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Lewis and Clark make history at Fort Defiance

By: The Southern

Monday, November 14, 2005 12:41 AM CST

Dedication ceremonies for the Lewis and Clark Memorial Sculpture in Cairo are set for 10 a.m. Wednesday in Fort Defiance State Park.

The sculpture is set at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, though the current confluence is actually about two miles south of its 1803 location. Project leaders agreed that placing the sculpture at the current confluence is most appropriate as it matches the scene described in William Clark's first map of the entire expedition.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Chancellor Walter V. Wendler, Cairo Mayor Paul Farris, Alexander County Commissioner Angela Greenwell and SIUC professor Robert H. Swenson will speak at a reception immediately after the dedication at the Cairo Custom House Museum, site of a Lewis and Clark exhibit.

"The grant that funds this project was made possible largely because of the efforts of Illinois Senator Dick Durbin," Wendler said. "SIU President James E. Walker has also recognized the historic importance of this project and has been very supportive of our efforts here since the project's inception."

The sculpture and Custom House exhibit - along with an exhibit at the Cairo (Safford Memorial) Public Library and a traveling exhibit - are among the results of a "Lewis & Clark at the Confluence" research project funded with a Library of Congress grant.

Swenson, an associate professor of architecture at SIUC, and Koch, now emeritus director of Morris Library's Special Collections Research Center, realized their common interests in the Lewis and Clark adventure during the 2003 bicentennial of the explorers' Voyage of Discovery.

Swenson and Koch noted that relatively little research existed on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's days on the Ohio River in Illinois. Many of the men who enlisted in the journey were from Illinois, and the group spent five days in mid-November 1803 at the confluence, gathering data and beginning the process of mapping the river route to the Pacific Ocean.

At that time, the confluence was the farthest location in the west that had been accurately mapped and for which longitude and latitude were known.

"Because the geographic location near present-day Cairo was such an important landmark, and because Lewis and Clark had just joined together several weeks earlier, the confluence became the place where they trained each other in their respective skills - Lewis with celestial navigation and Clark with land surveying," Swenson said.

In addition, international politics at the beginning of the 19th century centered on the area, as the new states, England, France and Spain competed for land, resources, trade and military advantage.

Key goals of the project included: Finding as much original material as possible to document the activities of Lewis and Clark and their group around the confluence of the rivers; determine the exact location of the confluence in 1803 and mark it; and document and preserve materials so other researchers and travelers to the area could learn more about the Voyage of Discovery.

Evertt A. Beidler, a graduate student in SIUC's School of Art and Design, created and fabricated the sculpture.

One of the most exciting discoveries of the project was the location of Cantonment Wilkinson-Ville, the largest military post in the new United States. The camp housed nearly half of the U.S. Army during 1801-1802. A Pulaski County resident allowed a portion of his land, which overlooks the Ohio River, to remain unplanted so staff archaeologist Mark J. Wagner and other staff members from SIUC's Center for Archaeological Investigations, could examine the site during 2003 and 2004.

In the abstract of his report on the project, Wagner wrote: "The cantonment, which contained over 1,300 soldiers at its peak, represented a staging ground for an invasion of the lower Mississippi River in the event of war with France and Spain. The war never occurred, with the cantonment being abandoned by the Army by late 1802."

The archaeological team found remains of the camp, as well as uniform parts, military items, glass and ceramic kitchen items.

- SIUC Media and Communications Resources provided information for this report