In this course we will follow the Corps of Discovery down the westward flowing rivers to the sea (which makes it sound much easier than it was!), through their winter encampment near the Oregon coast, and back east through perils both familiar and new on their way back to a longed-for but unexpected reappearance in St. Louis two and a half years after departing.  We will then follow the principal players in this historical saga during their lives and adventures (and misadventures) in the years immediately following the triumphant return, concentrating particularly on Clark's successes and Lewis's failures, and on the implications of the ways in which the western lands opened to Americans.  

Subject: history 

Michael Stevens has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Dallas and has taught American literature and various writing courses in Grand Rapids for more than 25 years. A native of upstate New York, he traces his interest in baseball history to a boyhood visit to Cooperstown, and his interest in the Civil War to the presence of his great-great-grandfather's veteran's monument (15th NY Cavalry) in the family burial plot in Caroline, NY.