They literally traded the jackets off their back for a canoe.” “They prepared meticulously and ran out of only three items (trading beads, tobacco and whiskey). The Principle of Strategic Preparation.Jefferson selected Lewis for his knowledge and “firmness of constitution and character.” Lewis selected Clark as his co-commander and made him “equal in every respect.” “Lewis and Clark wanted to leave their mark on the world by expanding the base of human knowledge…and to further the cause of liberty.” A commitment to these higher purposes-beyond power, glory, ego and wealth-“shines through their journals, and it is clear affected virtually every action and decision Lewis and Clark made.” Priceless value: As Dayton Duncan said in Ken Burns’ documentary, Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, “Lewis and Clark at their best is America at its best.” Total cost: $50,000-the equivalent of $1.14 million in today’s dollars. Yet only one man died-from a burst appendix-that even the best doctors of the day could not have saved. There were 54 life-threatening incidents. They battled frostbite, fires and flooding grizzly bears, wolves, rattlesnakes and stampeding buffalo dysentery, malaria and near-starvation. They consumed nine pounds of meat daily, totaling 6,000 calories. The Lewis and Clark expedition covered more than 8,000 miles over 863 days transporting thousands of pounds of food and equipment. Scientific discoveries-though numerous-were secondary objectives. Establish an American presence in the territory before Britain and other European powers claimed it.Locate a practical water route across the western half of North America.Map, study and describe the region, its flora and fauna while establishing diplomatic relations with Native Americans.
The expedition’s primary objectives were to: A budget of $2,500 ($57,000 in today’s dollars) was approved. Relations between President Thomas Jefferson and the Federalist-dominated Congress were so strained Jefferson secretly requested funds to explore the new territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. The remarkable journey of Lewis, Clark, four dozen other men and Sacagawea (the Shosone teenager who carried her infant son on her back for 5,000 of the expedition’s 8,000 miles) offers 10 lessons for today’s leaders wrestling with an unknown future. So begins Jack Uldrich’s fascinating examination of the daring two-and-a-half-year expedition many consider the greatest leadership team in American history.
Lewis was on the verge of becoming the first American to view with his own eyes the fabled Northwest passage-an all-water route that connected the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On August 12, 1805, Meriwether Lewis climbed the eastern slope of the Continental Divide toward the realization of a lifelong goal.
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