The Official Publication of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. Inc. Vol. 24, No. 3 August 1998 THE LEWIS AND CLARK TRAIL In this issue- HERITAGE FOUNDATION, INC. Incorporated 1969 under Missouri General Not-For-Profit Corporation Act IRS Page 4- Exemption Certificate No. 501 (C}(3}-ldentification No. 51-0187715 Pronghorns As Documented by the 1804--06 Lewis and Clark Expedition OFFICERS ACTIVE PAST PRESIDENTS President Irving W. Anderson Ken Walcheck James M. Peterson Portland. Ol'egon Page 10- 503 Poplar Avenue Robert K Doerl1, Jr. lt Felt Like They Were There Vermillion. SD 57069 Cheyenne. Wyoming President Elect Martin Erickson James R. Fazio David Borlaug Moscow. Ida/10 Box 492 Page 14- Washburn, ND 58577 Robert E. Gatten, Jr. George Armstrong Custer and the Vice President G>'eensbol'o. North Carn/ina Mandan I ndians Cindy Orlando H. John Montague Tracy Potter Box 604-FC Portland. Oregon Astoria, OR 97103 Donald F. Nell Page 15- Secretary Bozeman. Moncana Building Partnerships Ludd Trozpek 41 41 Via Padova William P. Sherman Martin Erickson Portland. Oregon Claremont. CA 9 I 71 I Page 16- Treasurer L. Edwin Wang Jerry Garrett Minneapolis. Minnesota The Grand Expedition of the I 0174 Sakura Drive Wilbur P. Werner Lewis and Clark Expedition St. Louis. MO 63128 Mesa, Arizona as Seen C.M. Russell Immediate Past President by Clyde G. .. Sid" Huggins Stuart E. Knapp Bozeman, MT 59715 Page 20- Mandeville, LA David B. Weaver Would Have a Executive Director Sammye Meadows Monument Page 28- DIRECTORS KI LARGE Andrew Ellicot-Astronomer .. Jane Henley Robert Weir Barbara Kubik Philip C. Althen Charfouesville. Virginia Scranton. Pennsylvania Kennewick, Washington Srevensville, Moncana Mathematician ... Surveyor Robert Shattuck Frank Muhly James Holmberg Dark Rain Thom Nancy M. Davis Grass Valley. California Ph iladelphia. Pennsylvania Loi1isvilfe. Kentticky Bloomington. Indiana Page 33- Jane Schmoyer-Weber Great Falls. Monrana News Update Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. Page 36- P.O. Box 3434 • Great Falls, MT 59403 Book Reviews (406) 454-1234 • 1-888-701-3434 • Fax (406) 771-9237 • Website: [email protected] MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION _% /m&ftb/Z ~de..:&1t1if r.vt.tf 8",Wj5at! ~tl9" ~-Mlt, ..k: if to Membership in the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the general Jttimth.!'0ttl%· 'f'fVecdzttb/Z oj't£: .:&@ifrut.tf g",Wj <fytedtzi?/Z d CM!rt//t.ttiJl!J public. Information and an application are avail­ to ~tU&12 k/'d~ rud.ttff!Ntechcattbn, /"Meard td:f/eo/zmed u./tajva1ow­ able by sending a request to: Membership Sec­ ltb/& oj'tie ..:&w rut.ti 8"fo.Je:tjtU!Otce. retary; Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Founda­ tion, Inc.; P.O. Box3434; Great Falls, MT 59403. We Proceeded On, the quarterly magazine of the Foundation, is mailed to current members during the months of February, May, August, and November. ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES* Regular $ 30.00 We Proceeded On is lhe official publication of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. Family 40.00 The publication's name is derived from the phrase which appears repeatedly in the collective International 40.00 journals of the famous expedition. Heritage Club 50.00 E.G. CHUTNARD, M.D .. FOUNDER ISSN 0275-6706 Regular-3 Yr. 80.00 Explorer Club 100.00 Martin L. Erickson. Editor Jefferson Club 150.00 1203 28th Street South #82 Discovery Club 500.00 Great Falls, MT 59405 (406) 761-4706 Expedition Club 1,000.00 Leadership Club 5,000.00 EDITORIAL BO ARD Robert C. Carriker, Spokane, WA Editorial Consullam: Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. is a tax exempt Robert K. Doerk, Jr .. Cheyenne, WY Vivian A. Paladin nonprofit corporation: 501(c)(3), IRS identification no. 51- 0187715. Individual membership dues are not tax deductible. Robert R. Hunt. Seattle. WA Helena. MT The portion of premium dues over $30 is tax deductible. 2 WE PROCEEDED ON AUGUST 1998 by Jam es M. Peterson Greetings to the Lewis and Clarkers! Clark Interpretive Center at Great Falls. This is a real Nearly a year has passed since our last annual milestone and should be of immediate and telling meeting. As the president's term of office nears an value to the foundation. Those attending the annual end, it is appropriate to note some of the more sig­ meeting at Great Falls will have an opportunity to nificant developments which have occurred in the meet Sammye Meadows and view the new office. foundation's annals. It has been a busy (even hectic) Well underway as this is written is an undertaking year with changes of marked significance for the which typifies the sort of thing which perhaps best foundation. characterizes the foundation's work. This the "fea­ Our membership has increased substantially. We ture article" project. Feature articles (and some now have about 2,200 members and the growth others) are