Fast Facts

• Permanent members of the Corps of Discovery:32 men, 1 woman, 1 child, 1 dog

• Average age of enlisted men:27
  

• Number of fatalities during journey:1
  

• Number of men discharged for misconduct:2
  

• Number of surviving expedition journals:5
  

• Duration of journey:864 days
  

• Total cost of the expedition:$38,722.25
  

• Clark's estimate of distance from the Mississippi to the Pacific:4,142 miles
  

• Length of Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail:3,700 miles

• Highway distance from St. Louis to Fort Clatsop, Ore.:2,151 miles

• Distance by air:1,800 miles
  

• Approximate U.S. land area before Louisiana Purchase:900,000 square miles
  

• After Louisiana Purchase:1.7 million square miles
  

• Price paid to France for Louisiana Territory:$15 million
  

• Price per acre:3 cents
  

• Non-Indian population of territory in 1803:10,000
  

• U.S. population in 1803:5.3 million

• U.S. population today:285.5 million

Sources: National Park Service; U.S. Census Bureau; National Museum of Natural History; National Archives; "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West," by Stephen E. Ambrose; "The Journals of Lewis and Clark," edited by Bernard DeVoto; "Thomas Jefferson and the Stony Mountains: Exploring the West from Monticello," by Donald Jackson.