Between 1803 and 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led President Jefferson's Corp of Discovery to the American West. On November 23, 1803, Lewis and Clark passed through Cape Girardeau and delivered letters of introduction to the city's founder, Louis Lorimier. Lewis met Lorimier while he was presiding at a horse race, later wrote about the visit in his journals, and described Lorimier in detail, including hair long enough to touch the ground. That evening Lewis dined with Lorimier and his Shawnee wife Charlotte, noted the beauty of one of their daughters, and was welcomed at Lorimier's home and the area's first business and trading post, later known locally through a recreation as the Red House.