What Was The Difference Between Lewis And Clark

Was Lewis and Clark's expedition one of the main reasons the U.S is what it is today?
Lewis and Clark’s expedition lasted two years, four months, and ten days. They traveled about 8,000 miles (13,000 km). The expedition was planned to go west of Missouri and to discover what was beyond the eastern area of the U.S, the government was able to explore this area of the U.S because of the Louisiana purchase.
The Louisiana Purchase was bought from the French for $15 million dollars and the land area was 828,000 square miles (2,100,000 square km). That is 529,920,000 acres of land which comes out to be only 2.8 cents an acre. Converting that over to today’s prices it would be $1.58976 trillion dollars based on the average acre price of $3,000 and acre (2014). That’s a profit of $1.589745 trillion dollars. This purchase also represents about 22.3% of the land that makes the U.S. Through their expedition they discovered many different plants and animals. In Lewis’s journal there were about 275 different sketches of animals and
plants.
Through Lewis and Clark’s travels they started in Missouri and stopped in what would be the state of Oregon. When they got to the Pacific Ocean their journey was complete. They traveled through many future states during their journey. Lewis and Clark traveled through the future states of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Without the Louisiana Purchase the U.S would be a much smaller country.
During their travels they came across a decent sum of new Native American tribes like: The Blackfeet, The Mandas, The Oto, and many more which allowed trading with the Native Americans. This gave the Americans more supplies and led them to be able to build homes and other important buildings. One very important Native American that joined their expedition was Sacagawea. In early stories she was thought to have been their guide but now it is thought that she was an interpreter for the expedition. She was a very important part of their group because having someone to interpret and introduce them to new tribes help to keep them safe and helped establish trade. It was noted that Lewis really didn’t care for Sacagawea but Clark had a better opinion of her and actually helped to support her family later in life. Clark later, after their journey, became Brigadier General of the militia and superintendent of Indian affairs. Since he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he was in charge of where the Native Americans lived, what they traded, and how they traded. Lewis and Clark had 33 men on board their ship counting their slave 'York'. On the trip only 1 man died, Sergeant Charles Floyd. Sergeant Floyd died of an infection from a ruptured appendix.
Since only one man died on this journey that proves that it didn't take a huge cost to explore the rest of the U.S. Most exploring would cost at least 5 or more lives due to injury or being attacked by animals or Native Americans. Congress donated $2,500 dollars to Lewis and Clark's expedition which at the time was a large sum of money. All though it was a bit costly at the time, the expedition not only gave the U.S more land, the U.S made lots of money with the land they discovered, due to Native American trading, new plants for medicines, new animals to hunt to get more food and clothes. Without Lewis and Clark's expedition we most likely wouldn't have found the grizzly bear, elk, white-tailed deer, skunks, and many types of birds. In conclusion, I believe that Lewis and Clark did a huge job for our country and that their trip was a huge success for the U.S and them both, because they were both given a decent sum of
money.