William Clark

 By: Bricean

William Clark was born August 1, 1770, in Carolina County, Virginia and died on September 1, 1838. The main reason William Clark and Meriwether Lewis are known is because of the Louisiana Purchase. But first I'm going to explain how Clark knows Lewis. "Lewis has served under Clark during the northwest campaigns in the 1790s  in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio where their friendship began. When Thomas Jefferson sought leadership for his proposed expedition to the pacific, he immediately tapped Lewis who in turn highly recommended Clark." (ND Historical Society)

Now I'm going to explain what the Louisiana Purchase is. "As the United States spread across the Appalachians, the Mississippi River became an increasingly important conduit for the produce of America's West (which at that time referred to the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi). Since 1762, Spain had owned the Territory of Louisiana, which included 828,000 square miles. The Territory made up all or part of fifteen modern U.S. states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains." (US.history.state.gov) Lewis and Clark started their expedition on May 14,1804, in camp Dubois. Their main boat was the Keelboat. It was built in Pittsburgh, in 1803. The Keelboat was sent back to St. Louis in the spring of 1805 because it was to large to go further up the Missouri .

Here I'm going to talk about some things that Louis and Clark discovered. "On Saturday, 14, 1804, a storm struck their boat and would have thrown their boat up on to Sand Island and smashed to pieces in an instant had the party not leaped out and kept it off the island. The storm suddenly ceased and the river became smooth." (National park service) "On Thursday, June, 13, 1805, Clark saw the grandest site he ever saw, the rocks below receive the water in it's passage down and broke into perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment." (Journals of Lewis and Clark's expedition)

Together, Clark and Lewis recorded the first scientific descriptions of over 300 animals and plant species. They even sent unfamiliar specimens back east, such as a prairie dog and a magpie. During their two and a half year expedition, the Corps of Discovery encountered more than two dozen Native Tribes. On Wednesday, October 30, 1805, Lewis saw a cascade caused by small streams falling from the mountain cliffs. On Thursday, October 31, 1805, they saw a remarkably high detached rock standing about 800 feet high and 40 paces around. They called it beacon rock. On Saturday, November 2, 1805,the river widened to almost a mile, the bottom is more extensive and thickly timbered. On Monday, November 4, 1805, Mount Adams was covered with snow; it rose to the form of a sugarloaf. 

Upon Lewis and Clark's return people made landmarks with the information they collected over the years while they were out in the wild. William Clark's maps helped people navigate for two years and then the US started using other maps. William Clark and his wife, after his wife's  death in 1820, Clark married Harriet Kennerly Radford, a widow with three children, and fathered two more son's. Over the last 2 months I had a lot of fun learning and teaching you about William Clark and what he did in his lifetime.  The favorite thing I learned about was that William Clark found unfamiliar animals, such as a Prairie dog and a magpie.

                                                   Sources:

                                             Wikipedia.com

                                            ND Historical society 

                                         US history.state.gov

                                            National park service 

                                    Journals of Lewis and Clark's expedition

Sir Lewis Hamilton

  

By Bricean

In this biography you will learn three things about Lewis Hamilton: his childhood, what he does for charity, and his activism. Lewis Hamilton does a lot of things to help people and I think he is really cool. I like Lewis Hamilton because he is a F1 driver and he’s the best driver so far because he has the most F1 wins in the world, and he has a good team. Also, Lewis is the first black person to drive in F1 and he works to break down barriers for other people of color. I hope you learn a lot about Lewis Hamilton. 

Lewis Hamilton got a remote-control car when he was five from his dad. When Lewis was six, he won the adult remote-controlled car national championship. For the next Christmas Lewis got a go-kart. When he got into go-kart racing, he was the only black go-kart racer. He sometimes got bulled because he was black but, Lewis ignored the bulling and let his results speak for him. All of Lewis’s dad’s money went to the go-kart, but it paid off when Lewis won the British kart championship. Three years later Lewis got his spot on the McLaren racing team and he was the youngest driver on the team (Sanchez Vegara 2023). 

 For his debut as a formula one driver Lewis wore a bright yellow helmet to honor his hero, Ayrton Senna. Senna wanted to stand out from the other drivers that were wearing white helmets, and he did that by wearing a yellow helmet (Petrany 2019). Ayrton Senna inspired Lewis to wear more then one helmet and Lewis now wears a lot of helmets that inspire people. For his rookie season Lewis won second in the world drivers’ championship. He raced for McLaren for five years and then he joined the Mercedes-Benz team, the silver arrows. Lewis has then gone on to win seven world titles with Mercedes-Benz including becoming the first black driver to top the formula one rankings. Lewis is the youngest champion ever (Sanchez Vegara 2023). 

 Lewis uses his fame and speaks publicly about environmental concerns, racism, LGBTQ+ rights and he works to break down barriers in motorsports. Lewis switched to a plant-based diet (livekindly.com 2023), and he invested in an electric off road racing series to raise awareness for environmental issues. In Lewis’s household he does not want people to buy plastic and he wants everything to be recyclable. Lewis is making changes and he’s encouraging people around him to do the same thing to save the planet (Katwala 2021). 

Lewis has also set up research to examine the structural reasons for black underrepresentation in motorsports (Heath 2022). Lewis hopes that other black people will someday become engineers, car mechanics, or drivers (Katwala 2021). Sometimes Lewis features the prominent pride flag on the top of his helmet. Lewis has been very vocal about human rights issues (espn.com 2021). F1 has a bigger audience than ever before so Lewis can make a point to more people (Edmondson 2021). 

Winning race after race and title after title, Lewis broke the record for the most formula one triumphs and is considered the best F1 driver in the world. After his seventh world championship, he was knighted, Sir Lewis Hamilton (Sanchez Vegara 2023)! Lewis has a lot of money and a big platform. Lewis is trying to change the world, and his wealth and fame allow him to teach people about stuff that they don’t know. This helps people be more aware and make better choices about the environment and social issues. Lewis is a good person, and we need to help him change the world. 

I hope you learned a lot about Lewis Hamilton! 

References
Edmondson, Lawrence. 2021. ESPN.com. Lewis Hamilton Wears Pride Colors on Helmet.
EurosportsUK.com. 2022. ‘Be more outspoken’-Lewis Hamilton Encourages Drivers to be Activists in Response to Criticism by FIA President.
Heath, Chris. 2022.Vanity fair. Lewis Hamilton: The F1 Superstar, Racism, His Fortune, and The Shocker That Cost Him A Championship.
Katwala, Amit. 2021. Wired.com. Lewis Hamilton opens up about activism and life beyond F1.
Livekindly.com. 2023. Lewis Hamilton says he’ll be carbon neutral by the end of the year.
Petrany, Mate. 2019. The story behind the most iconic helmet in motorsports history.
Sanchez Vegara, Maria Isabel. 2023. Little people, big dreams Lewis Hamilton.