13 August 2006 Lewis, Jefferson and Open Ended Problem Solving

As I go up the river, I think about how happy the original Corps was to finaly get to the Pacific. But they left St. Louis without any real idea of what lay before them or even if they were embarking on an achievable goal.

Jefferson told Lewis to find a connection between the Missouri and Columbia Rivers that would be useful for commerce. He had no idea that a route even existed. Perhaps the Missouri moved north while the Columbia turned south so that, rather than being separated by a couple of hundred miles of east west idatnace, they were also separated by 400 miles of north south distance. What then? And how did Lewis and Clark know that the river they were about to go down was really going to take them to the mouth of the Columbia. Luckily they had some Native Americans to help them.

Every day I wake up and know exactly where I am going and how many miles it will be and, given good road conditions and good body condition, about how long it will take me to get there. My trip has goals. Umatilla by tomorrow. St. Louis by Sept 23. But I wonder how I would respond to, "Go do something that might be impossible and talk to me when you get back, whenever that might be, if you even survive the trip." What kind of open-ended problem solving challenge is this? And how would I have responded?

In the end, they ultimately failed. There is no good navigable route from the Atlantic to the Pacific and there would not be until the development of overland routes. But they did achieve a greater purpose and what may have been in the back (or front) of Jefferson's mind to begin with. They effectively staked claim to the Pacific Norhtwest and opened the West to westward exapansion by the United States.