To the average American of 1800 the West was a void, a black land of desolation from whence no man foolhardy enough to march into it might return. But two Americans did lead a party into the bleakness, setting down the facts of the wilderness, binding the continent from ocean to ocean with the truth. These leaders were Meriweather Lewis and William Clark. Together they unveiled America’s destiny. It is together that we remember Lewis and Clark, for together they unveiled America’s destiny and strengthened the claim of the United States to the Pacific Northwest. Neither could have done it alone.