Free In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark by Wallace G. Lewis

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    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Lewis, Wallace G., 1943–
  In the footsteps of Lewis and Clark : early commemorations and the origins of the
national historic trail / Wallace G. Lewis.
     p. cm.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-1-60732-026-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60732-027-2 (e-
book) 1. Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. 2. Lewis and Clark Expedition
(1804–1806) I. Title.
  F592.7.L7157 2010
  917.804’2—dc22
                                                                                                          2010017171
    Dust jacket design by Caroline Denney
Text design by Daniel Pratt
    19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12  11  10         10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
    Portions of the introduction and Chapters 1 and 4 originally appeared as “On the Trail: Commemorating the Lewis & Clark Expedition in the Twentieth Century,” in
Lewis & Clark: Legacies, Memories, and New Perspectives
, ed. Kris Fresonke and Mark Spence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).
    Portions of Chapter 5 originally appeared as “Following in Their Footsteps: The Birth and Infancy of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail,” in
Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History
16, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 37–42.

In memory of my father, Glenn C. Lewis 1920–2009

In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark

CHAPTER TWO

Tracing the Route
    A S DESCRIBED IN C HAPTER 1, monuments and statues—once the traditional means of commemorating individuals idolized by the public—were eventually erected to honor William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. But the fascination that cast its spell over an increasing number of history buffs was inspired at least as much by the land and the routes taken through that land as it was by the people who made up the Corps of Discovery, in part because of the written records of the expedition. Without those records there would be no Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail today, since virtually no material trace remains of the group’s journey. The journals provide a unique glimpse of the western regions through which the expedition passed—a description of the appearance of the land in the early years of the nineteenth century. The landscape has often changed dramatically since then. The Lewis and Clark trail—the combination of routes from Wood River to the Pacific Ocean and back to St. Louis, as described in the journals—became for Americans in the second half of the twentieth century the most genuine memorial to the explorers’ names.

    Map 2.1
Expedition routes, St. Louis to the