Lecture Date: January 18, 2024
The Davenport & Company Lecture
Thomas Jefferson, years before his Presidency, dreamed of an expedition to the Northwest that would open the door to commerce and the Manifest Destiny of the new United States of America. When he became President, Jefferson had both the opportunity and the man, his own private secretary, Meriwether Lewis. Lewis invited William Clark, and together the two embarked, with a Corps of Discovery of twenty-nine men, a woman, and a baby, on a journey of over 7,000 miles. The territory was uncharted, the challenges immense. The Corps had to feed, clothe, and otherwise sustain itself with nothing other than its wits and what it could carry, by boat, horse, and dugout canoe. Its members were not only diplomats and mapmakers, but gatherers of a wealth of zoological, geological, and anthropological information. Half a dozen of the Corps were journalists, and to them we owe our knowledge of the story. Besides Lewis and Clark, a number of characters stand out: the "robust healthy hardy young men" who did the back breaking work of the expedition; York, the involuntary enslaved member; and Sacagawea, the “Indian woman”who carved out her own place in history by her wits and mere presence."
Speaker: Dale Blanshan
Dale Blanshan is a retired minister and attorney (as if one can ever retire from either), degreed in literature, the humanities, and law. He and his wife have raised a family of nine children and now enjoy grandparenting an even two dozen. His interest in history stems from childhood reticence and the successful pitch to his parents by a travelling World Book Encyclopedia salesman. Lewis and Clark have been an intriguing topic for him ever since his first riverboat trip down the Snake and Columbia Rivers, travelling the same route and seeing the same sights as that famous duo.