Help others explore Lewis & Clark’s trail

The National Park Service wants your help identifying the most respected and recommended places along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Bring your ideas to the Tri-City meeting 2-5 p.m. Thursday at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 7048 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. If you can’t attend, make nominations at LewisandClark.Travel online.

Information will be used to create an interactive tourism website covering areas along the route of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition of 1804 to 1806.

Nominations may range from wildlife viewing areas to local festivals.

The website will highlight historic sites, artisan studios, public lands, native American lands, non-chain accommodations and restaurants, small or regionally focused businesses, family-friendly amenities, visitor centers, museums and other attractions that give the area along the trail a distinctive character.

Website users will be able to create accounts to organize and save trip plans. The website, which will be developed through an agreement with tourism consulting firm Solivar International, also will have a local-voices section, with stories, quotes and essays by residents along the trail about their home region.

The project is planned to help visitors better experience the national historical trail and support small businesses, with the website launching in fall 2018.

Solivar will work with tribes to leverage tourism in a way compatible with their goals and sentiments, according to information from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery came down the Snake River to the confluence of the Columbia River near the Tri-Cities.

“We arrived at the great Columbia River, which comes in from the northwest,” wrote Sgt. Patrick Gass, of the expedition, writing in 1805 at the site where Sacajawea State Park is now.

“We found here a number of natives, of whose nations we have not yet found out the names. We encamped on the point between the two rivers. The country all round is level, rich and beautiful, but without timber,” he wrote.

The expedition then traveled down the Columbia en route to the Pacific Ocean.

On the return trip in 1806, they took a shortcut from Wallula to almost Clarkston, walking along the same paths that American Indians had used for centuries to travel from the Rocky Mountains to the ocean.

Part of their journey was along the Touchet River, including past what’s now the Lewis and Clark Trail State Park near Dayton.

Public meetings are planned from Missioula, Mont., to The Dalles, Ore., over two weeks.

In addition to the Kennewick meeting, a meeting will be held 9 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Roosters Restaurant in Pendleton and 8:30 to 10 a.m. Friday at the Tamástslikt cultural Institute near Pendleton.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Help others explore Lewis & Clark’s trail."