A thunderstorm caught Lewis' party in the early afternoon that day, and, traveling by horseback toward St. Charles, they were soaked when they reached their destination that evening. The next day, as their keelboat tuned her bow into the stream of the Missouri River, Lewis, William Clark, and their party cut themselves off from civilization. I wonder if Lewis would recognize the overland route he took from St. Louis to St. Charles today.
Satellite images reveal that essentially the whole area is now built up by urbanization.
Surely the growth of our state and the changes in our way of life would amaze him. Had Lewis sent a letter from St. Louis to President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., it would have taken a minimum of six weeks to arrive. Now advances in communications allow us to witness events as they unfold anywhere in the world. Still, with gains come losses. Many of the sights and sounds that Lewis saw and heard are gone - part of vanished Missouri.