Lewis & Clark
Research Library
Explore treaties, primary documents, historical artwork, weapons, key figures, and immersive 360° trail panoramas from the Corps of Discovery expedition.
Inside the library
Twelve collections, primary sources from six expedition narrators, contemporary research, and more than 4,400 miles of trail in 360°. Pick a thread and start pulling.
The Lewis and Clark Research Library brings the national scope of the Lewis and Clark Story and Expedition into full view, a nexus of history and geography.
Through the compilation of print and digital resources, the first United States military exploration of the American West is presented in chronological order. Planning, equipping, escorting Sovereign Nation Tribal Chiefs, reporting to President Jefferson, and the Lewis and Clark Journal printing are all in the fabric of the Lewis and Clark Story. The referenced sources explain how the labors of the men and women of the Expedition are still guide posts for all people and ages.
The theoretical Northwest Passage and foreign financial rivalry was never far from Thomas Jefferson's mind. The first successful military exploration of the West by Lewis and Clark is clearly founded in planning, preparation, and recruitment of people with the "right stuff." The exploration included recording the findings and experiences as outlined in President Jefferson's Instructions to Meriwether Lewis.
This research database is built and maintained by Terrain360 with support from the Lewis and Clark Trust, drawing on the work of historians, researchers, and partner organizations. We have compiled, digitized, and cross-referenced thousands of primary sources (journal entries, treaties, maps, artwork, and more) into a single searchable archive, making this chapter of American history accessible to researchers, educators, and the public.
The same day, in every journal that recorded it.
For dates when two or more expedition journalists were writing, this database compares what each preserved. Analyses are drafted from the cited journal entries, then checked against the quoted text. They sit beside the primary record — they do not replace it.
The Silence of Meriwether Lewis: What Clark and the Sergeants Preserved, August 1805–January 1806
Among the unresolved mysteries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, none is more consequential to the historical record than Meriwether Lewis's prolonged silence after August 26,…
Sacagawea: The Shoshone Interpreter of the Corps of Discovery
Sacagawea entered the expedition record indirectly, through her husband. On November 4, 1804, Clark’s journal for that day records that "A Mr. Chaubonee interpreter for the…
Lemhi Pass road, Idaho
Cameahwait: The Lemhi Shoshone Chief Who Traded Horses
Cameahwait — chief of a band of Lemhi Shoshone encountered west of the Continental Divide in August 1805 — became, in the span of two weeks,…
Stolen Elk and Studied Firs: Three Voices at Fort Clatsop
The journal entries of February 6, 1806 offer an unusually clear window into how the Lewis and Clark expedition divided its narrative labor. John Ordway, William…
One Deer, Three Ledgers: Diplomacy and Domesticity at Fort Mandan
The journal entries for February 1, 1805, offer a compact case study in how three expedition writers — Sergeant John Ordway, Sergeant Patrick Gass, and Captain…
Discipline and a Near Disaster at the Kansas
The expedition's departure from the mouth of the Kansas River on June 29, 1804, produced four journal entries that, read together, reveal how rank, role, and…
Detachment Orders Amid the Thunder
The 26th of May produces one of the expedition's starkest contrasts in narrator scale. Four enlisted journalists — Gass, Ordway, Whitehouse, and Floyd — each compress…
The 974-Yard Isthmus: Measuring an Eighteen-Mile Bend
The entries for August 12, 1804 offer an unusually clear window into how a single piece of field data — a 974-yard measurement across the neck…
What is the trail actually worth?
A commissioned study put a number on it.
Commissioned by the National Park Service and the Lewis and Clark Trust, this study documented the economic impact of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail across five surveyed sites — using on-site visitor surveys, mobility data, and IMPLAN modeling to derive direct, indirect, and induced effects.
St. Charles, Missouri
Current Projects
The rivers and trails the Trust has put on the record in 360°, and the places it is helping build.
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Mississippi River 360°
406 miles from the Cairo confluence to the Arkansas River, captured September 8 and 9, 2026.
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Katy Trail 360°
36 miles captured on America’s longest rail-trail.
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The Ohio River in 360°
The river Lewis came down in 1803, on the record in 360° from Pittsburgh to Cairo. The last gap was filled September 7, 2026.
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Terrain360 Trail Mapping Partnership
Since 2021: 411 trails, 218,787 panoramas and 4,856 miles of the Lewis and Clark rivers and trails in 360°, as of September 2026.
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West Point, Kentucky
West Point, Kentucky: Education & Interpretive Center
A new education and interpretive center, with the City of West Point, Kentucky.
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The Ohio at Louisville
The York Statue: Honoring an American Explorer
An 8-foot bronze of York, dedicated in Louisville on October 14, 2003.
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
Follow the Corps day by day across 16 states: every place the journals were written, beside more than 4,400 miles of 360° panoramic views of the route today.
Browse all 228 expedition places — where the journals were written, in 360°
Pick a thread — follow it back to its source.
A random pull from across the database: an analysis, a painting, a wildlife encounter, a river feature, a tribal voice. Each card links straight to the primary record.
Artwork
Heacock Memorial
Research Article
Tent of Many Voices
River Feature
Cross-Narrator Analysis
A Digital Archive for the Corps of Discovery
The Lewis and Clark Research Library is a comprehensive digital archive preserving the historical legacy of the Corps of Discovery expedition. Our collection includes original treaties, translations, scholarly research, primary documents, period artwork, and expedition weapons — all searchable and cross-referenced for researchers, educators, and students.
Integrated with Terrain360's immersive trail mapping technology, this database connects historical events to the physical landscape through more than 210,000 panoramic scenes spanning more than 4,400 miles of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail across 16 states.
Read the Story
