Take Me to the River

Before there was “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race,” there was the team of Lewis and Clark. That’s Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, captains of the epic adventure that embarked 200 years ago from Camp River Dubois, Ill., in search of a waterway across the continent. The federally funded Corps of Discovery mission lasted from 1804 to 1806 and took its brigade of 40-plus men (and one woman) to the Pacific coast and back. (Well, most made it back.)

The journey’s bicentennial blowout is a nearly four-year extravaganza with emphasis on the Native Americans who aided the corps. Local festivals along the route are timed to coincide with the original visits. The first was in January 2003 in Virginia at Monticello, stamping ground of Thomas Jefferson, who pushed for the expedition as America’s third president.

During the “Circle of Cultures” festival near Bismarck, N.D., Oct. 22-31, visitors can explore earth lodges like those housing the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa peoples and attend a ballet based on the corps’ meeting with Mandan chiefs. In Fort Benton and Great Falls, Mont., summer 2005 brings the monthlong “EXPLORE! The Big Sky.” Among other events, actors will dramatize detours the corps was forced to make around the Missouri River’s numerous falls, complete with 2,000-pound canoes. The Montana shindig closes July 4 with a feast featuring bison, buffalo and, oh yes, suet dumplings.

November 2005 spotlights the West Coast, with festivities for “Destination: The Pacific” scheduled from Long Beach, Wash., to Cannon Beach, Ore. Highlights in Astoria, Ore.: a debate titled “Is It History or Is It Hollywood?”; an educational folk music revue called “Painless Lewis and Clark”; and “Festival of the Pacific: Lewis and Clark Remembered” at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds near Astoria. “That’s one-stop shopping for all your Lewis and Clark souvenirs,” says event executive director Cyndi Mudge. Bring on the beef jerky.

For more information, contact www.lewisandclark200.org or the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, (314) 361-9031 or (888) 999-1803.