Lewis and Clark celebrations - general photos
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In 1803 the US government purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, effectively doubling the size of the country in one instant. The first thing Thomas Jefferson did was to send Merriweather Lewis and William Clark out to explore the territory, both for scientific purposes (as he told Congress in order to secure the funding), but also to find the fabled uninterrupted waterway between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, which European explorers for centuries kept claiming existed. (We know by now, of course, that no such waterway does exist.) And to go have the first official contact between the United States and the various Native American tribes in the territory, and hopefully start relations on the right foot. (They did, in fact, and especially in the case of William Clark; he was to later become ashamed of the way the government was to treat Native Americans, and completely disassociate himself from official negotiations.) And for lots of other purposes, too: to start trading with Canadian fur trappers; to establish a fort in Oregon, so the US would have a future legitimate claim to the west coast; to initiate trade with Asia and Russia.

May 21, 2004 was the 200th anniversary of the launch of Lewis and Clark's first expedition, which took place in St. Charles Missouri, where I was born and raised. These photos are from the celebrations that took place in St. Charles that weekend to mark the anniversary.

The official start of the MKT ("Katy") Trail, at the main entrance of St. Charles' Frontier Park. The trail was originally a famous path pioneers took when going to Texas to settle; the railroad that came afterwards followed the trail for its path as well. It's been slowly converted into a hiking and biking trail throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s; you can now actually walk it uninterrupted all the way to Texas, if you ever feel up for such a thing.

Frontier Park, site of most of the Lewis and Clark celebrations. Right behind those trees is the exact point where Lewis and Clark originally set off for the expedition; one of the things that makes the expedition so historically important, in fact, is that the Corps of Discovery making the journey kept such detailed and exacting notes of their entire three-year trek, including precise geographical notes about where they went ashore.

Recreations of the original three boats that took the Corps of Discovery from St. Louis to the Seattle area two hundred years ago. This, I think, is one of the coolest things about the year-long celebrations going on in 2004; a group of historical reenactors are in fact resailing the entire original journey, using the same types of boats Lewis and Clark originally did and accessing only the same technology that would've been available in 1804. These boats were handmade in St. Charles, for example, using only tools that would've been available to Lewis and Clark themselves. As this "Corps of Discovery II" make their way up the Missouri River and eventually through the Columbia, they'll be stopping at the towns along the route and visiting schools, attending local celebrations, and basically spreading the historical news. Check out lewisandclark2004.org to see if any celebrations are planned for the town where you live.

The Missouri River, a major yet relatively quiet waterway here in the United States. (Europeans, think of Germany/France's Mosel River for a good comparison.) The Missouri floods on a pretty regular basis, so it doesn't make much commercial sense to build developments along its front; as a result, the riverbank has stayed in pretty much the same condition as it's been since the 1600s, since people started to settle in the area in the first place. It could get spooky sometimes during the Lewis and Clark celebrations; the historical reenactments were so accurate that I sometimes really did feel like I had stepped back in time and was actually witnessing the launching of the original expedition.

Looking west, the opposite direction. This is the direction, of course, that Lewis and Clark took when they took off on their voyage; going the opposite way will cause you to hit the Mississippi a few miles up. (It's a big delta-type swamp up there, which is why the city's located a couple of miles down from the confluence.)

Viva la merchandising! Man, you should've seen all the crap they had for sale down at this thing; t-shirts, posters, postcards, medallions, toys, notebooks, and everything in between.

Here's one, for example - Lewis- and Clark-head ballpoint pens.

And here's another - little stuffed Seamuses, based on the fabled original black hound that accompanied the Corps of Discovery on their journey.

My mom, who accompanied me on Saturday. (Dad was out of town on a teachers' retreat.)

Me, next to the old St. Charles town sign.

As my mom put it, "Jeez, every country fiddler in the entire midwest must've made their way here this weekend." There were, indeed, a lot of traditional country and bluegrass musicians roaming the entire area over the weekend; here was one of them. (By the way, I thought they were all really good, too.)

And here's another.

Along with historical reenactors, there are also vendors and retailers scattered within the celebrations, just like any other outdoor festival. They make the vendors follow the same historical rules, though - accurate costumes, housed under canvas tents, etc. I noticed that many of these vendors did this on a semi-full-time basis; that is, from festival to festival throughout the summer, then back to their regular jobs again come autumn.

This is someone who used to work at my mom's school; her retirement gift was to have a block dedicated in her name at the new Lewis and Clark statue downtown.

Mom talking to a co-worker at her school and her family.

Baby buffalo! There were also oxen and lots of horses down at the celebrations.

Why, look, it's more merchandise! They had something like twelve different combinations of logos and colors of t-shirts on sale down there; here is just a sampling of them.

And here's a close-up of one specifically designed for kids.

A mobile history museum on the Lewis and Clark expedition, housed in a trailer and trucked from city to city as the Corps of Discovery II makes their way westward.

Live-music pavilion. Like I said, there were a lot of traditional musicians down there.

The Corps of Discovery II had actually been camping in Frontier Park for over a week, sleeping in canvas tents and cooking their meals in copper utensils over open flames. Every day they bussed in classes who would walk from tent to tent in small groups, listening to five-minute demonstration at each about a different aspect of pioneer life.

This photo shows in more detail the level of accuracy these historical reenactors went through for this new journey.

Firewood, hay, bacon and manure - smells like Boy Scout camp to me!

The new Lewis and Clark statue in Frontier Park, commissioned specifically for the bicentennial. Once again, they pose with their faithful hound Seamus.

My mom inside one of these "historical retailers."

Straw dolls at one of the retailer tents.

Along with the historical retailers were interesting food and beverage vendors. This one sold "fruited lemonade" (half orange/lime juice and half lemonade, perfect for the 95-degree day we were having), along with handmade kettle chips. On the left, you just missed this guy actually grating a potato over a vat of hot oil; what you're seeing is him taking them out after five minutes, slapping them into paper packets and immediately selling them to people. Ah, there are some pleasures to only be had at the county fair...

An organic farm who sponsored a spice tent at these summer festivals; the tent was full of glass jars like these, filled with every spice under the sun, purchasable by the scoopful.

A historical reenactor, giving demonstrations of 19th-century medicine, posing as a doctor left over from the French-empire days.

Me, plum tuckered out.

Viva la outdoor festivals!

Five or six of the individual corps members' tents, circling a "common tent" where they would all cook and eat together. Again, one of those moments where I felt like I had been pulled back in time to the actual period of the first expedition.

What happens when you spend twelve hours in 95-degree weather without any sunscreen? This is what happens - a nose so red I might as well be a lovable television alcoholic. "Andy...Barney...I've had my fill tonight...lock me up..."

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