The Rambling Writer Review: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
The Ken Burns documentary of the Lewis & Clark Expedition fleshes out the amazing adventures and challenges of the daring exploration of the new U.S. Louisiana Purchase and beyond.
After Thor and I had watched the Ken Burns documentary of the American Revolution, we were eager to watch more history, so we settled in with Lewis and Clark. It was a more upbeat experience (we both had found the Revolution doc somewhat depressing, with so much violence and betrayal on all sides). The documentary includes interviews with historians, paintings of key figures and events, journal and letter excerpts, some photos (from places and tribes a bit later than the actual events), maps, and a lot of really gorgeous videos of the dramatic landscapes the expedition covered. We do live among spectacular landscapes!
Soon after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which approximately doubled the land claimed by the United States, President Thomas Jefferson proposed an expedition to document and map the land, much of which was unexplored by non-natives. The main goal was to establish the U.S. claim before other European powers could do so (the Spanish already claimed large portions of the Southwest and sought to block the expedition with an armed force). A big goal was the hope of finding a water passage to the Pacific, for a trade route, as they mistakenly believed there would be a water connection to the Columbia River. (The Rocky Mountains would come as a big and dangerous surprise.) As Jefferson was a big science supporter, he also envisioned the expedition as a way to collect valuable information.
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the stunning beauty of her native Pacific Northwest wild places. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
4 thoughts on “The Rambling Writer Review: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery”
It’s hard to wrap my mind around the hardships of this journey. Poling their keelboat upriver against the current for months…and that was the easy part! I also did not know that the general population was aware of the expedition when it started. It was a big deal, like the moon landing. So when the team reappeared after everyone assumed they were dead, there were huge crowds and celebrations greeting them all along the river home. That must have been something.
Yes, it was a really big deal. That makes it even worse, that Lewis ended up feeling like a failure and caught in his dark depression. They accomplished so much.
From day one, the people who _really_ knew Lewis questioned his suicide. I’ve read books and seen documentaries that present enough evidence that he may have been murdered. The debate is still hot among historians.
Phyl, that is good to know. Who are the suspects? Apparently he was shot in both the head and heart, and I wondered how that was possible/probable with self-inflicted shooting. I’m looking forward to a new book due in April that supposedly will reference some new documents about the expedition, and debunk some “myths” about it….