Then and Now: Outfitting & Expedition
Then
In 1801 Lewis began outfitting an expedition for a land he’d never seen. He tried to anticipate the needs of his Corps and to assure that they had the food, clothing, materials, and equipment to explore the entire northwest and return alive with documentation of their journey and discoveries.
In addition to the five types of water craft and the clothing, the inventory included two sextants, a chronometer, a surveyor’s compass, a set of plotting instruments, six papers of ink powder, pencils, crayons, two hundred pounds of rifle powder, 400 hundred pounds of lead; four gross of assorted fishing hooks, 26 axes, 100 flints, 30 steels for striking to make fire, pliers, handsaws, chisels, hatchets, whetstones, six large needles, a dozen awls, three bushels of salt, 12 pounds of soap, 193 pounds of “portable soup” (a thick paste made from boiling down beef, eggs, and vegetables), woolen overalls, oilskin bags, mosquito netting, 150 yards of linen cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets, candles, two dozen tablespoons, an iron corn mill, and 30 yards of flannel. While still on the East Coast, Lewis accumulated almost two tons of goods using the $2,500 Congress had allocated for the expedition.
Expeditions Now
Modern wilderness expeditions cost twice as much per person as the entire Lewis and Clark Expedition cost for the entire four year trip. For $3,990 you could pay for a 14-day wilderness experience. You could expect to travel in the latest in fiberglass watercraft, sleep in lightweight waterproof nylon and synthetic tents, cook on a portable gas stoves instead of an open cook fire, eat food purchased from the supermarket instead of wild game that you had to shoot and butcher in the field. You’d have toilet paper, a backpack, a sleeping bag rated for the coldest temperature you’d be expecting, and a guide who knew where you were going, and how long it would take to get you there.
To see how one man followed the Lewis and Clark read John Krist’s journal at: http://www.voyageofrediscovery.com/part6/trail/index.shtml