Where did the Lewis and Clark Expedition start?

At Camp Dubois, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis. The Corps of Discovery set out up the Missouri River on May 14, 1804, and returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

Where did Lewis and Clark spend the winters?

At Camp Dubois (1803 to 1804), Fort Mandan in today’s North Dakota (1804 to 1805) and Fort Clatsop near today’s Astoria, Oregon (1805 to 1806).

A Lemhi Shoshone woman who joined the Corps at Fort Mandan with her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, and their baby, Jean Baptiste. She helped as an interpreter, and when the Corps reached the Shoshone, the leader turned out to be her brother, Cameahwait, who traded them the horses they needed to cross the mountains.

When did Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean?

In November 1805. On November 7 Clark wrote “Ocian in view! O! the joy,” though they were still on the wide mouth of the Columbia; later that month they reached the coast at Cape Disappointment.

What rivers did Lewis and Clark follow?

The Missouri River to Three Forks, then the Jefferson and Beaverhead rivers toward the Continental Divide. West of the mountains they followed the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific.

Lewis and Clark Expedition Map Quiz

Lewis and Clark Expedition Map

In 1804, a year after the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with the Corps of Discovery to explore the new land, look for a water route to the Pacific and meet the Native nations along the way. In about two and a half years the Corps traveled nearly 8,000 miles: up the Missouri River, over the Rocky Mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back.

This map quiz helps students in grades 5–12 find the expedition’s key stops and the rivers it followed. The solid red line is the route west in 1804 and 1805. The dashed orange lines are the return trip in 1806, when Lewis and Clark split up to explore more land. Foundations has the key places, Standard adds the people and places the Corps met along the way, and Advanced adds the rest.

1804–1806the journey

8,000miles, nearly

33stops, rivers and places to find

Quick questions

Where did the Lewis and Clark Expedition start?: At Camp Dubois, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis. The Corps of Discovery set out up the Missouri River on May 14, 1804, and returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806.
Where did Lewis and Clark spend the winters?: At Camp Dubois (1803 to 1804), Fort Mandan in today’s North Dakota (1804 to 1805) and Fort Clatsop near today’s Astoria, Oregon (1805 to 1806).
Who was Sacagawea?: A Lemhi Shoshone woman who joined the Corps at Fort Mandan with her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, and their baby, Jean Baptiste. She helped as an interpreter, and when the Corps reached the Shoshone, the leader turned out to be her brother, Cameahwait, who traded them the horses they needed to cross the mountains.
When did Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean?: In November 1805. On November 7 Clark wrote “Ocian in view! O! the joy,” though they were still on the wide mouth of the Columbia; later that month they reached the coast at Cape Disappointment.
What rivers did Lewis and Clark follow?: The Missouri River to Three Forks, then the Jefferson and Beaverhead rivers toward the Continental Divide. West of the mountains they followed the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific.

Every stop, river and place on this map

Missouri River
Columbia River
Mississippi River
Snake River
Yellowstone River
Clearwater River
Jefferson River
Marias River
Bitterroot River
Pacific Ocean
St. Louis
Camp Dubois
Fort Mandan
Great Falls of the Missouri
Three Forks
Lemhi Pass
Fort Clatsop
Cape Disappointment
Council Bluff
Floyd’s Bluff
Knife River Villages
Camp Fortunate
Travelers’ Rest
Lolo Pass
Weippe Prairie
Celilo Falls
Pompeys Pillar
Bad River council
Decision Point
Gates of the Mountains
Canoe Camp
Beacon Rock
Two Medicine Fight Site

Sources and simplifications

The route and stops follow the National Park Service’s Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Gary E. Moulton, editor, University of Nebraska Press). Rivers come from Natural Earth and show the rivers as they are today: dams and reservoirs have changed the Missouri and Columbia since 1805. Some camps, like Camp Dubois and the first Fort Mandan, were washed away as the rivers moved, so their pins mark the memorial or rebuilt sites nearby. The overland parts of the route are simplified. The land is shaded by who held or claimed it in 1804, drawn on modern state lines: the borders of the Louisiana Purchase were only settled by later treaties, and Oregon Country was claimed by Britain, Spain, Russia and the United States.

Teachers: run a Class Conquest with your whole class, or see what a Teacher code unlocks.

Standards

This map is aligned with:

C3 Framework D2.Geo.2.6-8: Use maps and other representations to explain how the locations of places and regions relate to each other.
National Geography Standard 1: Use maps and other geographic representations to understand and communicate information.
National Geography Standard 2: Use mental maps to organize information about people, places and environments.
National Geography Standard 5: People create regions to make sense of Earth’s complexity.

Alignment is our own. The groups that write these standards have not reviewed or endorsed Atlas Conquest.

Printable test for this map

Teachers can print the Lewis and Clark Expedition Map Test with an answer key, with or without a word bank, and in A and B versions so neighbors can’t copy. See the Lewis and Clark Expedition Map Test or browse all printable map tests.

US History: Lewis and Clark Expedition