Brothers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on May 21, 1804 from St. Charles, in what is now Missouri. Their "Voyage of Discovery" took them to the west coast, laying the groundwork to open the vast, rich west for the young United States. The journey actually started, however, in Washington DC months earlier, when Brother Lewis began his trip to the Mississippi River. Today's Lewis and Clark Trail, a series of parks and roads that roughly follows their route, reflects that fact by running from Washington, DC to the Oregon shore.
