Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s historical journey across North America was the first time a group of explorers catalogued and studied the topography, animals, and nature of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Travelling primarily by a wooden keelboat through the twists and turns of the Missouri River, the Corps of Discovery made their way from St. Louis, Missouri to what is now the state of Washington.

They did not find a North West passage to the Pacific Ocean as President Thomas Jefferson hoped, but they did develop friendly relationships with the Native American tribes and provided the United States government with detailed maps and journals of the territory, as well as an array of plants and animal specimen.

The Lewis and Clark State Park, located in Onawa, Iowa, currently owns the “Best Friend,” a life-size replica of the Corps of Discovery’s keelboat. The Corp’s boat was a fifty-five foot long wooden vessel that the team would either row up and down the Mississippi in deep water, or pull along the banks of the river by rope when in shallow water. The wooden keelboat contained all the necessities the Corps needed to survive the years of exploration.

The Lewis and Clark State Park is located along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Blue Lake borders the state park for 250 acres and eventually connects by waterway to the Missouri river, Lewis and Clark’s main river of transportation.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Natalie Ray