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50 free Lewis and Clark trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Lewis and Clark trivia follows the Corps of Discovery from a winter camp on the Illinois shore in May 1804 to the Pacific in November 1805 and back to St. Louis in September 1806, a round trip that Jefferson had funded with a secret message to Congress and a budget of $2,324. Along the way there was a Newfoundland dog, a repeating air rifle, a standoff with the Lakota, a winter with the Mandan, a teenage Shoshone mother and her newborn, an appendicitis death that turned out to be the only one, a vote on where to camp in which a woman and an enslaved man both had a say, and a captain shot in the backside by his own hunter. This quiz covers the preparations in Philadelphia, the keelboat from Pittsburgh, the Indian Peace Medals, Camp Dubois, Sergeant Floyd, Black Buffalo and the tobacco, Fort Mandan and Charbonneau, Lemhi Pass and the Bitterroots, Dismal Nitch and Fort Clatsop, the Chinook letter that beat them home, the Blackfeet fight on the Marias, York's fate, the 140 maps and 200 species, Nicholas Biddle's 1814 edition, Lewis's death at Grinder's Stand and Clark's years as governor of Missouri Territory. Easy questions suit anyone who remembers the names from school; the expert tier is for people who know how many pounds of portable soup they packed. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the expedition and its two captains, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which US president commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Thomas Jefferson
He used a secret message to ask Congress for funding because of poor relations with the Federalists.
Q 02What was the official name of the group of soldiers and volunteers led by Lewis and Clark?
The Corps of Discovery
It may have numbered as many as 45 people, including York, an African American man enslaved by Clark.
Q 03How much did Congress appropriate for the expedition's supplies and food?
$2,324
Jefferson had asked for the money in a secret message to avoid Federalist opposition.
Q 04From which winter camp on the Illinois side of the Mississippi did the Corps set out in May 1804?
Camp Dubois
Also called Camp Wood, it was recognised by the federal government in the 1970s as the start of the voyage.
Q 05In which Missouri town did Lewis join the party six days after it left camp?
St. Charles
The whole expedition then set out up the Missouri on 21 May 1804.
Q 06Near which city was the expedition's keelboat built in the summer of 1803?
Pittsburgh
Lewis then took it down the Ohio to meet Clark near Louisville in October.
Q 07What breed was Seaman, the dog Lewis bought before setting off?
Newfoundland
He was the only animal to complete the whole trip, and was briefly stolen on the way home in 1806.
Q 08Which Philadelphia physician taught Lewis medicine before the trip?
Benjamin Rush
Ellicott taught him the sextant, Barton how to preserve specimens and Wistar covered fossils.
Q 09The expedition carried an Austrian-made Girandoni air rifle notable for what feature?
A 20-round magazine
It was powerful enough to kill a deer and was shown off to impress the tribes they met.
Q 10What did the silver 'Indian Peace Medals' handed out to tribes bear on one side?
A portrait of Jefferson
The reverse carried a message of friendship and peace.
Q 11How many pounds of 'portable soup' were bought for the expedition in Philadelphia?
193
The list also included 130 rolls of pigtail tobacco and 30 gallons of strong spirit of wine.
Q 12Sergeant Floyd, the only member of the Corps to die on the expedition, probably died of what?
Acute appendicitis
He was buried on a bluff at what is now Sioux City, Iowa, in August 1804.
Q 13Which Lakota chief defused the tense standoff of September 1804 by asking Lewis for more tobacco?
Black Buffalo
Clark had brandished his sword and called the Sioux 'the vilest miscreants of the savage race'.
Q 21Which two members voted on where to build the Pacific-coast winter camp despite their status?
Sacagawea and York
A woman and an enslaved man voting was extraordinary for the era.
Q 22What was the name of the stockade built near modern Astoria, Oregon, for the winter of 1805–06?
Fort Clatsop
It sat on the Netul River, now the Lewis and Clark River, with the American flag flying to establish a claim.
Q 23What was the party's main source of food during the miserable winter on the Pacific coast?
Elk
The animals had retreated to the mountains and the party was too poor to buy enough from neighbouring tribes.
Q 14Where did the expedition spend the winter of 1804–05?
Fort Mandan
It was near present-day Washburn, North Dakota; the keelboat was sent back to St. Louis with specimens in April.
Q 15What was the name of the French-Canadian fur trapper hired as interpreter, husband of Sacagawea?
Toussaint Charbonneau
He suggested a potion of rattlesnake's rattle to help her difficult labour in February 1805.
Q 16To which nation did Sacagawea belong?
Shoshone
Scholars stress she was an interpreter and diplomatic asset rather than a guide.
Q 17What was the name of the son Sacagawea gave birth to on 11 February 1805?
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Lewis happened to have some rattlesnake rattle to hand for the potion suggested to ease the birth.
Q 18Where did the expedition cross the Continental Divide?
Lemhi Pass
They then crossed the Bitterroots at Lolo Pass and canoed down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia.
Q 19The sighting of which mountain confirmed the expedition had almost reached the Pacific?
Mount Hood
They used William Broughton's 1792 notes and maps to find their way down the lower Columbia.
Q 20On what date did the expedition first sight the Pacific Ocean?
7 November 1805
They reached it two weeks later and faced a storm-wracked spot Clark named Dismal Nitch.
Q 24Which Russian statesman's expedition reached the mouth of the Columbia while Lewis and Clark were there?
Nikolai Rezanov
His ship Juno could not cross the Columbia Bar, so he went to California instead, leading to the founding of Fort Ross.
Q 25Where did Captain Samuel Hill carry Clark's letter, given to the Chinook, before it reached Jefferson?
Canton
Jefferson thus heard from the expedition before it got home.
Q 26On the return trip, Lewis's party killed two men of which nation on the Marias River?
The Blackfeet
Lewis, Drouillard and the Field brothers then fled more than 100 miles in a day.
Q 27How was Lewis wounded in the thigh in August 1806?
One of his own hunters mistook him for an elk
The nearly blind Pierre Cruzatte fired the shot as the two parties were reuniting.
Q 28On what date did the expedition arrive back in St. Louis?
23 September 1806
The return from the Pacific had taken exactly six months.
Q 29Which power sent four armed parties from Santa Fe in 1804 to intercept and imprison the expedition?
Spain
Pedro Vial reached the Pawnee on the Platte only to find the Americans had passed days earlier.
Q 30Roughly how many maps did Lewis and Clark draw during the journey?
About 140
They also met over 70 tribes.