Discovery – Preparations for the Corp of Discovery
Three years before taking ShebbyLeeTour the Lewis and Clark Corps of discovery tour in 2006, we had an interest in seeing the places where Lewis and Clark Corps traveled. Their story was intriguing to say the least.
In 2002 we joined a Cruise West steamboat tour up the Columbia River
In 2003 we joined Montana RR tour which enabled us to rent a car to see Three Forks and Yellowstone. We boarded the train at Livingston Mr., to proceed all the way to Idaho and Washington State. This is another travel story to tell. Examine the map to see the entire railroad route
that illustrate our route where we joined the train in Livingston Mt.
In 2004 we joined a River barge tour down the Ohio River, past the confluence of Ohio and Mississippi and on to St. Louis. If you are looking for a pleasant easy going vacation, a River barge tour may be your solution. We enjoyed a spacious cabin compared to the steamboat cabin and the shore excursions that are a courtesy of the River barge line site , illustrating routes of “The Ohio, Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Kanawha Rivers between Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville and Pittsburgh.” We are examining this area for our next River barge trip.
The real beginning of the journey of the Corps of Discovery!
Meriwether Lewis commissioned the building of a Keelboat in Elizabethtown, PA and according to timeline site, in “Summer, 1803 – Large keelboat constructed in Pittsburgh, overseen by Lewis. After construction Lewis takes it down the Ohio River picking up Clark and recruits along the way.”
This small group was the start of recruiting for the Corps as they navigated the keelboat from Elizabethtown to St.Louis, Mo
Down the Ohio River and up to St. Louis Mo. Planning the Expedition was no small event. Check out The Lewis and Clark Historic Trail, and examine the timeline, maps, and journals which makes interesting reading if you are a historical buff.
Books we acquired prior to and during our Sheebylee tour of the “Corps of Discovery:”
- Lewis and Clark for Dummies/Meadows/Prewitt
- National Geographic Guide to the Lewis and Clark Trail by Thomas Schmidt.
- Only One Man Died - The Medical Aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by E.G. Chuinard.
- The Journals of Patrick Gass by Carol Lynn McGregor.
- The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Barnard DeVoto.
- The American Epic of Discovery – The Lewis and Clark Journals – An abridgment of the Defintive Nebraska Edition edited and with an intro by Gary E. Moulton.
The journals make interesting reading, especially the spelling of words in the journal, but reading at least two of these books will cause you to appreciate how this group surmounted tremendous obstacles. Had it not been for the natives along the river it is doubtful the expedition would have succeeded.
Our shebbyleetours started in St. Louis following the general route of the Corps. If you have an interest in the old west check out Shebby Lee’s Vanishing Trails. Next we cover the first day of our trip to see where the Corps wintered before proceeding to its first stop to begin the journey on the Missouri River.
Onward through the fog! Learn by doing!
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June 14th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
You did a tremendous amount of preparation for your journey. It sounds like you had several lovely trips in preparation. It would be wonderful if you had some pictures to post about some of your preparation trips.