Lewis and Clark Are Met With a Yawn
Paging Sacagawea: Lewis and Clark have lost their way again.
When President Bush issued a proclamation in 2002 creating a Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration, tourism officials from Virginia to Oregon pounced on it as a potential blockbuster. But as the three-year celebration enters its homestretch, participating communities are still waiting for the Lewis and Clark gravy train to leave the station.
"It's the great Lewis and Clark letdown," says Dave Hunt, a wholesaler of bicentennial knickknacks, including commemorative spoons and refrigerator magnets, in Lewiston, Idaho. In June, the town held a festival to mark the time in 1806 when the pair dropped in on a local Nez Perce Indian tribe. But the festivities -- a quilt and animal hides show, a craft fair and a re-enactment -- drew only a trickle of visitors.
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When President Bush issued a proclamation in 2002 creating a Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration, tourism officials from Virginia to Oregon pounced on it as a potential blockbuster. But as the three-year celebration enters its homestretch, participating communities are still waiting for the Lewis and Clark gravy train to leave the station.
"It's the great Lewis and Clark letdown," says Dave Hunt, a wholesaler of bicentennial knickknacks, including commemorative spoons and refrigerator magnets, in Lewiston, Idaho. In June, the town held a festival to mark the time in 1806 when the pair dropped in on a local Nez Perce Indian tribe. But the festivities -- a quilt and animal hides show, a craft fair and a re-enactment -- drew only a trickle of visitors.
Washington state expected as many as 10 million people to attend a number of events there, including boat tours of the expeditionary group's route along the Columbia River. Fewer than a million showed up. St. Charles, Mo., where the explorers began their epic journey, was similarly disappointed. The town anticipated as many as 500,000 visitors for its 10-day festival but ended up with about one-tenth that number.