Program Information

Program: Virginia’s Lewis and Clark: Roots of a Legacy
Segment Number: 6 (Watch entire program)
Duration: 00:05:18
Year Produced: 2003
Description:

Meriwether Lewis, William and George Rogers Clark also have not been forgotten. They are a part of Albemarle history that is inseparable from the Albemarle of today.

Meriwether Lewis was born in what is now Albemarle County, and William Clark’s family had roots in Albemarle soil. Their ideas of what lay beyond the Mississippi River were nurtured by Thomas Jefferson, a “vicarious westerner” who had never traveled farther west than Hot Springs. Jefferson intended to establish the United States as a continental nation, an “Empire of Liberty” that reached from Atlantic to Pacific. To further his goal, Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark’s Expedition of North Western Discovery. Their remarkable mission began here in central Virginia.

For more information visit: http://ideastations.org/lc

Transcript

NARRATOR:

Today, the Charlottesville/Albemarle region is a thriving economic and cultural community, a place both hectic and idyllic, urban and pastoral. Its Jefferson ideals exist not only at the University of Virginia and Monticello, but seem to permeate many facets of everyday life. Meriwether Lewis, William and George Rogers Clark also have not been forgotten. They are a part of Albemarle history that is inseparable from the Albemarle of today.

CLARA BELLE WHEELER (owner of Buena Vista, Clark family homestead):

I feel very much a part of history. And passing the history on to another generation is what's been done, and we need to keep doing that, or it will be lost.

(LEWIS & CLARK FESTIVAL, DOWNTOWN CHARLOTTESVILLE)

CHILD RE-ENACTOR:

You wanna kill that buffalo don't you? OK, now, brandish firearms, aim, FIRE!

LEWIS RE-ENACTOR:

I'm Captain Lewis, this is Captain Clark.

CLARK RE-ENACTOR:

He's born in Albemarle, I'm born in Caroline County. Yeah, my brother, you've probably heard of George Rogers Clark, the "Conqueror of the Northwest" during the American Revolutionary War, and he grew up here in Albemarle and then the family moved to Caroline.

Jefferson said be students and that's what we were. We tried to learn as much as we could about the people of the west. I don't know how we made it. Divine Providence, I guess.

CLARA BELLE WHEELER (owner of Buena Vista, Clark family homestead):

It's very important that we teach children to love adventure and to love history. And we've got plenty of that here in Albemarle County.

(KEEL BOAT BUILDING AT DARDEN TOWE PARK, FUTURE SITE OF LEWIS & CLARK EXPLORATORY CENTER)

FEMALE VOLUNTEER:

This is the Lewis & Clark keel boat. It's a replica of their boat and we've been working on it for the past year.

MALE VOLUNTEER:

You wanna get an apprentice boat-builder badge? You go through and hammer a couple of nails. You can start right over there.

WOMAN:

Oh, you betchya. I've worked on all sorts of different kinds of things.

KAY SLAUGHTER (Former mayor of Charlottesville)

We got this idea several years ago after Stephen Ambrose's book came out, a couple of us thought, Lewis and Clark, they are hometown boys here, and we should be celebrating their origins here in Charlottesville. So it really built from there and we decided that we wanted to commemorate the Lewis & Clark expedition as the trip west began here.

I think what's going to be so wonderful about having this center here is learning not only about the voyage of discovery and what Lewis and Clark did, but how that is an ongoing voyage.

CLARA BELLE WHEELER (owner of Buena Vista, Clark family homestead):

I think the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery should teach each of us that there really is no mountain too high, that we should work together in community.

SARA LEE BARNES (descendant of Nicholas Meriwether II):

I think as we become more urbanized and more paved over in this country, the stories are even more distant. The Lewis and Clark expedition captivates the imagination of a lot of people. If they become interested in history because of it, then that's a great legacy that survives.

KAT IMHOFF (C.O.O. Thomas Jefferson Foundation):

I have been fascinated why people are so passionate about Lewis & Clark. I think part of this energy comes from the fact that it's truly a heroic story. It has courage, it has exploration. It has a really interesting cast of characters. And one of those characters, we're proud to say, was President Jefferson, whose vision this was.

Virginia Standards

4th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » VS.6
5th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » USI.8