Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it...may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purpose of commerce.

"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude at all remarkable points on the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands & other places & objects distinguished by such natural marks & characters of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognized hereafter. The course of the river between these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line & by time..."

William Clark and the crew departed from Wood River on May 14, 1804. Clark, the mapmaker of the team, was joined by Meriwether Lewis on May 20 in St. Charles. The expedition explored the river with the 55-foot keelboat as their largest vessel.

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