Posts Tagged With: Lewis and Clark expedition

What a crappy day! High 20s, but winds gusting over 40 mph. The interstate had semis and cars in the ditch. Not much snow but blustery and cold. It made us drop the state park hike we had planned and to skip the nutcracker exhibit at the Rock County Minnesota Museum in order to make it on a timely basis to Sioux City Iowa. In this corner of the world North Sioux City South Dakota and Sioux City Iowa and South Sioux City Nebraska come together in good old Siouxland at the confluence of the Big Sioux River and the Missouri River.

We have chosen to take this route towards an eventual arrival in Flagstaff Arizona for Thanksgiving. We have not done a lot of exploring along the Missouri River. Over the next two days, we will visit portions of the Missouri River, the Lewis and Clark Trail following the explorers trip through the Louisiana purchase area to the Pacific coast in 1804 through 1806, and the Loess Hills of Iowa.

Our stop today was at the Louis and Clark Interpretive Center and the Betty Strong Encounter Center in Sioux City Iowa. This is a combined complex along the Missouri River. It was not crowded today when we arrive at 3 PM. Understatement. Maybe no one else wanted to go out in this kind of weather. However, the complex was very well done and we enjoyed our time there.

One portion of the complex has murals, animatronics, and written displays about the Lewis and Clark expedition. It clearly explains the critical and positive dependence the explorers had from the Native Americans along the route out to the Pacific and back again. Without that assistance, the expedition would never have been successful. In exchange, Lewis and Clark tried to sow good relations with the Native American tribes. Of course, we all know that while their efforts may have been positive, disease and westward expansion soon killed most of the Native Americans and put the rest on reservations in undesirable locations.

There was a section of the complex devoted to Sergeant Floyd. Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only member of the Lewis and Clark expedition that died during it. Researchers today believe he may have died of appendicitis. The Floyd river is named after him and there are several monuments in the area, one of which we will visit tomorrow.

Two small tidbits. The expedition was delighted and amazed by prairie dog colonies. They had a difficult time trying to capture one but eventually did and ended up sending it to Washington as one of their amazing finds of the expedition. Second, I had not realized they had a big black Newfoundland dog named Seaman accompanying them on the vast majority of the trip.He may have saved their lives by several times barking and warning them of attacks by bison and grizzly bears.

Another section of the museum talks about the history of Sioux City with familiar topics nicely done. Flooding by the Missouri River, the Big Sioux River, and the Floyd River have had a major impact on this region. The work of the Corps of Engineers on the Missouri River has not always been beneficial to protecting the area from floods. That is understandable, but sad. The Corps has to balance conflicting major mission objectives of hydroelectricity, recreation, irrigation, drinking water, river navigation, water quality control and fish and wildlife all while dealing with whatever weather problems that develop.

Along the Missouri, as along the Mississippi, the same issues of trying to maintain a navigable channel for barge traffic to provide an alternative and competing counter to railroad dominance, has resulted in the loss of habitat and greater erosion.

Sioux City Iowa attracted many immigrants to the area due to the meatpacking facilities that developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Labor strife between the workers and the companies erupted several times. The companies normally won. Meat packing is still a major employment driver in the area.

The Betty Strong center had an art gallery, a display of the US Navy ship the Sioux City, and photographs of young Native Americans with their career goals highlighted.

Dinner was in our room at the Hampton Inn where we ate the lunch we had packed.

Ed and Chris, Sioux City Iowa, November 12, 2021