For those of us living in Europe, it is hard to imagine that just 200 years ago much of North America was still unknown territory. Half of the continent -lying north and west of the Mississippi had not yet been explored.On February 28, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson won approval from Congress for a visionary project, an endeavor that would become one of America’s greatest stories of adventure. Twenty-five hundred dollars were set aside to fund a small expeditionary group, whose mission was to explore the uncharted West. Jefferson called the group the Corps of Discovery. It was be led by Jefferson’s secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and Lewis’ friend,William Clark.
Lewis and Clark set out from St Louis on May 21st 1804 and returned there to a heroes' welcome over two years later on Sept 23rd 1806. You can follow their route on the map below... 
In the USA 2006 has been a year of commemoration of the journey and there is a huge array of excellent resources available on line. Click on portraits of the explorers to link to the official US government website and on the map to link to the National Geographic Lewis and Clark pages. There are lots of good activities - many of them interactive! You can, for example, 'Go West' yourself with this excellent National Geographic game (click on the image below) ...
America, however, is very aware that this commemoration has to be handled sensitively - it was Lewis and Clark's journey which opened up the West and exposed the native Indian tribes to the atrocities of the 19th century which almost wiped them out.
