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 Nebraska
City to build new Lewis
and Clark Visitor Center |
OmahaRiverFront.com
Friday, July 13, 2001 |
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Nebraska City will soon be home to the Missouri River Basin Lewis
& Clark Interpretive Trail and Visitor Center. This will be one
of at least ten planned along the route of Lewis and Clark's 1804-06
journey. A $150,000 state tourism grant and two private grants
pushed a fund-raising drive past the $4 million mark and will enable
the center's
foundation to commit to at least a two-level, 10,000-square-foot
building. The fund drive has a final $6 million goal to add a loft
and set up an operating endowment. Other private grants and $691,000
in federal funds has already been secured for the interpretive
center.
The 79-acre site is near the Missouri River bridges on
Nebraska Highway 2. Opening ceremonies are planned for July 30,
2004. A 'signature event' is planned the following day at Fort
Atkinson State Historical Park near Fort Calhoun, NE to mark the
Corps of Discovery's arrival in Nebraska.
Each interpretive center along the 3,700-mile route
will give an overview of Lewis and Clark's expedition while focusing
on an aspect important to the center's area, according to the
National Park Service. Nebraska City's center will focus on the
plants and animals that the explorers sent back to President Thomas
Jefferson.
The center's major exhibit will be a full-scale replica of Lewis and
Clark's keelboat. There will also be a large animal display and a
wood-carved topographical map of Lewis and Clark's route. One end of
the center will extend into the forest, which visitors can walk
through to the river overlook and the eventual northern end of the
Steamboat Trace Trail.
Other Interpretive Centers along the route include: |
Wood River, Ill. - The Lewis &
Clark State Memorial Visitors Center, now under construction, marks
Camp DuBois, where the explorers spent the winter of 1803-04 at the
confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. It should open
early next summer.
Sioux City, Iowa - Groundbreaking was
in May for the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center-Sioux City,
which will focus on the expedition's military organization and the
death of Sgt. Charles Floyd. It also should open in about a year.
Chamberlain, S.D. - A Lewis & Clark
Interpretive Center opened this spring at an Interstate 90 rest
area. It focuses on the expedition's discoveries of fossils in
central South Dakota, including dinosaur bones.
Washburn, N.D. - The North
Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, open since 1997,
highlights the expedition's winter stay with Mandan Indians in
1804-05. Sacajawea, the Shoshone Indian who became Lewis and Clark's
guide, joined them there.
Williston, N.D. - Planning has begun
for a Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center near the confluence of
the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, which the expedition reached in
April 1805.
Great Falls, Mont. - The Great
Falls Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center opened
in 1998 at the historic falls on the Missouri River. It tells about
the falls and the expedition's Indian encounters.
Salmon, Idaho - Fund-raising is under
way for a Sacajawea Interpretative Center, which will tell more of
the Indian guide's story.
Lewiston, Idaho, and Clarkston,
Wash. - Planning has begun for a Lewis & Clark
Interpretive Center on the Snake River, about 140 miles from its
confluence with the Columbia River.
Ilwaco, Wash. - The Fort
Canby Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, which opened in
1975, is one of two sites marking the expedition's arrival at the
Pacific in late 1805. The other is Fort Clatsop National Memorial at
nearby Astoria, Ore. |
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