"Science on the Trail"

Strange new plants and animals that had never documented.

This was the natural side of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition’s main goal was to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean but the Corps of Discovery was also a scientific expedition to search out new plants, animals and to document the natives on the trail. While traveling the Trail Lewis and Clark described 178 plants & 122 animals previously unrecorded for science.

Captain Lewis did most of the scientific documentation and would sometime spend additional time in searching for or capturing a specimen. On September 14,1804 Captain Lewis wrote in his journal….

"Captain Clark killed a male wild goat so called its weight 65 lbs., length from point of nose to point of tail four feet - nine inches. Eye deep sea green large piercing and rather prominent. "

This was part of the description of the pronghorn animal. Many of the specimens captured by the Corps of discovery were sent back to St. Louis from Fort Mandan on April 7, 1805. Many of the scientific documents that Lewis and Clark wrote about are studied today.