Across thousands of miles, Indian tribes, environmental activists,
tourism promoters, and keelboat re-enactors saw the Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial as a rare opportunity. The 200th anniversary of the
expedition that helped open the West arrived at a time of seismic change
in the region- a time when its economy, politics, and even population
were shifting sharply. For three years, journalist and historian David
Sarasohn followed the planning of the Bicentennial, recording how the
past was being invoked to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Expedition and
talking to those whose ideas were shaping national and regional events.
Like the expedition itself, Waiting for Lewis and Clark ranges from
Monticello and Washington, D.C., down the length of the Missouri, and
over the Rockies to the Pacific, depicting three Wests: the past, the
present, and the dreams of Westerners.