Lewis, Clark map exhibit starts Sunday

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- To help commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the state of Missouri commissioned a series of 20 maps to represent how the pristine territory would have appeared to the explorers.

The Stars and Stripes Museum in Bloomfield has been chosen as the first venue in southern Missouri to show "Lewis & Clark Across Missouri: Mapping the Historic Landscape." It is due to arrive at the museum today. Librarian R. Sue Mayo said the show probably will go up Thursday. It will be open officially from Sunday through March 24.

The maps were displayed for the first time during February at the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City. Besides the Stars and Stripes Museum, the March venues for the maps are the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia and Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

The exhibit will be at the Cape Girardeau Public Library in May and at the Bollinger County Museum in Marble Hill, Mo., during July.

Delilah Tayloe, the Stars and Stripes Museum's curator, said a $15 prototype of the maps will be sold at the museum.

Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University, will be the speaker at a reception planned for 7 p.m. March 7.

Something each Saturday

Tayloe said a special presentation is planned each Saturday the exhibit is at the museum. One of them will be a demonstration by Native Americans talking about native ways, Tayloe said.

Jane Jackson, chairwoman of the Cape Girardeau Lewis & Clark Commission, has seen some of the maps. "For people interested in Lewis and Clark, this is going to be a map exhibit they don't want to miss," she said.

The maps represent a landscape that was radically different from what now exists. Contemporary overlays illustrate the differences human beings have wrought in 200 years. According to the Secretary of State's office, the maps are "the first accurate renderings of the Expedition's campsites and foot explorations by crew members on the first leg of their long journey to the Pacific Ocean."

Geographers from the Geographic Resource Center at the University of Missouri used both 19th-century land surveys and modern technology to illustrate the expedition's course in the state: From the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers north to the Mississippi's confluence with the Missouri River, and following the Missouri River west.

Mayo said the museum has had to make few changes to accommodate the display. The museum recently added onto the facility and has a new exhibit area.

The museum is on Highway 25 just south of Bloomfield. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. Group tours can be scheduled by calling 568-2055.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182