Now is the time to start adding these events to your calendar! From August 10th to 11th, the Museum will host our annual Lewis and Clark Days. During this two-day special event, the Pacific Northwest Living Historians (PNLH) will demonstrate the tools and skills employed by the explorers of the epic Lewis and Clark expedition.

Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and to seek the best route to the Pacific Ocean through what we now call the Pacific Northwest. During their voyage of 1804 – 1806, they led the Corps of Northwestern Discovery overland from St. Louis, Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia River and back again. With no means for resupply, the Corps (a U.S. Army unit of 31 men accompanied by Sacagawea and her infant child, Jean Baptiste) needed to use diverse skills and the right tools to survive.

Dressed in clothing of the style and materials worn by the members of the Corps in 1805-1806, PNLH interpreters will demonstrate and discuss many of those tools and skills, such as handling flintlock firearms, camp cooking, making clothing from leather, and making canoe paddles. Visitors can learn the history and stories of the Lewis and Clark expedition: the native people that they met, the unfamiliar territory they traveled and mapped, and the strange new animals and plants they discovered.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 10, there will be a special demonstration on the methods the Corps of Discovery used to start their fires. Fire was important to the Corps not only for warmth but also for cooking, drying clothing, light in the dark hours, repairing weapons and tools, boiling water for cleanliness & medical reasons, and signaling. As modern matches had not yet been invented, alternate methods of creating fire were used. Transferring it to the Corp’s camp was simple if a campfire was already burning. If it was daytime, a burning glass worked well. However, when conditions were not ideal, a fire could be started from friction using a bow drill, or Flint & Steel. A member of the Corps, Sgt. Patrick Gass, will demonstrate these methods for those who wish to learn about and ‘discover’ our distant past.

The program will occur from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday.

This event is made possible by Pacificcorp.