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Accomplished Explorers What did the accomplish?

The return journey to St. Louis took much less time than the trip out to the Pacific Ocean. The Corps had completed the work required by Jefferson. They were anxious to get home and were heading downstream with the current. Once they recrossed the Rocky Mountains, the two leaders split up so they could take different routes and cover more territory. On September 23, 1806, their expedition ended in St. Louis.

Honored as national heroes, Lewis and Clark were each given 1,600 acres of land as a reward for their service. Clark was given the post of Indian Agent for the West, and Lewis was named governor of the Louisiana Territory.

Maps of the areas explored by Lewis and Clark bear the names of many of their adventures. Independence Creek in present-day Kansas was where the Corps spent July 4, 1804. It was the first time Independence Day was celebrated west of the Mississippi. In Sioux City, , Floyd’s River and Floyd’s Bluff are markers of the only American to die on the expedition, Sgt. Charles Floyd. He died of appendicitis.

Traveling more than 8,000 miles over two years, Lewis and Clark collected information on animals, plants, terrain, and local peoples. Their journals and the journals of the other men in the Corps captured Americans’ imaginations and sparked further exploration and growth. While the addition of the Louisiana Territory may have been the biggest change to the during Jefferson’s presidency, it was not something he had planned beforehand. Did buying Louisiana promote Jefferson’s main goals of limiting federal power and promoting agriculture? Jefferson probably wrestled with that question, but he could not have predicted the full impact of his decision.

Clark’s Compass carried this compass on a chain during the expedition.

READING PASSAGE