President Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition into the previously unexplored Louisiana Territory. While Native Americans had lived, traded, and traveled through this region for centuries, European colonists and the young United States had not. After purchasing the vast swath of land extending from the Missisippi River to the Pacific Ocean from France, Jefferson understood that the US would need maps and information regarding the territory. Lewis and Clark led an expedition along the Missouri River to do just that in the early 1800s.
