Kids crown ambition for American living history
Lewis and Clark center offers sneak peak at 1803 fort replica
By News Channel NebraskaNEBRASKA CITY – Over the past three decades Doug Friedli of the Lewis & Clark Visitor Center at Nebraska City and keelboat builder Butch Bouvier have been building opportunities for hands-on history and saw a lot of hands this fall at a living history day for elementary school students.
Bouvier recalled showing a young girl the first keelboat he built noting that today she would be a woman in her 40s and talked about his confidence that the replica of a fort the Corps of Discovery built near St. Louis in the winter of 1803 will help shape future generations.
Bouvier: “That one group, that home-schooled group that I let the kids hold the powder in their hand and everything – they’ll never forget that. They will never forget it.”
The men are leading construction of five cabins enclosed by a palisade at the Lewis and Clark center, which opened in 2004 on 80 acres purchased by the National Parks Service to feature the scientific discoveries recorded by the explorers and highlight the 178 plants and 122 animals they encountered.
Bouvier: “We do it for young people and old people, but the young people are the challenge. Right now we’d like to have all the young people in this country understand our history so that they can make informed decisions about how it should be in the future. You look at history. You don’t try to hide anything. You don’t destroy it. You don’t tear down statues, you say ‘hey, this is the way it was – this is what happened, this is why the statue was put up, now make an informed decision about going forward into the future.”
There were 15 sites with reenactors from rope making to hides. There were boat tours, trapping and blacksmith demonstrations, and Bouvier sounding the cannon every 15 minutes.
Friedli: “This is our mission. It was built as an educational facility. We want to teach history hands on and that’s what the young people are getting to do today. It’s a complete, 100 percent completion of our dream and our vision. We are so pleased to have this happen.”
Completion of the Wood River Fort Annex replica is expected to be complete in about a year.
