Traveling The Lewis And Clark Trail

History is complemented by a complete guide to the many scenic sites and recreation available to today's traveler.

This guide is an in-depth look at how to get the most out of a visit to the historic Lewis and Clark Trail. The best sites to see and activities to do along the way are given, as well as maps, itineraries, and local resources for lodging and dining.

The Lewis & Clark Expedition ranks among history¿s greatest adventures: In the early 1800s, when the vast western territory of the U.S. was largely unexplored, Meriwether Lewis & William Clark, along with the Corps of Discovery, traveled into the unknown & mapped a route across the country & back. Today, modern-day explorers can retrace the route with this guide. In this expanded, thoroughly updated Bicentennial edition, veteran guide & travel author Julie Fanselow provides comprehensive information on activities, attractions, visitor amenities, & more for every state along the route. Inside you will find: history of the trail; suggested itineraries; where to go, what to see, & where to stay; & detailed maps. Illustrations.

This edition contains no advertising, and is stitch-bound. It covers the whole story of the expedition, beginning east of the Mississippi River as Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis planned, and Lewis trained and traveled. Then follows Lewis and Clark and company to the Pacific and back to St. Louis. Accessible history text combines with tourism information on following their path today, and maps combine both then and now.

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis' lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis was the perfect choice. He endured incredible hardships and saw incredible sights, including vast herds of buffalo and Indian tribes that had had no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a colorful and realistic backdrop for the expedition. Lewis saw the North American continent before any other white man; Ambrose describes in detail native peoples, weather, landscape, science, everything the expedition encountered along the way, through Lewis's eyes. Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson's. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century. This is a book about a hero. This is a book about national unity. But it is also a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. But for Lewis, the expedition was a failure. Jefferson had hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific with a short hop over the Rockies-Lewis discovered there was no such passage. Jefferson hoped the Louisiana Purchase would provide endless land to support farming-but Lewis discovered that the Great Plains were too dry. Jefferson hoped there was a river flowing from Canada into the Missouri-but Lewis reported there was no such river, and thus no U.S. claim to the Canadian prairie. Lewis discovered the Plains Indians were hostile and would block settlement and trade up the Missouri. Lewis took to drink, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, and suffered severe depression. High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel.

The Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Coast in 1803-06 is the great American adventure story. This travel guide to the Lewis and Clark Trail features over 800 tourist destinations from Washington D.C. to the Pacific Coast; and from New Orleans to the Canadian border. Trip planning is made easy. The destinations, divided into ten regions, are grouped by location with 161 maps and driving directions. The second edition includes the historic 573 Lewis and Clark campsites with a new feature--the story of the expedition's adventures connected to the places where they happened. History connected to place makes history interesting.