Leadership and Discovery: Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Abstract

The United States has recently finished celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and during that celebration scholars and citizens alike-me included-commemorated what Stephen Ambrose called “our epic voyage.”¹ It was certainly epic; the Lewis and Clark Expedition was one of the great voyages of discovery ever undertaken by Europeans or Euro-Americans. Over twenty-eight months it covered some 7,000 miles. During that time, just one man died-probably due to a ruptured appendix-members of the expedition fired their guns in anger just one time, and the information they brought back filled in huge swathes of what had been an empty map of the North American heartland. More importantly, in the years since Lewis and Clark’s return, the story of their journey has become our epic and has assumed a unique place in our national identity; few Americans know anything of similar expeditions led by Zebulon Pike, Stephen H. Long, or John C. Frémont, but virtually every American is familiar with Lewis and Clark.