Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities

Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities — page 9
1803 Louisiana Purchase Honored Parence wrote John Ordway I am now on an expidition to the westward with Captain Lewis and Captain Clark who are appointed by the Presi dent of the United States to go on an expidition through the interior parts of North America We are to ascend the Missouri River with a boat as far as it is navigable and then to go by land to the westward Ocean I will write next winter if I have a chance Yours John Ordway Sergeant Ordway wrote to his honored parents in May 1804 from a campsite in Illinois country north of the fron tier town of St Louis His letter may have made his family uneasy The expedition he described was about to set off for an indefinite period of time over an uncertain course through wild and unmapped lands Ordway was a member of the Corps of Discovery the expedition of Lewis and Clark This group of hand picked men was about to venture across the unex plored west of the American continent In 1800 the settled regions of the United States ended at the Mississippi River In the western territo ries that would eventually include the states of Ohio Indiana and Illinois a smattering of new settlers lived in windowless log cabins dressed in deerskin and hunted and farmed Farther west was a vast unexplored wilderness peopled by scattered Indian tribes Only a handful of fur trappers had dared to