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Journey's End - Life after the Expedition, Part 1 Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)

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Journey's End - Life after the Expedition, Part 1
Print Journey's End - Life after the Expedition, Part 1 Reading Comprehension


Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 8 to 12
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.51

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		abusive, amongst, tribal, backbreaking, geographical, townspeople, bustle, cooperation, exert, cartography, tended, banks, heroic, enterprise, rag-tag, unclaimed
	content words:		Clark Expedition, In November, Rocky Mountains, Northwest Passage, White House, President Jefferson, North America, Native American, Columbia River, Lewis Governor

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Journey's End - Life after the Expedition, Part 1 By Toni Lee Robinson

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¹     It was September 23, 1806. The people of St. Louis, Missouri, gathered on the banks of the river as a rag-tag bunch of men in canoes made their way downstream. They were Jefferson's explorers, back from the other side of the continent! They weren't dead, as some had assumed. Townspeople began to cheer. Church bells rang out the glad news. That night, the town sparkled with parties and dinners in honor of the men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
 
²     As they left their canoes on the banks of the Missouri, the men of the Corps of Discovery stepped out of the frontier. Ready or not, they entered the bustle and confusion of life in what was then the modern world. On the voyage, they had sweated and struggled, knit together through hardship. Courage and cooperation had sustained them over 8,000 miles of hard trail. They had developed a strong loyalty to their leaders and their daring enterprise. Now, they were just thirty-some weary, weatherworn individuals. Many of them weren't at all sure where they fit in this complex world.
 
³     The nation's capital welcomed the travelers with grand banquets and speeches. In November of 1806, Lewis reported to his commander. As he faced the president, Lewis was keenly aware that one of the major goals of the mission had not been attained. The high, jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains split the continent with a swath that was sometimes three hundred miles wide. Jefferson's hopes for an easy water route to the Pacific were not to be fulfilled. The explorers had not found the coveted Northwest Passage hiding in the wilderness.
 
⁴     Lewis laid his maps out on the White House floors. He traced the steps of the journey for President Jefferson, telling stories of rushing rivers, sunny prairies, and formidable mountains. The president crawled on hands and knees amongst the paper images of the Expedition's route. He listened, delighted with Lewis's tales of the journey.
 
⁵     The voyagers had fulfilled the president's dream of bringing the unknown West to light. The information they had gleaned made priceless contributions to the geographical knowledge and cartography of North America. They had documented 178 plants and 122 animals unknown to science. The Expedition's contacts with the Native American tribes had firmed up U.S. control of trade within the territory. Their venture down the Columbia River to the Oregon coast had established American presence in the far West. This signaled other nations that the U.S. intended to exert dominion over the unclaimed territory.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806)

Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)

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