Which best explains why settlers in the Northwest Territory chose to be near lakes and rivers in the late 1700s? They hoped the waterways would provide a route across the continent to the Pacific. They wanted to harness the power of the waterways to build new factories. They wanted to use the waterways to transport goods and crops to distant markets. They planned to use these waterways to help defend their properties from attack.

the answer to your question is a. the salt plains

in 1811, he led an expedition, known as the george c. sibley expedition, to improve relations with the pawnee and kansa tribes, and also to locate the rumored jefferson's salt mountain

the committees of correspondence were the american colonies’ means for maintaining communication lines in the years before the revolutionary war. in 1764, boston formed the earliest committee of correspondence to encourage opposition to britain’s stiffening of customs enforcement and prohibition of american paper money. the following year, new york formed a similar committee to keep the other colonies notified of its actions in resisting the stamp act. in 1773, the virginia house of burgesses proposed that each colonial legislature appoint a committee for intercolonial correspondence. the exchanges that followed built solidarity during the turbulent times and bring about the formation of the first continental congress in 1774.

would be the one having to do with paine talking about how the colonies are so "close" to independence anyway, since he viewed that only rational next step at this point being revolution.