Lewis & Clark: The Journey of Explorers

The expedition led by the brilliant but troubled Meriwether Lewis and his trustworthy, gregarious friend William Clark, known as the Corps of Discovery, set out in the spring of 1804 at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson to cross the Mississippi River and venture into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. This was the United States' first exploration into unknown spaces, with an unlikely crew hailing from every corner of the young nation: soldiers from New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, French Canadian boatmen, several sons of white fathers and Indian mothers, a slave named York, and eventually a Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, who brought along her infant son.

Together, they would embark on a journey to cross the continent, searching for the fabled Northwest Passage that had captivated explorers since the time of Columbus. Along the way, they would face incredible hardship, disappointment, and danger, while also recording hundreds of previously unknown animals and plants, and encountering a dizzying diversity of Indian cultures. Their story has become part of national mythology, but never before has their experience been rendered as vividly, in words and pictures, as in this marvelous homage by Dayton Duncan.

Plentiful excerpts from the journals kept by the two captains and four enlisted men convey the raw emotions, turbulent spirits, and constant surprises of the explorers, who each day confronted the unknown with fresh eyes. An elegant preface by Ken Burns, as well as contributions from Stephen E. Ambrose, William Least Heat-Moon, and Erica Funkhouser, enlarge upon important threads in Duncan's narrative, demonstrating the continued potency of events that took place almost two centuries ago.

Accompanying this historic, nation-redefining milestone is a wealth of paintings, photographs, journal sketches, maps, and film images from the PBS documentary, lending the story a vibrancy and immediacy that no American will be immune to. This companion audiobook to Ken Burns's PBS documentary film is a testament to the enduring legacy of the Corps of Discovery and the remarkable individuals who undertook this extraordinary journey of exploration and discovery.

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