National Launch of the Expedition's Bicentennial

“Dear Sir:
...last night also we received the treaty from Paris ceding Louisiana according to the bounds to which France had a right. price 11 and one quarter millions of Dollars, besides paying certain debts of France to our citizens which will be from 1, to 4, millions.”
-- Letter to Captain Meriweather Lewis from President Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1803

It was President Thomas Jefferson who, in 1803, sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition to explore the mountains, plains and rivers of the Louisiana Territory between America's east and west coasts. It's fitting, then, that the national launch of the expedition’s bicentennial took place at Jefferson's home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va.

The launch included an opening night reception hosted by the Sierra Club at Newcomb Hall Main Lounge on the University of Virginia campus in Arlington, with pre-taped remarks from U.S. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

"The story of Lewis and Clark as pioneering naturalists exploring America's wilderness is an important part of our national heritage," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "Their scientific descriptions and meticulous journals described 178 trees and plants and 122 animals -- all new to Western science, and their reports of boundless grasslands, awe-inspiring mountains, and mighty rivers fired a young nation's imagination.

"There can be no better way to honor the expedition, or the explorer in each of us, than to protect and restore the wild America of Lewis and Clark."

Celebrated nature writer Rick Bass, who lives in the wild Yaak Valley in northwest Montana, spoke to an audience of 400 people about his local efforts to protect the grizzly bear and other wildlife encountered by Lewis and Clark. He noted that in a region that once supported 100,000 grizzly bears, there are now fewer than 1,000 left.

"We're the only ones that can keep them in this world. It's like the story of Noah's ark. We're getting a second chance," said Bass.