Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 16 hours ago
Vail Symposium
The forefathers of adventure travel, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were co-leaders of an expedition tasked with exploring land that the United States had recently acquired at the turn of the 19th century. Their trip would turn into an epic 8,000-mile-long trek—and the first big step in the United States’ westward expansion. And though you may have heard their names in elementary school, their story is more fascinating than what is usually skimmed over in school.
Did Sacagawea really guide the expedition? Were Lewis and Clark "the best friends in American history," as the late Stephen Ambrose declared? What happened to Lewis after his return in 1806? Did he commit suicide or is it possible that he was murdered on the Natchez Trace in 1809?
Join Clay Jenkinson, one of the leading Lewis and Clark scholars in America, for this special program discussing these and other remaining mysteries of the most famous exploration mission in American history.
Vail Symposium
The forefathers of adventure travel, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were co-leaders of an expedition tasked with exploring land that the United States had recently acquired at the turn of the 19th century. Their trip would turn into an epic 8,000-mile-long trek—and the first big step in the United States’ westward expansion. And though you may have heard their names in elementary school, their story is more fascinating than what is usually skimmed over in school.
Did Sacagawea really guide the expedition? Were Lewis and Clark "the best friends in American history," as the late Stephen Ambrose declared? What happened to Lewis after his return in 1806? Did he commit suicide or is it possible that he was murdered on the Natchez Trace in 1809?
Join Clay Jenkinson, one of the leading Lewis and Clark scholars in America, for this special program discussing these and other remaining mysteries of the most famous exploration mission in American history.
