From 1804 to 1806, Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lt. William Clark traveled nearly 8,000 miles across the American West in their historic expedition. Lewis, Clark and their entourage traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back in a keelboat and two dugout boats, exploring, mapping, and recording the region acquired by the United States during the Louisiana Purchase as well as the Pacific Northwest.
Earlier this summer, scouts from local Scouting America Troop 16, which is based in Oak Park, retraced a section of the original path that Lewis and Clark traveled through Montana. Seventeen scouts, four adults and 10 canoes traveled 150 miles down the Missouri River over the course of a week.
The troop’s former Scoutmaster, Terry Dutton, lives in Montana, which led the troop to consider the state as a destination. “The trip evolved into, ‘What if we retraced some of the steps of the Lewis and Clark expedition,’” said Scoutmaster Andrew Lennie.
The group took the train to Havre, Montana on June 21 and made their way to Fort Benton where they began their trip during the middle of the Solstice Storm. This year brought record-breaking low temperatures and precipitation, so the first day of the trip was “extremely challenging,” said Lennie.
“We believe in the idea of friction,” said Lennie. “And by that we just mean something that’s challenging. Not impossible, and not necessarily overly dangerous, but definitely something that needs to be overcome…If you can paddle 25 or 30 miles in a day, and set up camp, and cook, and do all these things – you can do whatever a future working life will throw at you.”
They traveled in two groups split up by ages: one for scouts aged 15-16 and one for 17-18. Every day after canoeing the scouts set up camp at a different site. They also explored the region with hikes; one morning the scouts woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked for an hour to watch the sun rise across the river valley.
“I don’t think there were any bad moments on that trip,” said Noah Lennie, 16 (Noah Lennie is Andrew Lennie’s son). “We were canoeing probably from 7 a.m. to the afternoon.” Other highlights included playing cards and hiking in the mountains.
“Sometimes you just stop off the river and make your own hike without any trails,” he said. “Being with all my friends and the sunsets were really good too.”
The trip was considered “high adventure,” so only prepared Scouts were allowed to join. “Our troop does trips like this annually, but to participate, a Scout needs to have experience, demonstrate maturity and contribute meaningfully to the Scouting program,” said Assistant Scoutmaster Doug Zobel. “They get to this point over the years by first learning skills from older Scouts and then later teaching those skills to the newest troop members.”
Scouts were given planning and navigation responsibilities. Adults were present to ensure the health and safety of scouts and to help with logistics. Noah Lennie, who was in the younger group, said that he had many opportunities to lead in the first canoe.
“We would switch off who had the map in our canoe so if you were sitting in the middle you’d have the map… It was pretty easy to navigate and it was fun. You felt in charge.” He said that the experience made him feel more independent.
They ended the trip with a visit to former Scoutmaster Dutton in Great Falls, Montana, where they toured a hydroelectric dam, visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, and saw the Lewis and Clark caverns. They flew home on July 2.
“If you look at the Lewis and Clark expedition, they operated as a patrol, and there was very much an egalitarian viewpoint behind it,” said Scoutmaster Lennie. Lewis and Clark are “great role models to look to for the boys,” he said. Ultimately, the choice to learn about the history of Lewis and Clark tied directly back to the Scouting America mission of producing “better young men to become better men.”
