From 1804-06, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led about 40 soldiers and boatmen on a journey commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to find a route to the Pacific Ocean through the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Along the way, the Corps of Discovery mapped the land, recorded its resources, and contacted its native inhabitants. Since Lewis and Clark explored this region, rivers have been dammed, forests cut over, prairies plowed under, and roads built to the horizon, though remnants of wilderness still exist.