The Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, reached the mouth of the Columbia River, confirming they had crossed the North American continent. Clark's journal entry read 'Ocian in view! O! the joy,' misspelling and all. The achievement fulfilled Thomas Jefferson's charge to find a practical route to the Pacific and gather scientific knowledge of the newly acquired western territories.
The expedition had endured brutal conditions crossing the Bitterroot Mountains, nearly starving before Nez Perce guides helped them find a path west. By late November 1805, relentless Pacific storms pinned the party down on the Washington coast, soaking their gear and rotting their remaining supplies for weeks.
Clark's famous journal line was written days before the party actually laid eyes on the true ocean; what they first saw was the wide estuary of the Columbia River, whipped into whitecaps that looked oceanic. The distinction mattered little to men who had walked, paddled, and starved their way across an unmapped continent.
The corps voted, including Sacagawea and a formerly enslaved man named York, on where to spend the winter — one of the first documented instances of a democratic vote involving a woman and an enslaved person in American history. They chose the south side of the Columbia, building Fort Clatsop, where they would wait out a soggy winter before beginning the long journey home.
Key people: Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea