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Lewis & Clark State Historic Site

DESCRIPTION: The Lewis & Clark State Historic Site, located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in Hartford, Illinois, commemorates Camp River Dubois, the spot where William Clark and his men wintered before they launched their Voyage of Discovery. It is Federal Site #1 for the Lewis & Clark expeditionary trail and will be the site of a national signature event marking the 200th anniversary of the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. While the $7 million Interpretive Center which opened in December 2002, highlights Lewis and Clark's entire journey, it focuses on the five months the Corps spent at Camp River Dubois preparing for the journey. The center, built with federal and state funds, is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The showpiece of the Center is a 55-foot, cutaway replica of the keelboat that was the Corps' main vessel. In addition, a replica of the barracks of Camp River Dubois is under construction at the site. Around the bend from the Center is the Corps of Discovery Monument, a monolithic stone monument that stands in tribute to the Voyage and the states of the Louisiana Purchase. From there, visitors can see the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and the point from which Clark and company took off up the wide Missouri to meet up with Captain Lewis who departed from St. Louis to meet the company on the Missouri in the town of St. Charles.

ADDRESS: 1 Lewis & Clark Trail, Hartford, Illinois 62048

LOCATION: The Lewis & Clark State Historic Site is in Metro-East across the Mississippi River in nearby Hartford, Illinois

PHONE NUMBER: 618-251-5811

WEB SITE: www.campriverdubois.com

SLOGAN: Lewis & Clark in Illinois-The Discovery Begins

GETTING THERE: From downtown, take I-55 east crossing the Mississippi River and follow it to I-255 North. Take I-255 North to New Poag Road which is two miles past I-270. Turn left (west) on New Poag Road. Follow it four miles to Route 3 and turn left into the Site.

HOURS: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.

ADMISSION: Free

SIGNIFICANCE: The Lewis & Clark State Historic Site holds special significance in U. S. history because it is the departure point for the Voyage of Discovery, Lewis and Clark's exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.

HISTORY: Even before President Thomas Jefferson made the deal that would become the historic Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he quietly planned for an exploration of the lands between St. Louis and the Pacific. Jefferson secretly asked Congress for funds for an expedition, and soon Meriwether Lewis, his secretary, was garnering men, equipment and supplies for the trip.

After official plans for the expedition were announced, Lewis asked William Clark, under whom he had served in the
U. S. Army, to share command of the expedition that would become known as the "Corps of Discovery."

St. Louis was still under Spanish control when Jefferson, on July 4, 1803, officially sent Lewis on his mission, and American newspapers carried public announcement of the Purchase. On Aug. 31, 1803, after months of preparation in the East, Lewis left Pennsylvania on a journey down the Ohio River and ultimately to the St. Louis area where the group that would become the Corps of Discovery was gathering and would spend their first winter together.

On Oct. 14, William Clark, his slave York and several men from Kentucky joined up with Lewis in Louisville. Soon they started their journey to the St. Louis area. On Nov. 11, the group stopped at Fort Massac, near present-day Metropolis, Illinois where Gen. Daniel Bissell, whose home was in St. Louis, was in command. Volunteers from the U. S. Army who would make up much of the Corps of Discovery joined the group.

The men made their way to the Mississippi and began to move upriver. When they were about 60 miles south of
St. Louis, Lewis and Clark split up. Clark, in charge of the men, continued up river while Lewis made his way to Kaskaskia, Cahokia and St. Louis to secure more recruits and supplies and to continue making arrangements for the journey. Among the places the group made camp was Ste. Genevieve, oldest city west of the Mississippi River. They also camped on a site about a mile north of the Meramec River in what is now St. Louis County. At Fort Kaskaskia, Illinois, an active U. S. Army installation, more recruits were enlisted.

On Dec. 7, Clark reached Cahokia with three boats, and Lewis arrived by land with news that Spanish Gov. Don Carlos Delassus had refused them permission to make their winter camp in St. Louis (on the west side of Mississippi) saying he needed clearance from his superiors.

Instead, they would camp on the east side of the Mississippi near a small stream called Wood River near what is now Hartford, Illinois. On Dec. 12, Clark and the men arrived at the site near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The next day they began to clear land for what would become Camp Dubois, their winter camp where they would await spring and news of the transfer of the land, stock up on supplies and develop a cohesiveness among the diverse men they had collected for the expedition.

During that first winter as they awaited spring to begin their expedition, Lewis spent much of his time in St. Louis learning more about what fur traders knew of the West and purchasing equipment for the trip. While he was gone, Clark was in charge of the recruits.

In her book "Lewis and Clark in Missouri," Ann Rogers says that on New Year's Day 1804, Clark "put up a dollar to be shot for" in a test of marksmanship between members of the Corps and the townspeople. During their time at Camp Dubois, Indians sometimes visited the camp bringing the men deer and other meat, and Clark visited their camps giving them provisions such as flour.

While the Corps waited for spring to come so their journey could begin in earnest, Clark explored the area while hunting for food. One of the discoveries he made during those hunts were earthen structures believed to have been built between 900 and 1300 A.D. Although the ones he saw may now be gone, similar mounds can be seen at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois just minutes from the Arch.

It was during the winter encampment that Lewis and Clark sketched a timetable of their journey, one that later would show they underestimated the vastness of the land and the difficulty of the journey.

Also while the Corps wintered at Camp Dubois, the Three Flags Day Ceremony, a two-day ceremony marking the official transfer of the Upper Louisiana Territory from Spain to France and then to the United States, was held in
St. Louis on March 9, 1804. Lewis' signature is on that document and can be viewed at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis' Forest Park.

Maj. Amos Stoddard, the U.S. military governor, and Lewis arrived at St. Louis by boat to begin the ceremony. After the ceremony, Lewis reportedly stayed at the home of Pierre Chouteau in St. Louis. While it is believed Clark attended the ceremony, no details of his presence have been recorded.

On May 14, 1804, the Corps departed up the Missouri River. They traveled only about four miles that first day and camped on an island opposite of the mouth of Coldwater Creek. Near that spot a year later, Fort Belle Fontaine would be built.

The men camped there for a few nights, and on Sunday, May 20, Clark sent 20 of them to the Catholic Church in
St. Charles while Lewis rode overland from St. Louis to St. Charles. Records indicate a small crowd came to cheer them as they shoved off on May 21 for uncharted territory.

During the next 28 months, the Corps traveled 8,000 miles mapping lands that had not been mapped before, witnessing sites no other white men had seen up to that point and developing friendships with the Native Americans.

The Voyage of Discovery has been described as the greatest adventure in American history. Although the trip proved there is no direct water route across North America, it also provided invaluable information about the country's new lands and opened the western region for settlement.

Sometime after Camp Dubois was disassembled, the site became farmland, and no reminder was kept of its important place in American history.

Then, in 1957, the Lewis and Clark Society of America, Inc., a locally founded, non-profit organization, was formed to educate the public about the Lewis and Clark expedition and Camp River Dubois. The Society, feeling that the story of Lewis and Clark in Illinois was a lost piece of American history, had long wanted creation of a historic site to commemorate the expedition and the Camp but funding was an issue.

Years later, a tract of land across from the mouth of the Missouri River in the vicinity of what had been Camp River Dubois, was acquired, and in 1981, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency made available funding to construct a monument at the confluence to commemorate the departure point of the Voyage of Discovery. The monument consists of 11 columns, each representing a state along the trail Lewis and Clark took from River Dubois to the Pacific Ocean. A plague on each column tells the story of the expedition in that state.

In 1996, an additional 60 acres of farmland adjacent to the site was purchased, and federal and state funds were earmarked to construct a museum similar to those commemorating the Corps encampments at Mandan and Fort Clatsop. Work on the building began in 2000 and was completed in 2002. The center officially opened on Dec. 10, 2002, the 199th anniversary of Lewis and Clark's departure from River Dubois.

