Twenty historians from St. Charles, MO, are sailing down the Ohio River to build awareness of the Lewis & Clark expedition's bicentennial, which the nation will commemorate from 2003 - 2006.
Scott Mandrell, portraying Meriwether Lewis, said there is a lot of information about the expedition that people don't know.
"I've been doing 'living history' for a long time," Mandrell said. "And this is the biggest black hole in American history. It's an incredibly exhaustive amount of knowledge. Most school books only have a few paragraphs about them, but in reality, Lewis & Clark's expedition was as important as Columbus' or the first moonwalk."
Each year, since 1996, volunteers from the St. Charles-based organization have retraced a portion of Lewis & Clark's river voyages on the Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. They have traveled as far west as Yankton, S.D., on the Missouri.
"A lot of great things were done on this expedition," Mandrell said. "It was the first time a black man voted, as well as a woman, and they were treated like everybody else. We want to help people see how much was accomplished on this expedition."
Visitors to the campsite will enjoy demonstrations of black powder weapons, exhibits of Lewis & Clark discoveries, tools, implements and provisions, biographical narratives by crewmembers in period-correct dress, and first-hand inspection of the 40-foot, 3-ton boats called pirogues.
"We also want to reawake people's knowledge of the American river system," Mandrell said. "A lot of people have turned their backs on the river, and now some of them are just dumping grounds and sewers. Our rivers are gorgeous and forgotten."
Mandrell also says that, at one time, the rivers were the reason that cities were booming. Now, however, people don't even know what their own city looks like from the river.
"I think it should be mandatory for cities to have tour boats," Mandrell said. "The people living on the river need to see their city from the river; not from the highway or from a bridge, but from the river itself. We need to use our rivers to our best advantage."
Whether in one-on-one discussions, small- or large-group presentations, the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles' programming illustrates historic, scientific and cultural consequences of frontier exploration.
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