Wednesday, August 22, 2018

The plaque reads, "History's Great Explorers, Lewis and Clark,
Acclaimed National Heroes, The Eastern Legacy, October 14, 1803,
Meriwether Lewis came from Washington D.C. and met William Clark at the
Falls of the Ohio, "When they shook hands, the Lewis and Clark Expedition
began." (Undaunted Courage, Stephen E. Ambrose). Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark, while quartered at the George Rogers Clark homestead overlooking
the Falls of the Ohio, fulfilling a Presidential Order by Thomas Jefferson,
recruited, enlisted and trained the leadership of the military expedition to
explore the American West. October 26, 1803 the Corps departed from Clarksville
at the Falls of the Ohio on their journey to the Pacific Ocean to explore the
American West. November 5, 1806, Lewis and Clark returned to the Falls of the Ohio.  

Today consisted of two parts; drive, park and visit.  We "drove" almost 300 miles from Zanesville, OH through Columbus, OH, Cincinnatti, OH, and Louisville, KY over the Ohio River into Clarksville IN to our next campsite; we "parked" the trailer in record time (about 25 minutes to level the trailer, hookup electric, hookup sewer, hookup water, tidy up inside then "visited" the Falls of the Ohio

Below Lewis and Clark's feet the inscription, "When they
shook hands, the Lewis and Clark Expedition began."

The plaque reads, "Lewis and Clark Expedition 1803-1806
Near this site on October 26, 1803, Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark with the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery
together set off down the Ohio River on their epic journey
to explore the Louisiana Purchase and Packfic Northwest." 

in Clarksville, IN (60 miles round trip) where Lewis and Clark met for the first time. After William Clark received Meriwether Lewis' invitation to co-Captain the Corps, he stayed in Louisville, KY/Clarksville, IN with his famous brother, George Rogers Clark. 

NOTE: We stopped for gas at Zanesville, OH Livestock Co. in Muskingum, OH. We heard the loudest "mooo, mooo, mooooing from cattle being dropped off. The station was part of a beef cooperatives cattle auction. Wilma said, "it brought back childhood memories of Jager's Market in Sussex, NJ with the cows mooing and trucks loading and unloading cattle to sell. After Wilma texted her four sisters about this, sister Rena replied, "yeah, and remember the station wagon going to Jagers with the calf in the back making a mess all over!?"  Our trip was almost all highway and VERY windy the entire day.

It took Lewis 6 weeks in the keel boat and two pirogues to float down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to the Falls where he spent 2 weeks with Clark planning and preparing "what next" plans once they reached St. Louis. Floating down from the Falls to the mouth of the Ohio/Mississippi and pulling the boats up the Mississippi convinced the two Captains they needed more men for an actual total of about 30 soldiers, French voyageurs and York (Clark's slave). They didn't ask Sa ca ga weah and her husband Charboneau to join until they were in Fort Mandan (Bismark, ND).

We drove almost an hour into Clarksville, IN from Shepherdsville, KY to view the Falls of the Ohio State Park and Interpretative Center, which was a very good museum and quite a location. We always try to imagine what Lewis and Clark saw here when they met (pictures) and how intimidating the Falls was to water men.  On the way to the Museum, we drove right through the middle of Louisville, KY on Rt 65 No./So. seeing Churchill Downs and Cardinal Stadium. We learned about the history of the Falls; that there are more fossils discovered at the Falls than any other place on earth. (since the Falls was the floor of a tropical sea with coral barriers...layers of bones and shells settled, covered by carbon rich silt and mud and  under pressure turned to stone). At the Falls Lewis and Clark set off on their trip west (with 33 men + York and Seaman Lewis' Newfoundland dog. At the Falls John J. Audubon sketched great numbers of bird species 1808-1810. At the Falls William's brother, George Rogers Clark organized men for battle against the British and after a grueling walk, beat the British at Vincennes in 1779. Imagine Lewis and Clark setting off here down the Ohio River August 31,1803.  William Clark and his older brother, famous soldier George Rogers Clark lived nearby (plaque picture). 

We had a very full day with the drive and the tour of the Falls of the Ohio Museum and tracking down the location of the Clark house.