A friend of mine forwarded this to me. I feel its worth sharing.

 200 years ago today -

    In several ways it resembled a classic government boondoggle.

  Cost  overruns were over 100%, it started later and took

 longer than   intended, and  it failed in its primary purpose.

  But its shortcomings were more than  matched by its

 accomplishments.

On this date in 1804, the Corps of Discovery, led by Captains

Meriwether  Lewis and William Clark, shoved off from their

camp at Wood River,   Illinois  and entered the mouth of the

Missouri River.  The explorers knew less   about  where they

 were going than the U.S. did about the moon before landing

   there.  Yet, while the mission did not discover the fabled

 (and non-existent)  Northwest Passage, it was a resounding

 success.  The expedition   described  and named hundreds of

 plants and animals previously unknown to science

  (including, among others, the grizzly bear and pronghorn

 antelope.)  It  delineated the entire path of the Missouri

 River, and many of its  tributaries.  The Corps crossed the

 rugged Bitteroot Mountains,   connected  with the Columbia 

River, and followed that river to the Pacific Ocean. 

   And  it dealt fairly and honestly with the Native Americans,

 probably the   last  government mission of any sort to do so.

  All this was done with the   loss of  only one man, early

 in the journey - and his death (probably due to a   burst

  appendix) would not have been preventable even had he been

 back in  civilization, under the finest medical care

 available.

So take a moment today to appreciate Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea,

 York,   John  Colter, George Drouillard, Pierre Cruzatte,

 Patrick Gass, and the rest   of  the participants in the

 most remarkable expedition in the history of   our  nation.