Lewis and Clark , Sept 23rd to 29th

With the Temple closed for cleaning the past few weeks and with a lighter senior work schedule we have had some time to travel and see some interesting things in Nebraska and Iowa. This week our travels took us south to Nebraska City to visit. 

We visited the Lewis and Clark Center, the Nation Arbor Day site, and the city around.

Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Visitor Center is a unique place to visit with many items to see and many hands-on displays.  We walked to an American Indian Earth lodge and the Missouri River overlook.

President Jefferson s instruction to Lewis and Clark

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with the water of the Pacific ocean may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce.

"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude at all remarkable points on the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands & other places & objects distinguished by such natural marks & characters of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognized hereafter. The courses of the river between these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line & by time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of the compass too, in different places should be noticed.

"The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the Missouri & the water offering the best communication with the Pacific ocean should be fixed by observation, & the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri.

"Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy to be entered distinctly, & intelligibility for others as well as yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables to fix the latitude & longitude of the places at which they were taken, & are to be rendered to the war office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the U.S. Several copies of these as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times, & put into the care of the most trustworthy of your attendants, to guard by multiplying them against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A further guard would be that one of these copies be written on the paper of the birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common paper.

"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of these people important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit,

with the names of the nations & their numbers;

   the extent & limits of their possessions;

   their relations with other tribes or nations;

   their language, traditions, monuments;

   their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war,

      arts, & the implements for these;

   their food, clothing, & domestic accommodations;

   the diseases prevalent among them, & the remedies they use;

   moral and physical circumstance which distinguish them

      from the tribes they know;

   peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions;

   and articles of commerce they may need or furnish, & to what extent.

We also visited Arbor Day Farm and  Kimmel Orchard & Vineyard, where we had hot Apple spice donuts. Yummy 😋

We loved seeing the many artifacts, animals, earth lodge,  and following the trail to the Missouri River. It is amazing how Lewis and Clark, just like the pioneers, used their previous skills to accomplish their tasks and help others.  Isn't that a goal for each of us also? May the Lord help each of us to develop our talents and skills to help each other, to do our best and BE our best!