Long before Thomas Jefferson had come to be the third president of the United States, he had a dream to explore the West. This dream would end up turning into one of American history's greatest adventure stories of all time. Once he became president he contemplated a project of a western expedition with his private secretary Capt. Meriwether Lewis (pbs.com). President Jefferson's purpose was to find a land route to the Pacific Ocean to …showed first 75 words of 2174 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2174 total…the governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis and Clark had been the first American citizens to cross the continent. They mapped it and described their findings, including its inhabitants, human, botanical, and animal. They were the first white men to travel to the Northwest and established an American claim on what would later become Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Their exploration started thousands Americans to travel and settle westward, and made history as we know it.