Eyes on Oregon

The instructions President Thomas Jefferson gave his minister to France in 1802 were simple: negotiate the purchase of the port city of New Orleans from France.

-  Elizabeth Howard

Located off the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans controlled entrance to the Mississippi River. And the Mississippi River controlled trade and transportation in the interior of North America. Jefferson did not want a foreign country controlling the fate and future growth of the United States.

In December 1803, the United States purchased France’s entire Louisiana territory. The deal included New Orleans and a vast expanse of land that extended west of the Mississippi River. It doubled the size of the United States.

Jefferson had long been curious about what might be found in those western lands. In the early 1800s, most Americans lived east of the Mississippi River. Jefferson appointed his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition into the new Louisiana Purchase.

Lewis and his co-captain, William Clark, set out with the men chosen for their Corps of Discovery in the spring of 1804. Jefferson asked the men to look for a water route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. He encouraged them to learn about the Indigenous peoples and to note plants and animals. He also hoped the expedition would strengthen U.S. claims to the rich farmlands of the Pacific Northwest.

Americans knew about the Pacific Northwest because of its role in the North American fur trade. The trade had started between the Indigenous peoples and the first European explorers in the early 1600s. The pelts of fur-bearing animals in North America were turned into desirable warm clothing and hats in Europe. The trade developed into an enormously profitable industry. In their search for animals to meet the demand, fur trappers had reached the Pacific Coast. In 1792, American ship captain Robert Gray had sailed to the mouth of the Columbia River and claimed it for the United States.