Exploring the West  William Clark and Meriwether Lewis Zenas
Leonard John Charles Frémont  As the British colonies on the
eastern seaboard became more populated in the mid-1700s,
colonists began to look beyond the Appalachian Mountains and
contemplate westward expansion. Looking westward, they could
only imagine the incredible riches the continent would offer to
them. Not much information was known about the territory west of
the Appalachians. A 1795 map did offer a fairly accurate picture
of the western region of North America, but it mistakenly
depicted several inland lakes as being considerably larger than
the Great Salt Lake. The map's cartographers probably drew these
lakes from vague reports they had received from Indians. In 1806
John Cary produced a map that accurately depicted the Pacific
coastline, but he did not include inland details—which resulted
in a map that left blank almost the entire region west of the
Mississippi River.  Curious to know more specifically what the
western region had to offe