William Clark

Origins

William Clark was born in the county from Caroline in Virginia. His/her older brother, William Rogers, illustrated themselves during the American Révolution. After the war, in 1784, the Clark family, trained in the movement towards the west, settles with Louisville, Kentucky.

Attracted by the military life, the Clark young person engages in the army. It is at the time of the Indian wars on the Wabash in the years 1789 - 1790 that it has its first contacts with the autochtones.

With the beginning of the year 1790, he becomes lieutenant of infantry and is useful under the orders of the general Anthony Wayne with whom he takes part in another Indian war in the valley of the Ohio. He is besides one of the craftsmen of the victory of Fallen Timbers. It is at that time that it crosses for the first time Meriwether Lewis, which is useful in its division. The two men quickly become friendly.

First steps of forwarding

At the beginning of the XIXe century, Clark leaves the regular army and will settle with La Nouvelle-Orléans. It is there, in the current of 1803, which the message of Lewis reaches him, become private secretary of the president Thomas Jefferson. His/her former companion proposes to him to share with him the command of a forwarding, organized by Jefferson itself, with an aim of exploring the territories in the west of the the Mississippi and of his affluent the Missouri. In fact, the true mission of the voyage is to discover a transportation route with the Pacifique by borrowing Missouri.

Enthusiastic, Clark accepts. With the end of the year, it is found with the Camp Dubois, the north of Saint Louis with Lewis and 45 volunteers including two French boatmen, Pierre Cruzatti and Francis Labiche, and nine Canadian-French, specialists in the boat and the oar.

On Missouri

The May 14th 1804, Lewis-Clark forwarding starts to go up Missouri. The October 26th, it arrives to the Mandans, in current the North Dakota, where it decides to winter. In 165 days, it made a way of 250 km. Mandans, whose tribe includes/understands approximately 1200 people and who belong to the family of the Sioux, behave very in a friendly way.

In the current of the autumn, the Lewis and Clark meet the French All Saints' day Charbonneau who saw with the Sioux since 1796 and which is married with small a sixteen year old named Indian Sacagawea ( Woman-bird in language Sioux). Charbonneau agrees to be used as interpreter with forwarding. As for Sacagawea, it will make an excellent guide because its tribe, the Shoshones, lives in the Rock ones and knows very well the master keys leading of the Plains to the valley of the Pacific.

The April 7th 1805, fourteen men set out again for Saint-Louis, as envisaged in the initial plan. About thirty men who remain travel towards the west by always borrowing Missouri. The April 26th, they pass in front of the mouth of the Yellowstone.

The July 27th, they arrive at the Three Forks (Three Forks off Missouri) in current the Montana. It is there that Missouri takes its source. Sacagawea indicates to them the downward river of the west like the direction to be taken. The Lewis and Clark name it Jefferson, that of the center Madison and the last, coming from the east, Gallatin. James Madison and Albert Gallatin is respectively the Secretary of State and the secretary of the Treasury of the Jefferson government.

In the Rock ones

The July 30th 1805, Lewis and Clark start to go up Jefferson with counter-current. A few days later, they establish their first contacts with Shoshones, the tribe from where Sacagawea is originating. It is them which indicate to them the direction of the track of the Pierced-nose Indians, by where they enter in Idaho.

The Pierced-nose Indians are as friendly as were to it Shoshones and Mandans. They help them to build boats and show the way to them leading to the Pacific. Forwarding borrows then the river Clearwater, an affluent of the Columbia which is thrown in the ocean. The October 18th, the group arrives at the confluence of Clearwater and Columbia. Lastly, in December, it reaches the estuary of Columbia and founds Fort Clatsop there. The Lewis and Clark decide to take their winter quarters there.

At the beginning of spring 1806, Clark explores only the course of the Willamette and arrives at the future site of Portland, Oregon.

The voyage of the return

The Lewis and Clark start their return voyage at the end of March. The July 3rd, they cross Lolo Not and are found on the side is the Rock ones. The group then decides to be divided into two. While the Lewis and nine men move towards the great falls of Missouri by north, Clark and the remainder of the troop travels towards the Three Forks. The two men must find themselves with the confluence of Yellowstone and Missouri.

Clark does not make exactly the same way as with the outward journey since, arrived at the Three Forks, it slips by towards south-east to join the higher course of Yellowstone than it goes down to Missouri. The August 3rd, Clark is with the angle of the two rivers but Lewis is not with go. Clark decides to only continue. Lewis manages to join it later ten days.

The August 14th, forwarding arrives at the village mandan where it separates from Charbonneau and Sacagawea. The September 24th, Lewis and Clark reach Saint-Louis. In two years and half, they will have traversed 6657 km, and their voyage was a total success.

End of a career

In 1807, Clark leaves the army definitively and becomes sergeant-general of the militia of the Territory of Louisiana. In 1812, it founds the Saint Louis Missouri Fur Company , a company of draft of the furs of which he is the first president. Its flourishing trade, which does not prevent it from cumulating the posts of governor of the Territory of the Missouri of 1813 with 1820, and of superintendant Indian Businesses of 1822 with 1838. William Clark became member of Royal Society the January 28th 1836. He dies in Saint-Louis in 1838.

Sources

Jean-Louis Rieupeyrout, History of Far-West , Tchou, 1967.

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