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Lewis And Clark On The Columbia River: The Power Of Landscape In The Exploration Experience, William L. Lang
Lewis And Clark On The Columbia River: The Power Of Landscape In The Exploration Experience, William L. Lang
History Faculty Publications and Presentations
During their 1804-06 transcontinental expedition, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expected that the Columbia River and its tributaries would provide relatively easy passage to the Pacific Coast. Instead, they encountered a formidable barrier of raging waters and disjunctive ecological zones. Continuous frustrations caused the explorers to offer harsh judgments of the landscape and some of the Indians, whom they labeled as primitive and treacherous. These descriptions contrasted greatly with their more positive portrayals of landscape and peoples encountered elsewhere during the trip.