LETTERS: RECONSTRUCTION MAY PROVIDE BAD INFORMATION

To the editor:

The bicentennial celebration of Lewis and Clark's journey into the unknown is an exciting time for Cape Girardeau. I applaud the efforts to recognize this momentous event. However, I have reservations about the appropriateness of the reconstruction of Louis Lorimier's Red House.

Resurrecting the Red House makes sense because Lewis stayed with Lorimier at the beginning of the expedition. Unfortunately, little evidence exists as to what the Red House originally looked like. Many years ago, Maj. James Francis Brookes drew the only extant picture of the Red House based on information derived from an interview with Sarah Daugherty, who remembered the Red House as a little girl. The accuracy of any drawing made this way is certainly doubtful.

Any reconstruction of the Red House will likely bear, at most, a superficial resemblance to the original. The problem with this is that the public will think that the reconstruction is either the original house or a faithful reproduction. Recent studies point out that Americans trust museums more than textbooks or teachers for accurate information. Therefore, it is likely that visitors will leave a reconstruction of the Red House with false information about the past.

It is still important that the city of Cape commemorate the visit of Lewis to Lorimier's Red House. A better way of doing this would be to create a museum and then use it to interpret the Red House and Lewis and Clark's journey using known information.

JEREMY WELLS

Cape Girardeau