Indians very much and gave them what they had not already used in barter during the journey. When the next full moon came and the mountains were reachable, no longer covered in 15 feet of snow, the men moved on. They set out over the frozen hills and precipices of the Mountains.