Excerpt:
When Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast territory of Louisiana from France in 1803 and sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore it, he had no idea just how vast and seemingly unlimited his new acquisition was. They left the known world in May 1804 and traveled up the Missouri River to its headwaters, crossed the Rocky Mountains and descended to the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The long and arduous journey eventually brought them to the Pacific Ocean. All this and their expedition was only half over. They would not return to the capital and Jefferson until September 1806.
Throughout those two long years, Jefferson could do little but speculate about the journey. Only after their return did he begin to grasp the magnitude of his Purchase. The President listened enthusiastically to their extraordinary trip narrative. When he had heard it all, Jefferson concluded that the North American continent was much larger and more imposing than he had imagined. He proclaimed that it would take “a thousand years” to settle the country. Perhaps more.
Jefferson was a brilliant man but this prediction missed the mark…
Click the image below to read the rest of Jim’s article:
http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2013/04/01/solitude-lost-or-just-discarded-by-jim-stiles/
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