American Expeditions Chart The West Interpretation Sign, Gateway Arch National Park ~ St. Louis, Missouri
In 1806, as Lewis & Clark returned from the Pacific Ocean, Lt. Zebulon Pike's party left St. Louis to explore the Spanish borderlands in the Southwest. Sent by U.S. Army Gen. James Wilkinson, Pike & his men crossed into Spanish lands, where Pike was briefly held as a spy.
To further map the west, Jefferson sent two smaller expeditions to the Quachita River (the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition of 1804-1805) & up the Red River (the Freeman-Custis Expedition of 1806).
In 1819, President James Monroe sent Maj. Stephen Long to better define the border between New Spain & the United States. Long led a scientific expedition up the Platte River to the Rockies to report on river courses & mountain ranges.
Early explorers' reports helped spur interest in the fur trade, stake United States claims to the Northwest, & increase knowledge of western lands & Indian Tribes. The reports had lasting effects. Because Stephen Long called the Great Plains the "Great American Desert," the pioneers of the 1840s tended to avoid this region as a potential place of settlement, & instead moved across the continent to the Northwest Coast.
American Expeditions Chart The West Interpretation Sign, Gateway Arch National Park ~ St. Louis, Missouri
In 1806, as Lewis & Clark returned from the Pacific Ocean, Lt. Zebulon Pike's party left St. Louis to explore the Spanish borderlands in the Southwest. Sent by U.S. Army Gen. James Wilkinson, Pike & his men crossed into Spanish lands, where Pike was briefly held as a spy.
To further map the west, Jefferson sent two smaller expeditions to the Quachita River (the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition of 1804-1805) & up the Red River (the Freeman-Custis Expedition of 1806).
In 1819, President James Monroe sent Maj. Stephen Long to better define the border between New Spain & the United States. Long led a scientific expedition up the Platte River to the Rockies to report on river courses & mountain ranges.
Early explorers' reports helped spur interest in the fur trade, stake United States claims to the Northwest, & increase knowledge of western lands & Indian Tribes. The reports had lasting effects. Because Stephen Long called the Great Plains the "Great American Desert," the pioneers of the 1840s tended to avoid this region as a potential place of settlement, & instead moved across the continent to the Northwest Coast.