CAPE GIRARDEAU MAY PLAY ROLE IN LEWIS AND CLARK RE-ENACTMENT

Statues of Meriwether Clark, far left, and William Clark, left, by James Earle Fraser stand in the State Capitol.

With the 200-year anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition fast approaching, many cities and towns along the routes are gearing up for celebrations and re-enactments.

A handful of local history buffs would like to see this area jump on the bandwagon. That's because Cape Girardeau was the first stop on the Mississippi River for the historic duo. They spent the night in Cape Girardeau before heading on to St. Louis.

Meriwether Lewis described both the city, which he spelled Cape Jeradeau, and its Commandant Louis Lorimier in great detail. The town at the time of their visit Nov. 23, 1803, had a surprising population of 1,100.

Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Regional History Center at Southeast Missouri State University, feels Cape Girardeau should be part of the national celebration. He's not alone. Jane Jackson, Linda Nash and other local history buffs are brainstorming about the possibilities.

Lewis spent the night with Lorimier, according to his careful journal entries. They attended a horse race and ate a fine dinner with Lorimier's family at his Red House, a combination home and trading post.

William Clark stayed at Old Cape Jeradeau, which would have been the trading post settlement near Cape Rock, said Nickell.

That could have been because bad blood existed between Lorimier and Clark's brother, George Rogers Clark, according to Nash, who has studied Lorimier history for about 15 years.

Lorimier had been in Western Ohio at the end of the America Revolution. He ran a fur trading post, trading heavily with the Indians. The town is still called Fort Loramie today, said Nash. Canadian-born Lorimier was seen as a British partisan.

"In 1782, Gen. George Rogers Clark took a sizable contingent of Kentuckians and attacked Lorimier's trading post and the Indian villages," said Nash. "They put him out of business."

In Lewis' journal reference to Lorimier, he said the trader lost about $20,000 an incredible sum of money in those days.

Lorimier then drifted west to Indiana, then to St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve and finally Cape Girardeau.

Although Lorimier and George Rogers Clark were protagonists, Nash said they may have never met.

Nickell said Lewis and Clark are important to Cape Girardeau's history because they provide one of the earliest written accounts of the town by a traveler.

Lewis and Clark's journals were also important in that they helped define the boundaries of the United States.

"The French got the land from Spain," said Nickell. "Spain never had a great deal of interest in the land, but they had a clause in the contract that France was not to sell the property to a third party."

But when Napoleon needed money for his military interests, the French approached the U.S. government about buying the land, said Nickell.

"They really couldn't go back and ask Spain about the boundaries since they weren't supposed to be selling the land in the first place," he said, "so they sent out some expeditions to determine the boundaries."

The transaction resulted in the Louisiana Purchase in which the United States bought more than 800,000 square miles of land between the Mississippi River and the Rock Mountains, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border.

Eventually, all or parts of 15 states were formed out of that region.

Lewis and Clark's expedition took near two years. Nickell described it as the "greatest camping trip in American history."

Nickell said this is a great opportunity to celebrate both Lewis and Clark and the region's history.

Jackson, Nickell, Nash and others would like to see the area put on a re-enactment of Lewis and Clark's stay. Jackson has been contacting local organizations about their possible interest in helping out.

"My concept of this is similar to the sesquicentennial of the founding of Cape Girardeau that was done in the 1950s," she said. "Everyone dressed up and men grew beards. We could do that again, citywide. Everyone could dress up, take a picnic basket and we could recreate the race scene."

Jackson said such a re-enactment could involve both descendants of those who lived here in the days of Lorimier and others. Jackson's ancestors were among those inhabiting Cape Girardeau at the time of Lorimier.

When she does genealogy talks, she dresses in period costume and portrays relative Rebecca Randol, who with her husband, Enos, and 13 kids came from Ohio on a flatboat.

There's also been talk about the possibility of recreating Lorimier's little Red House, which would have been situated on the Main Street side of old St. Vincent's Church. A drawing exists of the home and trading post, which they believe was a log cabin.

"Of course, reconstructing the Red House would be a big goal," said Jackson, "but it could be a wonderful tourist attraction." She pointed out a similar trading post operates near Kansas City on the weekends, with workers dressed in period costumes. Jackson said it would be great to involve the historic preservation program at Southeast Missouri State University.

The three would like to see a formal committee formed to hammer out a plan of action to mark the national Lewis and Clark celebration.

Interest in the expedition will continue to build with the U.S. mint's release of the new Golden Dollar next March. It features a portrait of Sacagawea, the Shosshone Indian who assisted the Lewis and Clark expedition between 1804-1806. She joined the group after their trek through Cape Girardeau.