In May, 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on an amazing expedition across the Louisiana Territory. These true American heroes faced unknown people, harsh conditions and unexplored lands to secure a place in history as two of the world's greatest explorers. The expedition traveled over 8000 total miles over a period of 2 years, 4 months and 10 days. When the expedition reached the Pacific the party voted on where to spend the winter. York, Clark's slave, is allowed to vote, nearly 60 years before slaves in the U.S. would be emancipated. Sacagawea is also allowed to vote, more than a century before either women or Native Americans are granted full rights of citizenship.
Then president, Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, 820,000 square miles, for $15 million. After interest the final total came to be $27,267,622. That still works out to be only about 3¢ an acre! Thanks, Lewis and Clark!
Credits: All images are from net-surfing. (Any resemblance of Merriweather's body and that of my pirate in an earlier piece is purely coincidental.....)