Extravaganza To Hit The Trail With Lewis And Clark Lewiston Native Organizes July Event Saluting Explorers

A Clearwater River flotilla of up to 50 dugout canoes will launch a two-day extravaganza for history buffs this summer.

The colorful fleet will be part of the Lewis & Clark Experience, which will begin July 26 when the canoes head down river from Orofino, Idaho.

The educational event will end the next evening in Clarkston, Wash., with a talk by filmmaker Ken Burns. Burns will show segments of his upcoming PBS documentary on the 19th-century adventurers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis.

The event’s organizer is Steve Leroy, a Lewiston native who gets hired for big-time events such as Bill Clinton’s latest inaugural balls.

Leroy got the idea for the event in December, when Burns was finishing his film, “Lewis and Clark: the Journey of the Corps of Discovery.” It was a hot topic in the Clearwater Valley.

Local boosters were trying to figure out how to focus some of that artistic attention on the twin communities of Lewiston and Clarkston. So Leroy called the film’s co-producer, Dayton Duncan, with whom he had worked on political campaigns.

“Dayton and I go way back,” Leroy said Wednesday. “I said I would build a program so compelling that he could not afford to take the premiere of the movie anywhere else. And that’s what we’re doing.”

The Lewis & Clark Experience will take place mostly on 20 acres near the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers. It will feature a stage play on President Thomas Jefferson’s commissioning of Lewis to lead the Corps of Discovery to explore lands obtained in the Louisiana Purchase.

There will be an Indian village and programs designed to show how people lived nearly 200 years ago. There’s talk of attracting 20,000 people, who will pay $16 to $20 to participate.

Instead of spending cash on site, visitors will buy ribbons and beads with which to barter for crafts. They’ll be offered a meal of salmon, beans and wild berries, similar to that served to Lewis and Clark by the Nez Perce Indians.

Families can spread out blankets and watch the evening presentation of movie excerpts on a giant screen.

The canoe flotilla is one of the most ambitious parts of the program.

It will feature five “official” dugout canoes, matching those that the expedition spent five days making under native supervision.

Carving 40-foot boats from pine logs is “a fairly daunting task,” said James Grunke, executive director of the Orofino Chamber of Commerce. He’s helping get things rolling.

Organizers hope that dozens of other canoes will be built by individuals, clubs and businesses throughout the area. They’ll pay $500, for which they will get a 40-foot log, technical advice, and instruction in the risky business of navigating the ungainly canoes.

Applications to build the canoes will be available June 2.

“We don’t want joyriders,” said Leroy. “We also want to know what they’re going to do with their dugout canoe after the trip.”

He’d like to see the boats displayed publicly, in keeping with the educational theme of the Lewis & Clark Experience.

Proceeds from the event will go to area Lewis & Clark bicentennial committees for future education programs. One of the biggest lessons to be shared, Leroy said, is the importance of Native Americans to the expedition that opened the West to white settlement.

“Nez Perce tribal members received Lewis and Clark into their neighborhood on the prairie, and had to make the decision whether to kill them or help them,” Leroy said. “It’s very important for people to understand that the relationship in 1805 was a very positive one.”

For more information, call (509) 758-0386 in Clarkston, or toll-free at (888) 758-0386.

, DataTimes