The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806

The Journals of Lewis and Clark are not a retelling of the expedition. They are the expedition itself, written in real time by men who did not know if they would survive. Beginning in May 1804 from Camp River Dubois near St. Louis, Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led thirty-three men, including the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, into territory no American had ever documented. What unfolds across these pages is both a thrilling adventure narrative and an astonishing catalog of natural history: new species of plants and animals, geological formations that defied explanation, and rivers that had to be learned through trial and catastrophic error. The journals also record something more human and more complicated: encounters with dozens of Native nations, some collaborative, some wary, all transformed by the knowledge that these lands were now claimed by a distant republic. Reading these entries today feels like eavesdropping on the birth of American geography. The wonder is genuine. So is the complicated legacy.