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SOCIETY
TRAVEL
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On the Trail of Lewis and Clar
A best-selling historian describes how his famil^^. discovered romance, adventure and each other' Ml*
as they retraced the explorers? steps
IN 1804, WHEN CAPTS. MERIWETHER
Lewis and William Clark set out across the continent, the West was uncharted territory. It took their party?30 men and one Shoshone teenager, Sacajawea, the mother of an infant boy?more than a year and a half to reach the Pacific. Since then, generations of Americans have retraced their path, including the family of historian Stephen E.
Ambrose, whose chronicle of the expedition, ?Undaunted Courage,? has been on the New York Times best-seller list for 24 weeks. Ambrose says he wrote the book hoping to inspire readers to explore for themselves. He has succeeded. Officials at state and national parks along the route say tourism is up as much as 15 percent over last year, and many visitors cite Ambrose?s work. Here he describes his own family?s journeys into the past.
In the fall of 1975,1 read the journals of Lewis and Clark?and was entranced from the first sentence. That Christmas, after dinner, my wife, Moira, and our five children (then aged 15 to 6) got to talking about where we wanted to spend our annual camping vacation. We had always had a historical theme; in the early 1970s it was Crazy Horse and Custer. But with the celebration of our country?s 200th birthday, the summer of 1976 would be unique, and we wanted to go somewhere Bicentennial man: In special. I suggested Lemhi 1976, Ambrose posed at Pass in Idaho, where Lewis	the source of the Missouri
original settlement is open to tounsti
became the first white man to cross the Continental Divide. Moira and the kids loved the idea.
We decided to leave from Wood River, 111., at 4 p.m. on May 14, the 172d anniversary to the minute of the departure of the expedition, and follow Lewis and Clark?s route to the Pacific.
Through the late spring we made our way up the Missouri River, staying at Lewis and Clark campsites along the way. We canoed the river at every stop. Each night around the fire, we would read aloud from the journals. Those were magical moments. The captains were gifted writers, with such vivid imagery, anecdotes and drama that their journals are literary treasures. Hearing their description of the country you have just hiked or canoed and sit-
Helena: At a site near his home,
Ambrose contemplates the past
ting where they were as they wrote inspires your effort to walk in their moccasins or canoe in their wake.
On lime 25,1976, we canoed through the Gates of the Mountains, the Missouri River canyon just north of Helena, Mont. Stephe-nie, then 16, had a brief conversation with
46 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 26, 1996