September 23: Corps of Discovery Reaches St. Louis (1806)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are on a journey.
History Note
Since they had been gone for more than two years, President Thomas Jefferson was growing concerned that William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, and their Corps of Discovery might not make it back safely.
However, on September 23, 1806, the Corps arrived in St. Louis, Missouri. As they approached the town, members of the Corps fired a salute from their guns. People from the town gathered on the shore and gave three cheers of huzzah.
That day Meriwether Lewis wrote a long letter to President Jefferson. Lewis was a creative speller, and this is transcribed in his original spelling.
It is with pleasure that I anounce to you the safe arrival of myself and party . . . In obedience to your orders we have penitrated the Continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, and sufficiently explored the interior of the country to affirm with confidence that we have discovered the most practicable rout which dose exist across the continent by means of the navigable branches of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. . . .
If the government will only aid, even in a very limited manner, the enterprize of her Citizens I am fully convinced that we shall shortly derive the benifits of a most lucrative trade from this source, and that in the course of ten or twelve years a tour across the Continent by the rout mentioned will be undertaken by individuals with as little concern as a voyage across the Atlantic is at present. . . .
The Corps of Discovery disbanded at St. Louis, and the members went their separate ways.
The Gateway Arch, completed in 1965, recognizes the role of St. Louis in American expansion west of the Mississippi River.
Learn More
William Clark settled in St. Louis after the expedition.
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