THE
LEWIS & CLARK CENTENNIAL
EXPOSITION
OPENED JUNE 1.1905. - CLOSES OCT. 15.1905. .
(°mmcmoratin4 the exploration of thc OREGON COUNTRY-1804-5
BY CAPTAIN
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a.
"There is certainly nowhere obtainable," says Reuben Gold Thwaites in Scribner's, "a more charming picture of man's love for man than is revealed in the affectionate letters between Lewis and Clark.
THE
EXPLORERS
Meriwether Lewis was born August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia, of one of the distinguished families of that State.
At thirteen years of age Lewis was put in a Latin school and continued at that until he was eighteen.
At the age of twenty he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia called out by General Washington, and shortly after was removed to regular service as a lieutenant of the line. At twenty-three he was promoted to a captaincy and eventually became paymaster of his regiment.
In 1793 he was selected to explore the country between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, but the expedition was abandoned. Ten years afterward while serving as secretary to Thomas Jefferson, then president of the United States, he was appointed leader of what is now known as the Lewis and Clark expedition. He started on the exploration from St. Louis May 14, 1804, returning September 25, 1806 (see page 6). On his return from the Northwest he was appointed Governor of Louisiana.
Captain Lewis died October 11, 1809, at the age of thirty-five years.
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Sacajawea, The Birdwoman An Indian girl of the Shoshone tribe, the friend and guide of the Explorers without whose aid they would never have reached the Pacific Coast.
...........Nowhere
is there evident a single note of discord, and not infrequently do they exhibit in their diaries a mutual attachment of that tender  sort   seldom seen among men."
THE EXPLORERS
William Clark, who was the ninth in a family of ten children, was born August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia, not far from the birthplace of Meriwether Lewis. At the age of fourteen his family moved west settling at Louisville, Ky. Here, amid the roughest of border conditions, Clark grew up to manhood.
At eighteen years of age, Clark chose a military career and was appointed ensign in the regular army. Two . years later he was made captain of militia in the town of Clarks-ville, " in the Territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River." In 17 91 he was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry under Wayne, and served afterward as adjutant and quartermaster.
Clark was chosen by Meriwether Lewis as his associate in the exploration of the Pacific Northwest, and on his return was appointed General of Militia of Louisiana and agent for Indian affairs in the territory that he had explored. The history of the expedition was prepared from Lewis' manuscript under the direction of Captain Clark and was first published in 1814.
Captain Clark died in St. Louis September 1, 1838, at the age of sixty-eight years.
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LEWIS & CLARK
EXPOSITION
'The acquisition of the Oregon country, including the present States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, was a fact of immense importance to our country, first giving us our place on the Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendancy in the commerce of the greatest of oceans." —Theodore Roosevelt.
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Sou. Pac. Co 1, McNaJlj & Co., Engravers, Ch
Map of the United States showing the Lewis and Clark Route through the " Oregon Country"
THE OREGOJV COUNTRY
ITS Soon after the American continent had been dis-
DISCOVERY covered, the existence of a northwest passage was surmised, and many voyages of discovery were undertaken by navigators to find such a passage. Ferrilo, a Spaniard, had made exploring voyages along the coast in 1543. Sir Francis Drake moved northward along the Oregon coast in 1578, after his landing on the coast of California, and several Spanish explorers visited the country between 1592 and 1775. In 1728 Vitus Behring, a Danish navigator, discovered Behring Straits and Alaska; in 1788 an Englishman. Captain Cook, commanded the
first English vessel that visited the North Pacific Coast. In 1792 Capt. Robert Grey, a trader from Boston, entered the mouth of the Columbia, and thus laid the foundation of the American title to Oregon.
Although the coast line of Oregon and Washington was known by mariners before the interior was explored, and maps more or less accurate were made from time to time by Spaniards, Dutch, British, and Russian navigators who vied with each other in exploring the coast, practically no attempt was made to explore the interior of the country until President Jefferson,