11 Ways to Follow Their Trail

Want to retrace their steps and learn more about how they did it? We offer a selection of the most notable of many historic sites, parks, museums and festivals. The National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial lewisandclark200.org will be host to 13 signature events over a three-year span

VIRGINIA

MONTICELLO, OUTSIDE CHARLOTTESVILLE Thomas Jefferson’s estate will be the site of the inaugural bicentennial event on Jan. 18, 2003. The exhibition “Framing the West at Monticello” opens two days earlier, re-creating Jefferson’s Indian Hall, where he displayed artifacts. The estate has worked with Native American artists to re-create lost objects www.monticello.org)

KENTUCKY/INDIANA

FALLS OF THE OHIO It was here that Lewis and Clark formed their partnership and recruited and enlisted many of the corps members. The second signature event of the bicentennial will be held in October 2003, and there will be activities throughout the bicentennial fallsoftheohio.org)

MISSOURI/ILLINOIS

ST. LOUIS AREA The Museum of Westward Expansion, at the Arch, has exhibits and a new IMAX movie. Nearby St. Charles, Mo., where the corps picked up supplies, has a small museum lewisandclarkcenter.org) Across the river in Hartford, Ill., a starting line, the Lewis and Clark Illinois State Historical Site, opens in September 2002.

SOUTH DAKOTA

YANKTON The Lewis and Clark Visitor Center at Calumet Bluff will have its fifth annual festival Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2002, with Yankton Sioux dancers lewisandclark200.gov)

NORTH DAKOTA

FORT MANDAN, WASHBURN The corps wintered there in 1804. Open year-round, the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center houses a collection of Karl Bodmer watercolors, considered the most reliable eyewitness account of Upper Midwest Indian cultures. And, like the man at right, you can try on a bearskin fortmandan.com)

MONTANA

POMPEY’S PILLAR, NEAR BILLINGS This 200-ft. stone outcropping, a national monument, bears the only visible evidence of the expedition along the entire trail. On the return trip, Clark carved his name into the rock on July 25, 1805 pompeyspillar.org)

GREAT FALLS The corps camped in the area for about a month while portaging around five sets of falls. The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center has year-round activities and exhibits, pictured at left. In summer, visitors can participate in the river camp and learn how to make moccasins, scrape a hide and navigate like the explorers (www.fs.fed.us/r1/lewisclark/lcic.htm).

IDAHO