heading west The United States is a huge nation When European settlers first came to this country they settled along the eastern coast As the years passed and the nation grew settlers began heading west This migration would change the nation Missouri pioneer homestead 4
During the 1800s the United States changed in many ways The United States claimed more land in the west More people traveled west to start new lives At first they traveled in covered wagons Later railroads made the trip easier The United States was growing and changing Life in the West was very different from life in the East Many Americans viewed the West as a special place They wanted to honor the ways our nation grew It took a very unusual monument to honor the western frontier That monument is the Gateway Arch Pioneers traveled in covered wagons IT’S A FACT The Gateway Arch is the tallest monument in the United States 5
land from france In 1803 the United States western border was the Mississippi River Then President Thomas Jefferson bought about 828,000 square miles of land from France He did not even know what this part of North America was like The price was 15 million dollars The land stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada This land was called the Louisiana Purchase 6
President Jefferson sent James Monroe to France to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase Jefferson told Monroe All eyes all hopes are now fixed on you for on the event of the mission depends the future destinies of this republic The Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the size of the United States President Jefferson wanted to know what this new land was like He hired two men Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the area Lewis and Clark started their trip in St Louis Missouri in May 1804 The two men and their team were called the Corps of Discovery They spent two years exploring the wilderness They traveled to North Dakota and then west to Oregon Then they turned around and came home When they arrived back in St Louis in September 1806 a crowd of people greeted them with a huge celebration Meriwether Lewis William Clark 7
