1. Having been stung by England's Demarcation Line in the Appalachian Mts., Americans wanted no limits on movement.  The LA Purchase could offer what many Americans wanted: complete freedom to move.

2. Having fought France ( French and Indian War) and then England (Revolutionary War), Americans wanted no European influence or presence in North America. The LA Purchase was a National Security issue.

1. They had the responsibility to make a Scientific Journey of Discovery.  

2. They also dared to search for the almost mythical Northwest Passage.

1. The instant "shopping mall" experience of the Mountain Men Rendezvous brought them down from the mountains. The fur that was hunted and trapped started the Fur Trade... a process that brought Big Business to St.Louis and connected civilization to the solitary existence of the Mountain Men.

2. The Mountain Men were "pure explorers" ... interested in the next mountain and the next valley for the pure adventure of it. They were not looking for an easier way to travel to the big cities or farms; they wanted little to to with civilization. What irony !! It will be the Mountain Men who become Wagon Masters, leading pioneers through the mountains to farmland .. and to growing cities in Oregon and California. The Mountain Men helped spread the very civilization they had tried to avoid.

1. For each family, it was a chance for a new start....a new life.

2. For the United States, the movement of 1000's of such families was proof of the awesome power of a national passion and national belief: Manifest Destiny.