Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

On November 14, 1803, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the Corps of Discovery stayed for six days, one of the longest stops made by the expedition. Here, they saw the Mississippi for the first time, noted the mistletoe on the large timber and to their surprise, caught a 128 pound blue catfish. Their stay allowed Captain Lewis to teach Captain Clark the use of the navigational equipment: a compass and sextant. Because the 3rd Principal Meridian begins at the mouth of the Ohio, astronomical observations at this point were crucial.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned U.S. Army Officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to conduct an expedition to the Pacific coast through a region entirely unknown to European civilization. Their assignment - to cross the North American continent from the Mississippi River to the Pacific ocean by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. They left from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River August 31, 1803, on the Eastern Legacy of the trip.

This area south of Cairo, in Alexander County, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet, was forested with massive cottonwood and sycamore trees and there was a thick covering of small cane and vines. In this area, they recorded over 178 plants and 122 animal species, including prairie chickens, Carolina parakeets, doves, swans, Canada geese, woodpeckers, and many species of ducks. Their expedition and starting discoveries opened the door for westward expansion and the growth of a new nation - a legacy for the past 200 years.

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