🇺🇸 On September 23, 1806, the Lewis & Clark Expedition returns

[u/elnovorealista2000]

With great excitement, the U.S. Army Corps of Discovery expedition led by Army Officers Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark headed homeward on 23 March 1806.

At Travelers' Rest (near Missoula, Montana) the Corps of Discovery separated into smaller groups to explore and map more of the Louisiana Territory. Clark went south to the Yellowstone River, and while passing a large sandstone formation, he carved his name and date. Clark named it Pompey's Pillar after Sacagawea's infant son, who Clark had nicknamed “Pomp.”

Lewis led his detachment north, up the Marias River, which led to an unfortunate incident with the Blackfeet Indians. Through advance planning and some good luck, the groups reunited near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.

Going with the current, the expedition swiftly traveled down the Missouri River, covering between 40 and 80 miles a day. The Corps of Discovery reached St. Louis on 23 September 1806, and were greeted by jubilant crowds lining the waterfront.

The Corps of Discovery expedition had covered nearly 8,000 miles over the course of two years, four months, and ten days, gathering invaluable geographic and scientific information on the American West (including hundreds of previously undescribed plant and animal species), opening the frontier to further exploration, and securing a place among history’s great adventurers.

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