The Role of Rivers in the United States 19th Century Territorial Expansion from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

This study explores the key role of rivers in the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. In the early 1800s, President Jefferson envisioned a United States that extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. At the time, the entire United States territory was located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. Much of the land west of the Mississippi River was claimed by Spain, France, or Canada. In 1803, President Jefferson was able to purchase the Missouri River watershed from France via the Louisiana Purchase. This allowed the United States to extend its land claim west from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to the head waters of the Missouri River at the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. President Jefferson commissioned William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, in 1803, to explore, discover and describe the Missouri River watershed and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery trip found no such waterway link but did continue to explore the Pacific Northwest lands north and west of the continental divide. The only way that the Pacific Northwest could be claimed as part of the United States was for Americans to settle there before the Canadians did. Starting in the 1820s, many Americans traveled via the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley (Land of Flowing Milk and Honey) in Oregon. The primary objectives of this study are to document how the United States: 1) extended its land claims west from the Mississippi River to the North American continental drainage divide; 2) established an American claim to the Pacific North West territory; and 3) fulfilled President Jefferson’s vision of a United States extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.