President Thomas Jefferson had long considered a westward expedition, and the Louisiana Purchase increased the need for such exploration and such study of the west. The main body of explorers, known as the Corps of Discoverers, was led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and his commanding partner William Clark. Gathering the individuals to form the Corps of Discoverers would prove less daunting than the hardships and challenges they would endure on their journey west. Captain Lewis, aged twenty-nine, and Lieutenant Clark, four years his senior, were both from the upper class of Virginia planters. families and had become friends in the army. Congress approved the expedition and appropriated twenty-five hundred dollars to finance the project which would allow them to travel eight thousand miles in less than two and a half years, losing only one member of their party. Lewis, Clark and thirty-one others made up the Permanent Corps of Discoverers with a thirty-fourth member who was a Newfoundland dog named Seaman. The members of the group were handpicked; two officers were selected for their leadership abilities, and other members for their skills in frontiers, hunting, logging, specialized crafts, and interpretation. Two French-Canadian fur traders, Jean Baptiste LePage and Toussaint Charbonneau, were enlisted to replace two individuals fired for misconduct. LePage had the rank of soldier, and Charbonneau, along with his Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagawea, who would have to care for their little boy, were recruited as interpreters. Sergeant Charles Floyd was born in Kentucky, among the first to volunteer for service in the Corps and the only death occurred during the expedition, a rupture of the ap...... middle of a paper ......ure explorers.Lewis and Clark did not achieve the main objective of their expedition, finding a river route across the continent. However, they provide a much more accurate view of the American West. Their heroic journey marked a turning point in the exploration of the West, in the history of the United States, its citizens and its indigenous inhabitants, and in the geographical knowledge of the North American continent.Bibliographywww.cr.nps .gov/history/online_books/lewisandclark/intro1.htmwww.edgate.com/lewisandclark/Henretta, James A. and Brody, David, America a Concise History, 4th ed. Boston-New York: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2010.www.lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/readMcCrimmon, Dan. 2005. Experiencing the Body of Discovery: Cartography and Communication with Lewis and Clark. History Magazine 19, (6): 30-30-33www.pbs.org/lewisandclark