Discoveries in the West
Since the land west of the Mississippi River had never been explored, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark discovered hundreds of new plant and animal species. These discoveries were nothing like President Jefferson or the explorers expected. Thomas Jefferson funded this expedition expecting to find mountains made of salt, animals that were supposedly extinct (giant sloths, for example), and above all, a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Instead they found vast prairies, herds made up of thousands of buffalo, and enormous mountain ranges.
This page created by Jennifer Nelson.