ML137950
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Stephen Ambrose. Timecode In: 00:02:46. Timecode out: 00:23:13. Notes: Lewis and Clark. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1. Stephen Ambrose Log 0227 AC: Let's go ahead and begin here if! may, one of the goals for the bicentennial council is to highlight the relevance of the Lewis & Clark expedition to life in America today, what would you say that relevance is? 0246 SA: The relevance of the Lewis & Clark expedition is that they did it. They crossed the Mississippi, went up the Missouri river, got over the mountain, got on to the Columbia river, got out to the pacific coast. And we are today a democracy that stretches from sea to shinning sea thanks in great part to the Lewis & Clark expedition. They did all kind of scientific discoveries of plants and animals, they mapped the whole route they established peace with many of the Indians that live there -and that peace was to continue really until after the civil war. Ah, they were the first to see the Great Plains, to see the Rocky Mountains ... Lewis was the first white man to ever see the Rocky Mountains, and they went down the Colombia and that was all brand new territory. So we are who we are today thanks in part to Lewis & Clark. 0351 AC: What kinds of things is the bicentennial council planning to mark the expedition? 0358 SA: There will be events starting at Monticello in January of2003, and then continuing to Washington where on July 4, 2003 Jefferson announce that the Louisiana purchase had been made and Meriwether Lewis started off on his journey. And then at every city along the way starting with Pittsburgh, including Cincinnati, and Louisville and other Ohio river cities, most of all when they got to the mouth of the Ohio and went up the Mississippi, St Louis .. .it's gonna be a big celebration on May 14th of2004 the date that they set off, and then all along the way Kansa City, Omaha ... South Dakota, Bismarck, North Dakota on into Montana and to the great falls of Montana and then up to the ... where they cross the continental divide then through the Bitterroot mountain of the Lolo trail down to Lewiston, Idaho and on to Portland, and finally at Fort Cladson. And there'll be celebrations in all of these places on the 200th anniversary of Lewis & Clark arriving there. The bi-centennial is the coordinator for the all of this and has a memorandum of understanding with the ... services the bureau of land management and the National Park Service and many other federal agencies. It's going to be a very big event. In fact National Geographic estimates that 25-million Americans will be on some part of the Lewis & Clark trail during the bicentennial years. The National Bicentennial council is also putting together a traveling exhibit that will be quite big in scope, and will be in all o(these cities at the appropriate time. And then during the winter months, when in 1804-05 they were at Fort Mandan near today's Bismarck, and then again in the winter of 05-06 when they were a Fort Cladsip. This exhibit will travel to major cities in the United States so that all of us are gonna get a chance to see and experience at least a part of the Lewis & Clark expedition. 0703 AC: I was interested to see that the council includes representatives from the Native American, ah groups, there's a ...leader Allen Pinkham who's been a member of the board from the beginning?0716 SA: Yes and many others ... Baker and many others are going to be very much involved and one of the aims of the bi-centennial council is to make it clear that this expedition could never have done what it did without the Native Americans and to make it clear that the mission of the expedition was in part to bring peace among these Indians and to establish good relations for the United States, and they did it. 0753 AC: Reading in the journals I I was ah surprised, I was surpris... (Notes truncated)
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- 24 Sep 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 24 Sep 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 24 Sep 2008 - Ben Brotman