William Clark

American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor (1770-1838)

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Lived 1770–1838, aged 68United States

United States Historical Figures

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31 languages
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Era
1770–1838
Aged 68

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

Co-leader of the first American expedition to cross the continent to the Pacific — the 1804–1806 trek that mapped the Louisiana Purchase and planted U.S. claims in the Northwest when most of the West was blank paper.

Biography

About

Born in Virginia in 1770, Clark grew up on the Kentucky frontier and served in militia and Army before Meriwether Lewis tapped him for the journey that would define both their lives. The Lewis and Clark Expedition set out in 1804, spent two years crossing unmapped wilderness to the Pacific and back, and returned with charts and records that opened the West to American expansion. Afterward Clark commanded militia again, then governed the Missouri Territory as it moved toward statehood. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis — the feder…

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