Sacajawea

Lewis and Clark continued on and arrived in Washington, D.C. on September 23, 1806. They had fulfilled a President’s dream. Excluding preparation time, their trip (which began in St. Louis on May 14, 1804), had taken nearly 2½ years.

An unprecedented journey by the Corps of Discovery paved the way for later life and exploration in the western regions of what is now America. Clark had documented “new” plant and animal life as well as other interesting items (like Indian Petroglyphs engraved in limestone near the mouth of the Nemaha River in modern-day Kansas).

Patrick Gass was the first member of the expedition to publish an account of what he had seen and heard. The official Journals of Lewis and Clark were published several years later. (The link takes you to an on-line version.)

William Clark married, had ten children and became governor of the Missouri Territory.  He named his first son Meriwether Lewis Clark.

Lewis became governor of the Louisiana Territory, but three years after the end of his famous expedition, he died of gunshot wounds.  Some reports say that he took his own life. 

Although Lewis and Clark were very different individuals, they never quarreled, never lost their admiration for each other and remained friends to the end. 

However ... lest we forget the services of the unpaid interpreter and the various Native American tribes ... who can say whether two of America’s greatest explorers would have been so successful had they not had the help of a teenaged Shoshone called Sacajawea?