Across the Fence: The Youngest Discoverer

Being from northeastern Kansas, and growing up a little more than 15 miles from the Missouri River and the historic Lewis and Clark Trail, it's little wonder that I've long been a student of the unprecedented journey of The Corps of Discovery.

Any family trip to Atchison took us past Independence Creek that fed into the Missouri River and the site where the Corps of Discovery observed the first 4th of July ever celebrated west of the Mississippi. The year was 1804 and the Lewis and Clark expedition had, in essence, barely begun the long and arduous journey that lay ahead.

By October 1804,...