being extracted from We Proceeded On continues. This can be attributed to three principal and will be published in book form. What better way factors: the continuing robust sales of Dr. Ambrose's to bring the history of the expedition to life-and to "Undaunted Courage," the airing of Ken Burns' our members and others drawn to the story. The "Lewis and Clark: The journey of the Corps of Dis­ work is being done by a former editor of WPO and covery," and the burgeoning interest in the expedi­ former president of the foundation, Bob Saindon. tion as its bicentennial nears. With respect to this project, I would be remiss in my A truly pressing need was met with the hiring of a duties if I did not acknowledge and commend Don full time executive director and her occupancy of our Nell for his assiduous efforts to get this project going. new office in the U.S. Forest Service's new Lewis and Thanks, Don! (President's Message continued on page 39) A fresh start, new ideas, that is what we are look­ involved with the chapter and the foundation, Nancy ing at. (It is okay these days to end a sentence with a Davis and others brought humor into their chapter preposition.) promotional brochures. They didn't stop there. Start­ With an expanded WPO, with new features, new ing with this issue of WPO, we will be looking at the horizons have opened for us. I'm shooting for more men who trained Meriwether Lewis in the things he color in the magazine, starting with the November needed to know such as medicine, astronomy, etc. issue. We will probably have two or more pages in The first person that Nancy Davis wrote about is An­ the middle splashed with color photos. It would have drew Ellicot. You will find him on page 28. The se­ been great to have the pictures of the new interpre­ ries will be featured periodically between now and tive center in the May WPO in color (they started out 2003 when the bicentennial gets underway. as color slides), but looking towards October I am The Travelers Rest Chapter in Missoula, Montana, thinki!lg green fi elds, fields filled with flowers as has started a daily newspaper feature on the Corps Lewis and Clark may have seen them on their jour­ of Discovery. Look in the News Update section for ney. their great idea to catch peoples' attention. A fresh start and new ideas are popping up all The Portage Route Chapter in Great Falls will be over the place. presenting its brand new Lewis and Clark. Montana In Philadelphia, Frank Muhly and others are using vests (for sale) at the annual foundation meeting in unique approaches to tell the Lewis and Clark story. Great Falls. Faced with the problem of how to get more people (Editor 's Note continued on page 3 9) ON THE COVER-Circular depressions up to 40 feet in diameter are silent testimony of the 50 or more earthlodges which stood in the Awatixa Village on the west bank of the Knife River in North Dakota. AUGUST 1998 W E PROCEEDED ON 3 by Ken Walcheck falo wallows, and dissected bad­ curred on September 3, 1804, in lands. present day Bon Homme County, hen the Corps of Dis­ For some expedition members, South Dakota: "Several wild Goats covery entered the the sheer, limitless openness of the Seen in the Plains they are wild & smooth undulating prairie country must have occupied fleet." ' On September 14, near the W sweep of the mid-conti­ stage-center in their memory vicinity of Bull Creek, Lyman nental prairie of North America on banks fixing attention with a tena­ County, South Dakota, Clark was their outward 1804 journey, the cious magnetism of awe and won­ the first member of the expedition rolling grasslands and its colorlul der that can be felt but never flilly to bag a "Buck goat" which we vistas linked with a myriad of pre­ understood, that sureness of pris­ now recognize as the pronghorn, viously undiscovered plants and tine wilderness. Other members Antilocapra americana. On this animals must have surely ap­ may have viewed it as an alien date, he provided the scientific peared to the explorers as striking land, not only in physical appear­ community with the first descrip­ in appearance, exhilarating in ex­ ance but also in its harsh rejection ti on of the strikingly colored prairie tent, graceful in outline, and of infi­ of familiar patterns, customs, and speedster: "I walked on shore to nite complexity and diversity. in stitutions. Even so, they could find an old Volcanoe .. .in my walk I The uncharted prairies whi ch not deny the uniqueness of its fl o­ killed a Buck Goat of this Countrey, had been molded by climatic and ral and fauna! composition that about the height of the Grown hi storic geological forces for eons had been molded by the historic Deer, its body Shorter the Horns had not yet been subjected to the forces of geology, climate, and evo­ which is not very hard and forks invasion of European cultural ac­ lution; forces which at this early 2/3 up one prong Short the other tivities.