In 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark on an expedition to explore the hinterlands of the Missouri River, soon to become under United States sovereignty with the Louisiana Purchase, to survey the purchase, treat with the Indians and discover a route to the Pacific. On their return trip, their Corps of Discovery again passed through the area of what is now Kansas City.

The monument in Kansas City commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition and its “Corps of Discovery” was dedicated at Clark’s Point on April 26, 2003 in connection with a city-wide celebration of the 150th anniversary of Kansas City’s grant of the city charter.

The program established for the competition called for a sculpture that would recognize heroism, celebrate discovery and affirm the spirit of shared accomplishment. Heroism was defined as greatness in recognizing, challenging and overcoming adversity.

This sculpture of Lewis and Clark was dedicated on a high bluff with a broad panorama of the Missouri River valley. The site is highly appropriate for such a monument, facing generally northwest, the route of the outgoing expedition. The sculpture was placed in Case Park on Kansas City's historic Quality Hill. It has an excellent view of the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, and was described by William Clark in his journal entry of Sept. 15, 1806, as “a Commanding Situation.” Speaking about the Missouri Valley that day he wrote, “We passd Some of the most Charming bottom lands to day and the uplands by no means bad, all well timberd...””

The representation of the figures is done in the classical style. Sculptor Eugene Daub won an invited design competition in 1996 for this sculpture memorializing not only explorers
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, but also including Sacagawea, York, and Lewis's
Newfoundland breed dog, Seaman, as well.

The purpose of this sculpture can be seen in three principal aspects: Historical, Aesthetic and Iconographical.

The lives of each the subjects offered great potential for characterization. Meriwether Lewis was Thomas Jefferson’s secretary. His co-commander, William Clark, was Lewis’ personal friend, and later played critical roles in settlement of the Missouri territory. Sacagawea was a Native American, a wife of Toussaint Charbaneau, a French fur trapper engaged as a translator and guide. York, an African American, was Clark’s personal servant. Because of the expedition journals, a great amount is known about the conduct of these individuals during the two and a half years of the journey.

The sculpture is historically accurate in its depiction of the subjects, their clothing and
equipment. Portraits and sculptures exist accurately representing Lewis and Clark; there are many pictures and sculptures of Sacagawea -- their accuracy is suspect. There are no
contemporaneous pictures of York; his physical bearing is described in the journals.

The orientation of the sculpture is placed on a westward axis, but the site in Case Park
required that the composition work “in the round,” with a setting in the center of a circular
plaza 150 feet in diameter. The composition achieves unity in this challenging setting by rising in a great upward spiral, moving counter-clockwise from Sacagawea, who is kneeling, through Clark, who is examining his compass, to York and Seaman and finally to Lewis, who stands at the top of a rocky pinnacle. There has been much commentary about the special relationship of friendship and shared command between Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – this special personal bond is reflected in the gesture of Lewis’s left hand in a moment before touching Clark’s shoulder.

Special care was given to make this sculpture as authentic as possible. Examples include the careful selection of each figure's clothing and the luggage that is arrayed about the base. Even the basket that Sacagawea holds was based on a Hidatsa form, and the roots and plants she collects were those that the Corps would have encountered on their way to the Pacific.

The plaza has been re-paved in a design built of bricks and granite pavers in a geometric pattern roughly derived from Michelangelo’s pavement design for the Piazza de Campidoglio in Rome. The bricks came from the old Kansas City stockyards. At the pavement’s center is this sculpture placed in a circle 20 feet in diameter and raised on a classical pedestal of “Missouri Red” granite. The material of the figures is bronze at 150% of life -- “heroic” scale. Each of the figures is nearly nine feet tall; the overall composition is over 18 feet in height.

Eugene Daub was one of a handful of sculptors around the country working in the classical, traditional style. Notably, Daub believes that even within this classical tradition, practice has continued to evolve: