Historical re-enactors traced as much of the original route as possible. The expedition left the site of the future town of Pasco on October 18, 1805, and reached the Pacific Ocean on November 17, 1805.Ĭities and towns all along the route celebrated the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, which began in 2003 and will continue through 2006. For the first time, the explorers knew exactly where they were: They knew the great Columbia River emptied into the Pacific Ocean. They also drew maps of the land and the river. They repaired equipment and explored the Columbia a short way up river to the mouth of the Yakima River. The corps spent two days trading with the Indians and studying their language. Some 200 Wanapum Indians greeted the party.
They followed the Snake River and arrived at its mouth at the Columbia River near the site of modern-day Pasco on October 16, 1805. The Corps of Discovery, now a "Permanent Party" of 33, journeyed along what is now known as Highway 12 through the Idaho panhandle. Second, when the expedition reached the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1805, it was Sacagawea who bartered for horses with her own people. First, a female presence in the expedition told Indian tribes that the party was not looking for war. But it was Sacagawea who became very important in the journey. Charbonneau’s assistance would be needed as an interpreter. Here Lewis and Clark met French trader Touissant Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea (sometimes spelled Sacajawea). In 1804 it wintered in North Dakota with the Mandan Indians. The expedition followed the Missouri River in a northwesterly direction. Lewis and Clark and their party, collectively known as the Corps of Discovery, left Missouri in 1804. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the northwestern part of the continent, to map terrain, and to identify indigenous peoples, plants, and animals.
Descendants of the tribal peoples who greeted Lewis and Clark's Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery join in and share their perspective.
People from across the Columbia Basin celebrate the anniversary of that historic event at Sacajawea State Park, located in Pasco at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, and at Columbia Park in Kennewick. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had explored the area 200 years before, in 1805. From October 14 through 17, 2005, the Tri-Cities celebrates the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.