Imprint the journey

A flood of books, CDs, tapes and guides on Lewis and Clark and their famous team, the Corps of Discovery, is readily available in bookstores, interpretive centers and historic sites along the Lewis and Clark Trail. As we near the 200th anniversary of the trip that helped open the West, there's more to come. Here are two books we found essential.

Lewis & Clark: Pioneering Naturalists
by Paul Russell Cutright
University of Nebraska Press, $16.95

Though dated, this 1969 book remains a comprehensive account of the scientific contributions of Lewis and Clark. The author mixes quotes from the diaries with enough historical context to feel the journey's excitement, and its drudgery. Each chapter is devoted to a leg of the journey, chronicling discoveries and summarizing encounters with Indian tribes. Best of all are two appendices that log animals and plants the explorers encountered that were new to science, along with Latin names, common names, pertinent quotes from the diaries and where specimens were found. A third appendix summarizes where journals, maps and other records are today.

Herbarium of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Vol. 12)
Edited by Gary E. Moulton
University of Nebraska Press, $75

Since 1979, University of Nebraska history professor Gary E. Moulton has been compiling the most authoritative annotated version yet of the Lewis and Clark journals. The first 11 volumes contain an atlas and journal text of Lewis, Clark and other expedition members. Volume 12, released in 1999, includes full-page black-and-white photographs of the Lewis and Clark herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, plus a summary of Lewis and Clark's botanical exploration and research on the collection.

Still to come is an index to the collection due out later this year and a one-volume abridged version expected in 2002.

THE LEGACY GROWS reproduced courtesy of the Oregonian.
These stories originally ran May 24, 2001
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