More than two hundred years ago, President Thomas Jefferson selected U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis, his aide and personal friend, to lead an expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery. In a letter dated June 20, 1803, Jefferson wrote to Lewis:
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce."
This weekend I traveled the route taken by Lewis and Clark from North Dakota through Montana. When we reached Pompey's pillar, we stopped to observe the historical site and learn more about the journey. From the time I was a small child I can remember stories about Lewis and Clark. I grew up living very near the Mandan village where Lewis and Clark had spent the winter and had enlisted Toussaint Charbonneau, and his young Shoshone Indian wife, Sacajawea. So when we climbed the two hundred foot rock to view the carved name and date for the expedition it was with some reverence and a great deal of respect. But something caught my attention as we walked through the visitor's center. It was a small plaque beside a replica of William Clark's name carved on the rock. It said in effect: “The only physical evidence of that historic journey.”
Life is like that. We live and build our dreams until we leave this place. What we leave behind may be no more than the scratching on a rock or a pile of papers. Some, perhaps out of fear, build monuments, buildings and even empires to provide evidence of their own existence. Others have lived in this world and left no visible trace and yet have changed the course of history. Such is the case with Lewis, Clark and Sakajawea. Though we see little tangible evidence of that perilous journey, we can see evidence all around us showing the results of it.
Yesterday as I drove across Montana, I saw roads, farms, telephone wires, cattle, cities, people, power plants and factories. That seemed like a lot of evidence to me. And you should have seen the view. Vast snow-covered mountain ranges, glorious rushing rivers and endless towering forests played a silent symphony of visual splendor; a veritable feast for the mind. Every mile seemed to speak of that 'historic journey' and give silent witness to the dedication and bravery of a few men and an amazing girl.
For me, it was two kinds of evidence. One, the very real results of the expedition which showed itself in the commerce and livelihood of so many people, and the other, the quiet assurance that seemed to flow with the river and resonate in the valley.
Though I live to be a hundred and fifty years old, I will not forget the legacy left by Lewis, Clark and Sakajawea. It has impacted my life in real and tangible ways. But, if I live one more day, I hope that it will be a day in which I share a vision of the future as they did, without worrying too much about the evidence I leave behind.
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