Investor's Business Daily, August 7th, 2007
William Clark's goal was simple: He wanted to have a successful military career like his father.
Clark's dad was George Rogers Clark, a Revolutionary War hero and successful plantation owner. The senior Clark had secured what would become Illinois, Indiana and Michigan for the U.S. by the end of the war in 1783.
Clark (1770-1838) learned farming, the use of a rifle and some gentlemanly arts from his father. But he knew he needed to broaden his knowledge. So he joined the Kentucky militia at age 19. By 21, he was in the regular Army and had been promoted to lieutenant.
Clark spent much of his time in the military learning how to build encampments and make maps. He took an interest in both, though his official duty was the commander of a rifle company.
Most know of Clark as the co-captain, along with Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis to Washington state and back. Beyond that, "Clark's post-expedition contributions to Western history are so significant that his name might well be better known had he never gone to the Pacific with Lewis," said Clark biographer Landon Jones.
Among those contributions were Clark's three decades as the highest-ranking official of the federal government on the frontier. He was the top negotiator with Indian tribes on treaties that opened the frontier for westward expansion of the Union. And he completed the first comprehensive map of the U.S. territory west of the Mississippi.
That map, wrote Jones in a Smithsonian magazine profile of Clark, "literally redrew the continent."
"It remains," Jones said, "one of the seminal feats in the history of cartography."
In 1795, a young Lewis joined the rifle company Clark commanded. He watched as Clark made maps of military river expeditions and kept careful journals.
Eight years later, Lewis, who was serving in Thomas Jefferson's White House, asked Clark to accompany him on a historic trip west.
From his militia experience, "(Clark) knew how to build and supply forts. He had seen combat with Indians and was familiar with their cultures," Jones wrote. "Lewis was not far from the truth when he wrote Clark on June 19, 1803, that there was 'no man on earth' more qualified to join him as co-captain on the journey to the Pacific."
The journey would be long and dangerous. But Clark recognized the opportunity if they completed it, and jumped at the chance.
Aware that preparation could mean the difference between life and death, Clark spent months getting ready for the journey. Though he'd already taught himself cartography, he spent months honing his skills. He also read books and consulted experts about astronomy so he could navigate by the stars.
That education served him well. The 8,000-mile trip from St. Louis to Washington's Columbia River Valley and back took two years. Clark's tireless work ethic and knowledge were the key reasons the expedition completed its task.
Clark researcher Ralph Ehrenberg says Clark helped prepare 140 maps and collected 30 others from Indians and traders along the route. Clark was the only person of 33 on the quest who could draw a map.
He paid attention to detail, letting him sketch clearly many of the plants and animals the group encountered. Much of what they saw had never been recorded, and proved valuable to science for more than a century. That approach also helped keep the trek on track.
"During the expedition, Lewis acted more like the group's grand strategist, a visionary CEO to Clark's more hands-on chief operating officer," Jones said. "Apparently beset by frequent depressions, Lewis inexplicably failed to write in his journal for long stretches of time. Clark missed only a handful of entries while on a hunting expedition."
He also handled organizational duties, from sending out hunting and fishing parties to disciplining men who failed in their daily duties.
Clark looked at the trip as a learning experience. He had no books to read on the frontier, but learned from plenty of people. He spoke with nearly everyone they met -- and took over as the expedition's main contact person with the Indians they encountered along the way. He came to be trusted by many of those he met.
"Clark was ... a keen observer and recorder of Indian culture, religion and customs," said an Education Department study of Clark's career.
After the trip ended in 1806, Clark was hailed as a national hero. In 1812, President Madison offered him the job of governor of the Missouri Territory. Clark was worried he didn't have the proper skills, but he liked a challenge and accepted.
For the next eight years, Clark called on everything he knew about Indian culture and immersed himself in learning more about Indians, their leaders and their rites. He negotiated with dozens of tribes to ease the U.S. settlement of the West. When some tribes wouldn't negotiate, he sent troops to fight.
It was a difficult task. The government's policy was to move Indians off their lands onto reservations. Clark stood up for his beliefs, thinking it was the only way for the Indians to preserve their culture and avoid total war with the U.S.
This story originally ran Feb. 26, 2003, on Leaders & Success.
