ST. LOUIS-
More than 3 1/2 years of fairs, ceremonies, reenactments and symposiums marking the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition draw to a close this weekend, with organizers declaring the long celebration was, for the most part, a success.
Millions of people have been on the Lewis and Clark Trail at any given time, said David Borlaug, a past president of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, a St. Louis-based nonprofit chosen by Congress to organize events nationwide.
Events have drawn tens of thousands of people and brought history back to life with countless reenactments.
“What we managed to do is make connections with people today and an important part of history. The numbers don’t matter so much,” said Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri Historical Society and co-chair of the Lewis & Clark bicentennial.
“I’m guessing they will celebrate it again even 50 years from now. Lewis and Clark will continue to be icons because of the world they described and explored.”
The commemoration began at Monticello, President Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia, on Jan. 18, 2003. That was the 200th anniversary of the date Jefferson wrote a secret letter to Congress, requesting $2,500 for a cross-continent expedition. To lead it, he appointed Meriwether Lewis, the 28-year-old Army officer who was his private secretary.
The last of 15 so-called signature events will conclude this weekend in St. Louis. Saturday marks the 200th anniversary of the return of the explorers and their Corps of Discovery to the expedition’s starting point.
A two-day symposium with scholars starts Wednesday in St. Louis and will be followed by a weekend of activities on the Mississippi Riverfront near the Gateway Arch, including tours and educational presentations. Also about 40 American Indian tribes, many of which have been a large part of all the other commemorations, will be represented.
Some wondered if a years-long commemoration with events in towns in 13 states across the country, would be too long to hold people’s attention. After all, it took Lewis and William Clark only a little over two years to navigate the 8,000-mile path 200 years ago.
In Great Falls, Mont., organizers said a monthlong event in June 2005 lost a half million dollars and had sluggish ticket sales, despite bringing in more than 40,000 people. A second event in Montana in July marking the return trek was said to have fared much better.
But “we had no choice,” Borlaug said. “You can’t ignore history. You can’t tell people in Billings, Mont., that ‘You’re on the tail end of this commemoration, so we’re going to skip you.'”
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