Lewis, Clark bicentennial re-enactors land in Cape

MIKE WELLS * photos@semissourian.com

Spying the arriving keel boats of the Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition are St. Ambrose Catholic School students Allie Bryant, Shannon Ratcliff, Colin Dame and Edward Haney. At right, Ted Mueller, portrays Corps of Discovery member "Ebenezer Tuttle," an artillery private who took part in the famous journey. He was among dozens of participants setting up the encampment at the Missouri Department of Conservation's Red Star Public Fishing Access area -- also known as Honker's Dock.By Mike Wells ~ Southeast Missourian

Campfires, canvas tents and fiddle music greeted visitors Friday at the Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition's riverside camp at the Red Star Public Fishing Access, also known as Honker's Dock, in Cape Girardeau.

The Discovery Expedition -- a group of men and women retracing the 1803 to 1806 waterway trek taken by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis -- arrived in Cape Girardeau for a three-day celebration of the expedition's bicentennial.

Dressed in authentic period clothing, about two dozen crew members traveled in handcrafted replicas of Lewis and Clark's keelboat and a red pirogue. Other members arrived in a convoy of trucks carrying supplies to the campsite at North Main and First streets.

There are 250 re-enactors and support staff involved, said Bryant Boswell of Star, Miss. They portray individuals from the original journey. Boswell is Robert Frazier, an infantryman asked to join the trip by Meriwether Lewis at Fort Kaskaskia, Ill.

"It's a transition day for us," Boswell said. "A lot of the men are washing clothes and catching up on chores."

All around the camp, participants were busy putting up tents, unloading supplies and answering the questions of curious visitors.

The eastern portion of the trip started Aug. 27 at Elizabeth, Penn., and ends Dec. 12 at Camp River DuBois, in Wood River, Ill. The boats will journey up the Missouri River to Montana beginning in May.

Boswell said the main goal of the re-enactment was education. Participants talked to crowds of children about period uniforms, medicine chests, weapons, creating relationships with native tribes and the basics of primitive camp life.

"The kids are just excited and interested in it all," he said. "This is a generation of TV watchers. So just to bring it alive for them brings their interest out. Hopefully, we're encouraging them to read the history of this wonderful country we live in."

Ted Mueller of Chester, Ill., portrays Ebenezer Tuttle, an artillery private. He told fourth-graders from Franklin Elementary School about the clothing worn by the original crew members and showed youths how crew members made fire with flint.

"Don't try this at home," he warned the applauding students.

"Where can I get one of those?" asked student Ryan Siebert, smiling at the small burning grass fire Mueller had started.

Students from St. Ambrose Catholic School in Chaffee, Mo., also visited the camp, along with dozens of curious residents.

Bob Plummer of Herman, Mo., who arrived in the keelboat portraying Jean Baptiste DeChamps, said the expedition has an average of 2,000 visitors a day, with crowds topping more than 4,000 people at some stops.

mwells@semissourian.com

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