Two years after the triumphant 1806 return of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark from their Corps of Discovery Expedition, Thomas Jefferson sought the financial help of millionaire John Jacob Astor to establish a Jamestown-like colony on the Pacific Coast, anticipating a day when it would become a hub of commerce. Astor set out to establish a global trade network based at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, while Jefferson envisioned a separate democracy on the western shore of the continent that would spread eastward to meet the young United States.