USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Lewis and Clark initially believed they had found a practical overland route to the west coast; however, the two passes they found going through the Rocky Mountains, Lemhi Pass and Lolo Pass, turned out to be much too difficult for prairie schooner wagons to pass through without considerable road work.

Detailed explanation-2: -While Lewis and Clark’s group were the first people considered to have traversed the Oregon Trail, much of their journey was over rugged terrain and water, and thus was not a feasible route for future travelers.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Expedition Historians and geographers judge the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which brought more than thirty overland travelers into the Columbia River Basin in 1805-1806, as the most successful North American land exploration in U.S. history.

Detailed explanation-4: -The route of Lewis and Clark’s expedition took them up the Missouri River to its headwaters, then on to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River, and it may have been influenced by the purported transcontinental journey of Moncacht-Apé by the same route about a century before.