President's Message
Larry & Ellie McClure at the (Gateway Arch)
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
Welcome to the website of the Oregon Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
While some people think interest in Lewis & Clark will fall away now that the Bicentennial is history, here in Oregon we are simply moving to a new level of commitment.
Our congressional delegation is working to establish a new heritage area at the mouth of the Columbia, our Chapter’s first board meeting of the new year was well-attended, a year-long calendar was tentatively established, and Ted Kaye is leading us into a full-scale inventory of Lewis & Clark legacy projects.
I’m still meeting people who are impressed by the Corps of Discovery’s stories and how the Bicentennial commemoration reminded us of those lessons for 2007.
In that vein, I urge you to join Ellie and me on the afternoon of March 24th in Vancouver (details in the Newsletter) to see for ourselves how the future generation is making those connections.
We will hear from students, teachers, and community representatives in Oregon and Washington who created public art projects following the example of Maya Lin (www.confluenceproject.org/wp/). In each case they studied the Lewis & Clark story, the tribes they met, and the environmental context for their area, then created and documented indoor or outdoor artworks that will live on for future generations.
Let’s show these future Chapter members that we support their initiative and welcome them someday as members of our Foundation.
Sincerely,
Larry McClure
President,Oregon Chapter, Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation