Closed Captions

A speaker describes the Discovery Expedition's educational programs along the Lewis and Clark trail, including the National Education Initiative that brings the expedition's story to schools across the country via weekly broadcasts. He discusses efforts to replicate historical travel methods, including successfully sailing boats under wind power alone for over four hours near Omaha, Nebraska, and explains how the Corps of Engineers' river modifications have changed navigation conditions since the original expedition.

Transcript

0:05 Adam Adams. I'm sorry. I'm sorry Suintendent Adams. I apologize.
0:16 Yeah,
0:18 it's neighbors. That's what I always say always me.
0:23 I'm sorry, Superintendent Adams, if you come up for a moment.
0:28 Superintendents first name is Steve, and for some reason I was just having such a good show here today called Steve Allen at any rate, um, the other day when we were coming through,
0:41 uh, we talked a little bit about Discovery exhibition earlier and different things, and one of the things that we talk about partnerships and all and our organization was 13. We sold a lot of t-shirts over the years to make it possible and, and we're still doing that and all. Park Service has been a great help to the exhibition, but a few years ago I left my job in corporate media and started teaching, and one day I was sitting at lunch in the lunchroom and kept talking
1:05 to one of the other teachers there and we tried to figure out, wouldn't it be neat we talked with Gerard about things over the years? Would it be neat if we could figure out this way to get the story of the trailing along the trail off the trail and get kids across the country and the far reaches of the country and beyond and to the general public as well. And out of that. Out of that one conversation with this fellow here, Jim Sur, we developed the National Education Initiative, and that National Education Initiative receives funding
1:29 from the National Park Service as well. That allows schools across the country and beyond to access our website and our broadcast that we do weekly from the trail, and it allows us to bring the story of Lewis Park and the story of the communities, the people, the tribes, and all that we meet along the way to people across the country. It is a great partnership because a lot of, you know,
1:52 a lot of people will never get the chance to actually travel this trail, see the river and that sort of thing, and a lot of times they see images of us and that sort of thing in our boats, the Discovery Expeditions boats which serve as a platform for the education initiative, bring a lot of interest and drama to the story as we use. Lewis and Clark story is a mechanism to teach about other multi interdisciplinary studies, whether it be mathematics, science, and that sort of thing. So it's it's a big education project.
2:17 If anybody has any interest we'll be happy to talk to you about that later. The other day we were coming up through uh through Omaha, and we were very excited because, you know, people are constantly asking us whether we have motors. And yes, we do because the Corps of Engineers and another partner in this project over the last century or so after the mandate of Congress has changed the river a little bit to make it more navitable for large craft and that sort of thing.
2:40 So like the 3 to 5 ft channel we had 200 years ago, we're dealing with 30 ft channel, and most of the guys even on the tiptoes just can't handle the cordelling with that 30 ft channel. But we were very pleased about 2 weeks ago to be able to sail, and that is the one thing that we can do exactly like they did, no matter how deep the river is, no matter how fast. River is we do the Cordelling and other things when the river allows, but we were coming by O for about a little over 4 hours the other day
3:05 at 2.7 miles an hour under sail power alone with simply the wind under us in our sails with no motors and nothing but the sound of the river and the wind. We moved our boats from Bellevue, Nebraska up past the city of Omaha and on to Dodge Park. It was a glorious day for us and one of the things that we stopped.
3:27 to have a dedication for your new building down there and all that sort of thing, and we give you a couple of items down there to remember the day from that sort of thing and as an expression thanks but we thought maybe the best way for you to remember that day would be with an image of those boats under sail signed by the members of the crew. This is your new building with the 3 boats fully under sail and signed by the crew of the Discovery Expedition,
3:51 and we just want to give this to you to take back to your office as a reminder of that day. So thank you all very much.
3:59 And this is presented, uh, both on behalf of the Discovery Expedition and the, uh, the Luson Clark Then and Now project, which is the National Education initiative. So thank you very much.
4:10 Thank you.
4:12 Thanks to everyone in the National Park Service. We appreciate all the help.
4:18 And we'll have our next program and Mr. Paul Bur starting.

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Discovery Expedition: Education Initiative and River Navigation

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Discovery Expedition: Education Initiative and River Navigation

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