"EDUCATION DAY" MAY 12 AND "POINT OF DEPARTURE" MAY 13 - 14 AT LEWIS AND CLARK STATE HISTORIC SITE

HARTFORD, IL -The Lewis and Clark Expedition is getting ready to depart on their monumental journey - and they'll have help from area elementary schools.

 

More than 800 fourth graders will take part in the first-ever Education Day on Friday, May 12 at Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois.   From 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. students from Woodland Elementary and Columbus Elementary, Edwardsville; West Elementary and Eunice Smith School, Alton; Hartford Elementary; and Worden Elementary will learn first-hand about the Lewis and Clark Expedition by experiencing how the men prepared for their journey.  Then, the beginning of that journey will be re-created on Saturday and Sunday, May 13 and 14 during the fourth annual "Point of Departure" event at the historic site.

 

Students will learn to fold a flag, make a fish net, communicate with Indian sign language, tell stories, grind corn, build a fire with flint and steel, make rope, identify animal pelts, learn about the Expedition's boats, visit an 18^th century doctor, see how beekeeping works to make honey and wax, cook using herbs, march and drill military-style, turn the Great Wheel Lathe, watch wood being sawed by a sawyer, play games, carry water in buckets with a yoke, and experience the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

The fourth annual "Point of Departure" event commemorating the departure of the Lewis and Clark Expedition will be held Saturday and Sunday, May 13 and 14 at the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site.  The event is free and open to the public.

 

The Mississippi Valley Morgan Horse Club will demonstrate on Saturday, with performers in period clothing presenting the five historic phases of the Morgan Horse in American History.   Saturday and Sunday, the River King Newfoundland Dog Club will demonstrate the skills of their dogs and give children wagon rides pulled by the dogs.

A 5-K run and a one-mile fun run/walk sponsored by Bipod of Edwardsville will be held on Saturday at 8:30a.m.  Those interested in participating should call Jose Silva at (618) 406-3625.  Also on Saturday, Trail Net will sponsor a bike ride that will start at 9:30 a.m.; those  interested may call Kathi Weilbacher at (314) 416-9930 ext. 111 or visit www.trailnet.org for further information.

 

On Saturday and Sunday activities will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the reconstructed Camp River Dubois.  Re-enactors portraying expedition members will perform marching drills and manual labor, cooking, and engage in shooting demonstrations.  Visitors may see period artisans demonstrating soap and candle making, blacksmithing, cartridge making, wood turnings on the Great Wheel (used to make legs for tables and chairs, bowls, cups etc.), weaving, beekeeping, natural dying of wool, herbs and plants of the expedition, treenware, spinning, woodworking, coopering (barrel making), a medicine doctor, gun smithing, leather working, broom making, basket making, and watch a sawyer cut logs.

 

The "Point of Departure" is made possible through a grant from the Illinois Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, www.lewisandclarkillinois.org and the National Park Service Challenge Cost Share Program.  It is co-sponsored by the Lewis and Clark Society of America, www.lewisandclarksociety.org.

 

William Clark and his men arrived at what would become Camp River Dubois on December 12, 1803.  The location was very close to the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, the route chosen for the expedition.  Most importantly, the location was in United States territory on the east side of the Mississippi River, which would honor the Spanish Commandant's ruling that the expedition stay out of the Spanish Territory until he received confirmation of the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the United States.  Construction of Camp River Dubois began immediately and by Christmas Eve 1803, the men were able to sleep indoors.  While Clark oversaw the day-to-day operation of the camp, Meriwether Lewis was busy with official duties.  In the spring the camp became a beehive of activities as final preparations were made.  On April 1, 1804 Captain's Lewis and Clark formally mustered into service the soldiers and other men who would take part in the expedition.

 

Lewis' field notes read "The mouth of the River Dubois is to be considered as the point of departure."   The Expedition left on a rainy Monday afternoon, May 14, 1804 from Camp River Dubois at 4 p.m.