The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-1806 provided the country with its first western heroes and revealed a land so bounteous and alluring that nature itself appeared to have smiled upon the American republic. In 1803, the year of the Louisiana Purchase, the United States was a strong, confident nation with a population of six million. Americans were building canals, bridges, factories, and highways and experimenting with steamboats and gas lamps. But there was another America, …showed first 75 words of 1112 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1112 total…more than seven thousand miles from St. Louis to the Pacific and back and lost only one man - from an unknown disease. It is generally regarded as one of the most successful expeditions of all time. They were the first to discover or describe 178 plants, 15 reptiles and amphibians, 44 mammals, 51 birds, and 12 fishes. Among these plants and animals were the ponderosa pine, sagebrush, the prairie rattler, the steelhead trout, the coyote, and the grizzly bear.