THE most exciting travel drama in U.S. history began May 14, 1804. On that rainy Monday President Thomas Jefferson's private secretary. Captain Meriwether Lewis, 29, 1st Regiment of Infantry. U.S.A., and his friend, 2nd Lieut. William Clark, 33, of the Corps of Artillerists (he signed himself captain on Jefferson's authority), headed westward from St. Louis at the head of a 43-man "Corps of Discovery." Their objective was to explore the newly acquired territory of the Louisiana Purchase and find a route from the Missouri to the Columbia River, over which the rich fur trade...
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