LEWIS & CLARK SOCIETY: Membership in the Lewis & Clark Society is open to anyone interested in preserving the history of the Lewis & Clark expedition. For further information, call 618-251-5811. The Society operates the Store of Discovery gift shop at the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site. It also provides volunteer hosts, guides and interpreters that assist the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in the operation of the site and the replica of Camp River Dubois.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Visitors to the Center are greeted with the following quote from Meriwether Lewis written on May 14, 1804, the day the Corps of Discovery embarked on their great trek West: "The mouth of the River Dubois is to be considered as the point of departure."
• Exhibits in the lobby of the center explain American history prior to the Louisiana Purchase, the Purchase itself and its importance to the country.
• Exhibits in "Visions of the Expedition," the first room visitors enter, challenge them to think about how they would prepare for a trip when they don't know where they would be going or how long they would be gone.
• Visitors then move into the Center's theatre for "At Journey's Edge," a film that relives part of the Voyage of Discovery and gives visitors a glimpse at what life was like for Corps members.
• Following the movie, visitors move into a room called "Life at Camp River Dubois." The centerpiece of the room is a life-size replica of the keelboat Lewis and Clark used to carry many of the supplies for their Voyage of Discovery. The handcrafted replica has a 32 1/2-foot mast and a cutaway view of its body to show its contents. Inside, visitors can see the kinds of supplies the expedition took and the manner in which they were stored on the boat.
• Architectural features of the room give the visitor the feeling that they, too, are in a boat. The room is shaped like the bow of a boat with the roof soaring above. A mural on the wall represents a day in December in the woods near the camp, and a wall of windows looks out onto a reestablished prairie from Illinois' earlier days. Ambient sounds of birds and moving water suggest what it was like to be at the river's edge as the men packed the keelboat that would carry their supplies.
• Visitors then move to "The Epic Journey," a circular area that explains with journal entries and photos the rest of the Corps' trip.
• Another area explains what happened to Lewis and Clark and the men of the Voyage of Discovery following their return.
• A large map traces the Lewis and Clark route and pinpoints sites that visitors can see today.
• In the last section of the exhibit area, posters show how the Lewis and Clark adventure was portrayed in a 1940's movie starring Donna Reed as Sacagawea, Fred McMurray as Lewis and Charleton Heston as Clark. Also in the room are examples of the way the three figures in American history have been portrayed in popular culture.
• Another section explains the ways the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery were celebrated and portrayed. Also in the room are photos of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers as they look today.
• Outside the Center, visitors can watch as a replica of four outer walls of the barracks of Camp River Dubois and a palisade in between are being constructed.

WHAT'S COMING UP: Work is continuing on the reconstructed Fort River Dubois, which will be a life-sized replica of part of the Fort where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804 as they waited to embark on their Voyage of Discovery.

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS: Children especially enjoy the interactive exhibits at the Center, the life-sized cutaway model of Lewis and Clark's keelboat and the reconstructed fort. There are also journaling stations for the youngsters to make journal entries just as Lewis and Clark did. Education trunks with items relating to Lewis and Clark and their journey are available for teachers to use in their classrooms.

ANNUAL SPECIAL EVENTS: Each year on Dec. 12, the anniversary of Lewis and Clark's arrival at the site, which would become Camp River Dubois, a special event is held at the Lewis & Clark State Historic Site.

HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBILITY: The Lewis & Clark State Historic Site is handicapped accessible.

WHERE TO GET LUNCH: There are a number of restaurants in nearby Alton, Illinois.

GIFT SHOP: A gift shop in the Center is operated by the Lewis and Clark Society. It features a variety of books, tapes and other items related to American history, the rivers and Lewis and Clark.

WHAT'S NEARBY: The Alton Belle Casino, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Our Lady of the Snows National Shrine, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and the Gateway Arch are nearby.

PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTACT: Brad Winn, Lewis and Clark Historic Site Director, 618-251-5393, clark@campriverdubois.com

Readers should call 1-800-916-0040 to request a free copy of the Official St. Louis Visitor Guide or point, click and explore St. Louis at www.explorestlouis.com