That encouraged the others to sleep, like the croaking of frogs on a riverbank? Or After only one night of camping together, I said, we already knew who snoredĪnd who didn't-and we would be pitching our tents accordingly for the remainderĭid any members of the Lewis and Clark expedition snore? If so, which ones? Was it a gentle sawing sound The next morning I told Steve he could add another item of familiarity to his
So crucial to the success of any expedition.Įveryone around the campfire nodded in agreement, then headed for their sleepingīags. Single, organic unit-is the natural byproduct of the intimate bond of teamwork Knowledge about everyone else's personal habits and strengths-a simultaneousĪcknowledgment of individuality within a group that itself has begun to act as a Other task they even knew who liked salt on his meat and who didn't. Other's footsteps they knew who was best at hunting, at starting a fire, or at any It's a point he had eloquently made three yearsĮarlier in the documentary film Ken Burns and I produced for public television: howĪfter so many days together in their struggle to cross the continent, members of theĬorps of Discovery eventually became so close to one another that they could hear aĬough in the night and know who it was they could recognize the sound of each That evening, after Steve and I took turns reading aloud from the journals, he spokeįor a few minutes about teamwork. Of Discovery, we were absolutely not going to run out of Some detail, we also had made sure of another important difference: unlike the Corps Having studied the history of the expedition in Unlike the Corps ofĭiscovery, we felt no concerns about grizzly bears (they disappeared from the river aĬentury ago), getting lost (we had precise maps and an experienced outfitter), orįinding horses when the canoe portion of our journey ended (a chartered bus was hired In and day out against the Missouri's relentless current. People our age), but nothing we did could be compared to dragging bulky dugouts day Paddled downstream to our camp (which was tiring enough for Men under the command of Lewis and Clark (along with one teenaged Indian woman and her infant son). On average our group's members were about thirty years older than the young Our geographical location–most of the similarities between the two expeditionsĮnded. There were about thirty of us in the group, roughly the same numberĪs in the original Corps of Discovery. The campfire and gazed at the silent cliffs reflected in the river, tinged pink by Nearly two centuries later we found the enchantment equally palpable as we sat around
Seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment would never have an end." One of his most lyrical journal passages about the wondrous landscape he and his men Majestic White Cliffs of north-central Montana, close to the exact spot where, or 31 Pleasant day of paddling canoes on the Missouri River, we camped amid the eerie and Some of the most scenic stretches of the Lewis and Clark Trail. DAYTON DUNCAN Introduction to the Bison Books EditionĪ few years ago I was helping my friend Stephen Ambrose lead a group of people along
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