Clark, William (1770-1838), was an American explorer. With Meriwether Lewis, he led the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, which explored the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest from 1804 to 1806.
President Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis to lead the expedition, and, in 1803, Lewis invited Clark to join it. Lewis and Clark privately agreed to share command of the expedition.
The expedition started out from a camp near St. Louis in May 1804 and followed the Missouri River west. The men crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1805 and reached the Pacific coast in November that same year. They arrived back in St. Louis in September 1806.
In addition to sharing command, Clark also had record-keeping duties. Especially important were the maps he made of the party’s route. After Lewis’s death in 1809, Clark became responsible for the publication of the expedition journals.
Clark was born on Aug. 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia. His brother, George Rogers Clark, became a hero in the Revolutionary War in America. After the expedition with Lewis, Clark held several public offices in St. Louis, including that of superintendent of Indian affairs. Clark died on Sept. 1, 1838.
See also Lewis and Clark expedition .
