Great Falls, MT

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

June 14 - 15

Dick's RV Park

The Alaskan Adventure - 20 Days, 2,314 Miles

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Finally, two days of sunshine! And, the Dish is working! But, we have good cable at this park! Since we were here last, they added a new Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. There are about 5 of these centers located along the Lewis and Clark Trail from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in Oregon. They each give a good overview of the total trail and then give a detail look for the section of the trail they are located. The Center is loaded with volunteers who are very knowledgeable and eager to share what they know. If you ask a question, you get more than just a simple answer. They have a copy of the map which Lewis and Clark had at the start of their trip. It shows the Rocky Mountains as a very narrow ridge with a large flat plain on each side. When they heard about the Great Falls from the Indians down stream on the Missouri River, they scheduled a half day portage around the falls. It turned out to be 5 falls in a deep gorge. It took 32 days to portage their six large dugout canoes and tons of supplies.

Our site at Dick's RV Park.

The entrance to the Interpretive Center. The plants located around the outside of the building, have identification plates with the same words which Lewis used to identify the plant. They had at least one of every plant found by Lewis in Montana.

Here is a full size model of a canoe being portaged up the gorge. There were very few trees in the area, so they had hike about 10 miles to find trees large enough to make two frames with wheels. They hauled two canoes at a time over the 18 mile portage.

One of the many things they learned from the indians was how to make a "Bullboat" out to tree braches and a Buffalo Skin.

One of the talks we attended was a talk on "Rock Art." I thought we would see a picture of Elvis. Instead we heard a good talk on Art on Rock from around the area as well as from around the world. It was very interesting.

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