Lewis and Clark Trail Updates 2024

About this article: This article was originally published in the Lewis & Clark Trail Annual Report 2024.

Mammalian Society meeting

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail hosted the annual meeting of the Central Plains Society of Mammalogists on October 14, 2024. Academics disseminated their mammal-focused research to their fellow peers.

Presentations and posters comprised research on small organisms like mice, voles, and bats, and on larger mammals including elk, pronghorn, and black bear. The NPS Midwest Regional Director, Bert Frost, attended the meeting and shared about mammal-centered projects within the region.

American Solar Challenge

The Trail participated in the American Solar Challenge in July following collegiate solar car teams from the U.S. and Canada on a two-week rally beginning in Nashville, TN, and ending in Casper, WY.

The bi-annual event in years past had chosen one historic trail to follow, however this year’s theme was “See America By National Historic Trail.” Other trails included Trail of Tears, Santa Fe, Pony Express, Mormon Pioneer, California, and Oregon Trails as well as historic Route 66. It was a great experience seeing how we interpret and educate people on our historic trails system.

Pivotal Places

We are excited to announce a new web article series called Pivotal Places. Each article describes a location to visit that was consequential to historical events as described in the Lewis and Clark journals and through tribal histories. Search Pivotal Places by region, state, or theme and enjoy this new way to explore the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail online.

Learn more about Pivotal Places: go.nps.gov/pivotalplaces

Seeking Sacagawea

Working with a contractor, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail’s Sacagawea project will work to gather, assess, and synthesize current relevant scholarship and oral histories related to the life of Sacagawea. Equal weight will be given to oral histories as western historical documents, including new scholarship recently published by the MHA Nation.

The NPS acknowledges that there are many competing views related to her life and these issues will be treated with sensitivity. The goal of this project is to help the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and partners to interpret a more complete story of Sacagawea’s life.

Earth to Sky

In November 2024, Ashley Danielson served as a coach for the NASA Earth to Sky workshop that was held at Goddard’s Spaceflight Center in Maryland.

As a coach, Ashley helped her team from the Adirondacks work through the Earth to Sky methodology and plan their own climate change communications workshop.

Ashley has been part of the Earth to Sky community of practice since 2009.

Learn more about Earth to Sky: earthtosky.org

Visual Resources Inventory Fieldwork

An interdisciplinary team of Lewis and Clark Trail employees (From left: Ryan Cooper, Karla Sigala, Nathaniel Hess, Ashley Danielson, and Mitchell Meyer) visited Fontenelle Forest along the Missouri River to test out their new skills in Visual Resources Inventory.

The 1916 National Park Service Organic Act specifies scenery as one of our most significant values to protect thus a national Visual Resources Inventory was developed to improve understanding of scenery and how it is being impacted today.