Exploring the West

As the British colonies on the eastern seaboard became more populated in the mid-1700s, colonists began to look beyond the Appalachian Mountains and contemplate westward expansion. Looking westward, they could only imagine the incredible riches the continent would offer to them. Not much information was known about the territory west of the Appalachians. A 1795 map did offer a fairly accurate picture of the western region of North America, but it mistakenly depicted several inland lakes as being considerably larger than the Great Salt Lake. The map's cartographers probably drew these lakes from vague reports they had received from Indians. In 1806 John Cary produced a map that accurately depicted the Pacific coastline, but he did not include inland details—which resulted in a map that left blank almost the entire region west of the Mississippi River.

Curious to know more specifically what the western region had to offer, President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) commissioned Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838) in 1803 to find a navigable water route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. In addition, Lewis and Clark were asked to report as many inland details as they could.

When Jefferson first started organizing the Lewis and Clark expedition, the territory that he wanted them to explore did not fall within U.S. boundaries. France controlled the area west of the Mississippi River up to the Rocky Mountains; the area was called the Louisiana Territory. Great Britain, Spain, Russia, and the United States claimed the Pacific Northwest. In April 1803, before the expedition would get underway, the United States negotiated with France to purchase the Louisiana Territory for around $15 million, thus making a large portion of the territory they were about to explore part of the United States.

The Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis on May 14, 1804. From 1804 to 1806 Lewis and Clark kept detailed journals of their travels. The Journals of Lewis and Clark describe a country with abundant natural resources that could strengthen the economic stature of the United States. Lewis and Clark were the first to describe what really lay west of the Mississippi River. They also produced a map, although it was not very accurate. Nevertheless, Lewis and Clark's expedition encouraged many people to venture across the Mississippi River.

Those who first followed Lewis and Clark's lead were fur trappers and eager merchants. The stories the fur trappers and adventurers told—of the fertile Willamette Valley of the Oregon Territory, and the grassy plains of Texas and the Oklahoma and Kansas Territories—thrilled and shocked the incredulous but curious easterners. Adventures of Zenas Leonard Fur Trader tells of the real difficulties encountered in such primitive western areas and how to earn a living as a trapper. Stories like Zenas Leonard's later inspired the American government to send more explorers across the Mississippi River to create accurate maps of the unknown reaches of the country.

In 1837 Captain Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville compiled a map that accurately depicted the waterways of the region west of the Rocky Mountains. Bonneville's map was the most accurate available until Charles Preuss completed his map of the John C. Frémont expeditions in the 1840s. Though Frémont was not the most skilled explorer, he hired talented, knowledgeable scouts and trappers to help keep his parties on track. Despite his lack of technical skills, Frémont was a masterful promoter of the West. His glamorous representations of the western frontier influenced many Americans' decision to go west and offered accurate descriptions to travelers on their way west. The Life of Col. John Charles Frémont and His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures in Kansas, Oregon and California provides vivid detail of the land and of the experiences of early explorers.