48 GUIDEBOOK OF THE 
WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The village of Sterling is situated at the outer border of the Alta- 
mont moraine, at the western limit of the great ice sheet that occupied 
Sterling. 
Elevation 1,834 feet. 
Population 198.* 
St. Paul 421 miles. 
this region in the last stage of the glacial epoch. 
Below it and stretching for to the west is a plain 
which was formed of clay, sand, and gravel that were 
accumulated by the ice and swept along to its outer 
margin. From Sterling may be obtained an extended 
view of the outwash plain, toward the south, and far beyond the more 
rugged country bordering Missouri River. 
’ Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, 
-and South Dakota; nearly all of Louisi- 
ana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, and 
Montana, about one-third of Minnesota, 
and one-third of Colorado. The treaty by 
which all of this territory was acquired 
was executed in Paris April 30, 1803. 
The compensation was $11,250,000 and 
e assumption by the United States of 
the “French spoliation claims,”’ estimated 
to amount to $3,750,000. It is an inter- 
esting fact that some of these claims are 
still in process of adjudication. 
The extent and boundaries of the proy- 
ince of Louisiana were never definitely 
stated. In the treaty the territory was 
described merely as being the same as 
that ceded by Spain to France by the 
treaty of San Ildefonso. From this it 
appears that the territory sold to the 
United States comprised that part of the 
basin of the Mississippi which 
lies west of the river, with the exception 
of such parts as were then held by Spain 
The lack of precise definition was nok 
objected to by the American commission 
ers, as they probably foresaw that it slcht 
ure. negotiations 
At that time all the territory on 
c coast now included in the nas - 
States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho 
was a sort of no man’s land. Subse- 
quently, in treating with Great Britain 
the 
shai oy Crank Bikisin, sind by the treaty 
of peace in 1818 it was agreed that the 
country immediately south of the forty- 
ninth parallel and west of the ‘“‘Stony’’ 
(Rocky) Mountains should remain open 
to both parties. In 1846 the Webster- 
Ashburton treaty with Great Britain fixed 
the northern boundary of the United 
States west of the Rocky Mountains at the 
forty-ninth parallel as far as the Strait of 
Fuca, and thus Oregon, Washington, and 
Idaho finally were recognized as belong- 
ing to this country. 
On the acquisition of Louisiana an ex- 
pedition was planned by President Jeffer- 
son ‘‘to explore the Missouri River and 
such principal streams of it as, by its course 
and communication with the waters of the 
Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, 
Oregon [another name for the Columbia], 
requisite instructions Capt. Lewis left 
Washington July 5, 1803, and proceeded 
in Baier a on found that the Spanish 
commandan € province, not having 
received an feel account of the trans- 
fer, was obliged by the general policy of 
his Government to prevent strangers from 
ough Spanish territory. The 
party Disroee camped on the east side 
of the Mississippi, where they passed the 
winter in the necessary prepara- 
tions for setting out early in the spring, 
but they did not leave until after the 
cession of Louisiana had been formally 
announced. 
The party when it left St. Louis com- 
prised, besides the two officers, grat Ae 
men from Kentucky, fourteen 
