Keeping Lewis and Clark Trail alive

It has been a few years since the Lewis and Clark Trail was a bicentennial freeway to the past.

The 200th anniversary of the historic Army expedition up the Missouri River and across the continent has come and gone — along with many tourists — but a core group of enthusiasts in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota is doing all it can to keep the trail from going cold.

They created the Middle Missouri River Lewis & Clark Network. One of the group's goals is to promote and market the Lewis and Clark Trail in Nebraska, Iowa and part of South Dakota.

“We want to keep the enthusiasm and interest going,'' said Erv Friesen, director of the Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Center in Nebraska City. “We have to work harder on it than in the past.''

One of the organization's projects this year was printing thousands of brochures for tourist spots listing 24 Lewis and Clark commemoration events scheduled across the region this summer and fall.

Events include festivals, re-enactments and powwows along a 200-mile stretch of the Missouri River from Nebraska City north to Pickstown, S.D.

In addition to marketing and promotion, the group works to protect and preserve the trail and to emphasize educational programs.

This year's projects are laying the groundwork for the national conference of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area next year.

The gathering of 300 to 400 scholars and enthusiasts of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-06 is scheduled for July 30 to Aug. 3, 2011. Events will be held in Omaha, Fort Atkinson State Historical Park and Nebraska City, and in Onawa and Sioux City in Iowa.

An estimated 65,000 people attended bicentennial activities in 2004 at Fort Atkinson State Historical Park near Fort Calhoun and in Omaha's Elmwood Park.

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share