Every journey starts with a single step -- Where did this journey start? In the mind of Thomas Jefferson, when he first conceived of this voyage of exploration and discovery? Or was it when he set that idea in motion, and asked his clerk, Meriweather Lewis, to lead it, and his Secretary of the Treasury to finance it? Most people say the journey began in St. Louis in May of 1804. In 1804, St. Louis was truly the Gateway to the west. Beyond lay uncharted territory. But some historians argue that the Voyage of Discovery began in Pittsburgh because it was from Fort Fayette (located in Pittsburgh at 9th St. & Penn Ave.) that the U.S. Army staged the expedition, and it was from Pittsburgh that Lewis set out on Aug. 31 in the keelboat with supplies and 11 crewmen. But the greatest argument is that Lewis himself considered Pittsburgh the start of the journey. When the boat was launched on Aug. 31, he began his journal. I have my own reasons to believe that Pittsburgh was where this amazing journey began: