The Expedition for Northwestern Discovery through a Wider Lens

David L. Nicandri

Plans for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in the state of Washington have followed several paths. Some of these activities are similar to those taking place in other trail states. Other activities, how ever, are unique. The Washington State Historical Society, in partnership with the Washington state Department of Transportation, State Parks, and Tourism Office settled on a two-part strategy.

First, we determined that our interagency team effort along the trail would take the form of a scenic byway corridor which was made possible by the relatively large sums of money available through the series of congressionally authorized transportation enhancement acts. In practical terms, the plan will include upgrades at several state park interpretive centers, the largest set of roadside markers put in place since the WPA, and several pedestrian trail improvements. The largest projects are the landscape interpretations planned by the famed architect and artist Maya Lin at the several river confluences in the Columbia Basin, and the expansion of Fort Clatsop National Memorial near Astoria, Oregon, to include three sites on the Washington side of the river.

Architect and artist Maya Lin, shown here with Antone Minthorn, President of the Board of Trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Jim Beard, Director of Planning for the tribe, has agreed to do four sculptures for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. With close involvement of and insight from the tribes, Lin’s sculptures will be installed at the four major confluences that provided Lewis and Clark their passage to the "End of Voyage.” (Washington State Historical Society photo.)

The second part of our plan included the development of a “brand identity” that would differentiate the state of Washington from the rest of the busy Lewis and Clark marketplace. Various trail states have claimed legitimacy over the expedition. In North Dakota planners were fond of saying “Lewis and Clark spent more time in our state than any other.” In Montana, the claim was “there are more miles to the Lewis and Clark trail here than any place else.” In Washington, we decided to rely on the fact that despite a century’s worth of tourism promotion in Oregon—starting with the centennial exposition of Lewis and Clark in Portland—the so-called end of the trail was not at Fort Clatsop, but rather the north bank of the Columbia River in what is now Pacific County, Washington. Thus, the tag line “End of Our Voyage,” which was taken from a quote by Sergeant Patrick Gass, has been applied to several products and promotions.

We also created several museum exhibits. Although the flagship of our organization, the Washington State History Museum, is located in Tacoma (about 130 miles from the closest juncture with the Columbia River), popular interest in Lewis and Clark dictated that the museum address the subject in some substantive fashion. As a result, we are doing five different exhibits, including “Beyond Lewis and Clark: the Army Explores the West.”

This exhibit presents Lewis and Clark as part of a continuum of the United States Army in the West. In contrast, many popular, and for that matter most scholarly, accounts of Lewis and Clark operate within the comfortable confines of the 1803-1806 chronology associated with the Expedition for Northwestern Discovery. Inspired by the work of William Goetzmann, the Washington State Historical Society is determined to tell the story of Lewis and Clark using a significantly wider lens. It was easily discernible several years ago that there would be great competition between institutions and repositories for the use of materials related to Lewis and Clark. In other words, there proved to be more ideas for exhibits about Lewis and Clark than material culture to sustain them. Accordingly, we established a partnership with the Virginia and Kansas state historical societies and the Frontier Army Museum in Leavenworth, Kansas, to conceive, design, and tour the exhibit. The latter, being affiliated with the Center for Military History in Washington, D.C., allowed us to use materials associated with later army expeditions that were modeled after Lewis and Clark.

Our project was greatly aided when we enlisted the help of James Ronda, one of the premier Lewis and Clark scholars of our day, and past president of the Western History Association. (Professor Ronda also wrote the companion book to the exhibit, with the same title, distributed by University of Washington Press.) Ronda and other scholars noted during a panel discussion in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the occasion of the kick-off event of the bicentennial, that the towering figures of Lewis and Clark overshadowed many other important figures, such as William H. Emory and John C. Frémont.

“Beyond Lewis and Clark” also attempts to place the early exploratory ventures of George Armstrong Custer within the paradigm established by Lewis and Clark’s initial foray. Indeed, when I am asked by people what they will learn from this exhibit I say: “that there is a little bit of Custer in Lewis and Clark; and little bit of Lewis and Clark in Custer.”

“Beyond Lewis and Clark: the Army Explores the West” opened at the Virginia Historical Society on July 4, 2003, and will be on view at the Washington State History Museum February 15 through October 31, 2004. The exhibit will visit the Kansas and Missouri Historical Societies before being permanently placed at the Frontier Army Museum. A scholarly symposium in conjunction with the exhibit will be held at the Washington State History Museum, September 26-27, 2004. Participating will be Ronda, John Logan Allen, Tom Chaffin, Brian Dippie, and Ron Tyler. For more information about WSHS visit <http://washingtonhistory.org/>.

David L. Nicandri is director of the Washington State Historical Society.