Two hundred years ago this year, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the Corps of Discovery on a very long and difficult journey to explore the unknown wilderness in the northwestern United States and the Oregon Country. They were looking for a waterway that would allow ships to travel all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. They followed the Missouri River as far as they could, but when they finally came to a fork in the river, they were at a loss to know which way to go. Whenever possible, one of them would climb a mountain to get a better view of what lay ahead. But they could never see far enough to be certain of the best route. If only Lewis and Clark had been able to raise that mountain a few hundred miles higher, they could have saved themselves and their team a lot of cold, wet nights and blistered feet!
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