Topics in Kansas History: Exploration

Essay

Exploration of the Great Plains began with the earliest inhabitants to the place we now call Kansas. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his team were among the first of the European explorers to visit the plains. The goal of the early Spanish explorers was to discover riches north of Mexico. Coronado's expedition to discover gold led him to the area in 1541.

French explorers and traders followed including Étienne Veniard de Bourgmont in 1724 and Pierre and Paul Mallet in 1739. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, American explorers were set to map the West.

The Lewis and Clark expedition skirted the area in 1804 and on their return trip in 1806. Zebulon M. Pike's expedition crossed much of Kansas in 1806. Stephen H. Long's party explored portions of Kansas in 1819, and John C. Fremont, the "Path Finder," traveled through northeastern Kansas in 1842. Kansas Territory was opened to settlement in 1854.

Lewis and Clark

Early in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress for funds to send an exploring expedition from the Missouri River to the Pacific Northwest. When Congress approved, the president chose Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead the party. Four months later, on April 30, representatives of the United States and France completed arrangements for the sale of Louisiana to the U.S., but the American flag was not raised officially over New Orleans until December 20. Included in Jefferson's great real estate bargain was most of Kansas, leaving only that portion south of the Arkansas River and west of the 10th meridian in Spanish hands.

The Louisiana Territory was mostly unknown to Americans at the time of the purchase. The headwaters of the Mississippi had not been thoroughly explored and most of the Far West was a mystery. Furtraders had traveled up the Missouri into present North Dakota but most Americans were ignorant of what they had found. The fact that the United States had doubled its size for approximately fifteen million dollars did not impress some people. One Boston newspaper said that the territory was "a great waste, a wilderness unpeopled with any beings except wolves and wandering Indians."

Lewis and Clark, with forty-three men, left their camp near St. Louis on May 14, 1804, and on June 26 reached the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. There they stayed for three days while they gathered information on the area, including facts about the Kansa Indians. They camped on the north bank of the Missouri on June 29 and the next night stopped on the Kansas side. By July 1 they were opposite the site of Leavenworth and on July 3 they stayed in present Atchison County.

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