The Discovery of Western America

by Sarah-Ann Boguski

Here is a tale of two young men
Who braved amazing odds.
To pioneer through uncharted lands
Where none before had trod.

By request of Thomas Jefferson,
these two men agreed to go.
The trek would stretch from little St. Louis
O'er the Rockies to the great West Coast.

They gathered together a worthy crew,
"The Corps of Discovery" by name.
Made of 30 men both young and untried
Who were offered neither fortune nor fame.

'Twas on a Monday morning in May
That the crew did finally set sail,
With one keelboat and two canoes
On the Missouri they blazed their trail.

Through fearsome droves of vicious pests
They sailed on day after day.
Discovering prairie dogs, antelope,
And many new people along the way.

The Lakota people were unhappy with them
And their meeting ended quite bad.
But the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes
Just marveled at their dark-skinned man*

It was with the Mandan they spent the winter
In the year 1805.
And here they met a brave young girl,
Who helped to keep them alive.

Sacajawea was her name,
And with husband and baby in hand,
She joined the crew to interpret for them,
And they continued o'er Indian lands.

Foolishly the crew laughed and scoffed,
At fanciful Mandan tales.
Of bears so big, strong, and fast,
Six bullets would hardly kill.

But then one day out of the bush
Rose a beast six feet tall.
One of the crew let two shots fly
And still he didn't fall.

When they reached the base of the Rockies,
They met with the Shoshone.
Sacajawea cried and hugged the chief,
She had found her brother, her family.

Across the Rockies the crew did go
With pack horses for the supplies.
The going was rough, and in a storm
They even lost their guide.

So many a tale that I could tell
Of hardship and discovery
The way was hard but they trudged on
To reach the great western sea.

Finally on November 7th, in the year 1805,
The fog cleared and shouts arose.
"Ocean in view, O the joy,"
Was the sentiment Will Clark cried.

What a marvelous sight for the explorers to see,
What a relief after such a hike.
It was marvelous, yes, but none too relieving,
For now they had to head back.

So down in history go Lewis and Clark,
Heroes of the very best,
Going where no white had trod before,
They opened the door to the West.

*Clark brought his slave named York, who fascinated
the Indians, who had never seen a dark man before.