Introduction to Lewis and Clark....before the journey...

In 1800, two thirds of the people in the U.S. lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Coast.  Only about ten percent lived west of the Appalachian Mountains.  The West was a large unknown region to most Americans.  President Thomas Jefferson, after making the Louisiana Purchase, asked his friend and personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition into the wild West.