Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Tune in as Chairman Michael Farris shares moments from the journals of Lewis and Clark and you'll wish you could have been there! Today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Farris:


Lewis and Clark kept journals which provide marvelous insights into the discoveries, hardships, tragedies and triumphs they met along their incredible journey. Though the spelling and grammar may be flawed, the journals bring a clear snapshot of life on the trail.


Here are a few excerpts:


In an entry from May 25, 1805, Meriwether Lewis describes the first sighting of Bighorn sheep:


"I saw several gangs of the bighorned Anamals on the face of the steep bluffs and clifts ... these anamals bound from rock to rock and stand apparently in the most careless manner on the sides of precipices of many hundred feet. they are very shye and are quick of both sent and sight."


On August 21, 1805, William Clark describes the Shoshone Indians:


"Those Indians are mild in their disposition, appear Sincere in their friendship, punctial, and decided. kind with what they have, to spare. They are excessive pore,... The women are held more sacred among them than any nation we have seen and appear to have an equal Shere in all conversation, which is not the Case in any other nation I have seen. their boys & girls are also admited to speak except in Councels."


Though not model literature, these journals continue to communicate powerfully the wonder of first hand experience. Get a copy for your kids to read during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and make history come alive. I'm Mike Farris.