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RE-ENACTORS BRAVE THE COLD:
CORPS OF DISCOVERY LEAVES CHESTER FOR KASKASKIA
Courtesy the Southern Illinoisan Sun Nov 30 2003
CHESTER -- The afternoon temperature was near freezing with blustery wind on the Chester riverfront. A tent with an oil drum stove seems almost cozy, as the Corps of Discovery's top sergeant adds to his journal.
"The original crew wouldn't have thrown up a big shelter like this," Tom Marshall says. "They would have stretched a rope between trees and made a lean-to, with tree branches."
Re-enactors of Lewis and Clark's journey eat some salt pork and hominy like their predecessors, but mixed with buckets of chicken, bacon burgers and steak dinners, readily supplied by local folks. Several of the re-enactors enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Chester home of fellow re-enactor Ted Mueller.
The original crew were in their early 20s. The re-enactors' average age is 49. Marshall says most of the guys here have already built a career and have enough money and time to devote to the trip.
Marshall is a sergeant major in the U.S. Army. The original trip was under the Army, which has allowed him to take the trip while on active duty, and coordinate much as he would back home at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
He portrays Sgt. John Ordway, and is making detailed diaries, as Ordway did. He already has filled one book. "Every one of us are journaling," he says. "We can't remember everything."
It takes 12 or so men to move the boats. The others are "ground crew" who pack up camp, give school talks, drive ahead and set up camp. The next day they switch roles.
A typical day has a few members coming in and others leaving. "We're as fluid as the river," Marshall says. "Our primary charter is educating kids. We've talked, face to face, to at least 52,000 kids since (starting down the Ohio River) Aug. 31. They first get excited seeing Seaman, the dog. Then it's a hands-on thing. One picture is worth a thousand words," in trying to give them a slice of 1803 life.
The boats
The crew used the square sail to propel the keel boat only with wind power, between Thebes and Cape Girardeau, averaging two miles per hour, against the current, with a strong southerly breeze.
The original crew many times had to paddle or pull the boats with ropes, or push with poles. The replicas are required to have motors and marine radios to stay clear of barge traffic.
James Rascher of St. Charles, Mo., is captain of the keelboat and one of its builders.
Rascher says the rivers are much narrower and deeper than they were in the time of Lewis and Clark, and the current is three times as fast.
He said they let the sail of the keelboat become a tent covering at night, which made reasonably comfortable quarters even through a rain storm at Cairo.
Not counting carbs
Rascher has been with the boat for the entire journey, and has lost 26 pounds "climbing steep banks." Each member of the original crew ate more than eight pounds of meat per day, which required four deer, two elk or a buffalo per day.
It is still not uncommon to see a deer ham roasting on the spit of the re-enactors.
Period dress, friendships
Ted Mueller of Chester has been with the St. Charles re-enactors for more than two years, but has been doing history re-enactments for 32 years. His wife, Dianne, has participated for 20 years.
Mueller started this trip at Fort Massac. He is a painting and decorating contractor, and hopes to stay with the crew until it reaches Ste. Genevieve, Mo. He and his wife are both volunteer guides at the Pierre Menard home, and regularly participate in other re-creation events.
He says they are very "into" 18th and 19th century dress. "Camping and dressing in the style of the period, and the friendships, are a big part of the enjoyment," Mueller says.
He describes being on the Mississippi. "It wasn't new to me, although it is for some. We've had nice, and terrible days in re-enacting.
"It is very cold and windy out on the river. It rained, with terrible winds. One night five of us were in a tent at Cairo, holding onto it to keep it from being blown away.
"We finished the night on wet blankets, but next day the sun came out and dried them," he says. "It reminds us just how rough the travel was. Just standing on the deck on a cold day leaves you freezing."
Everyone on the voyage has to portray an original member of the expedition. Mueller chose Ebenezer Tuttle, a private recruited at Fort Kaskaskia. Tuttle went to North Dakota, and helped bring the keelboat back to St. Louis.
Tower Rock
The re-enactors spent two nights this week at Devil's Backbone park at Grand Tower. They climbed Tower Rock and measured its height with a string, as the original party had done. Meriwether Lewis had noted in his journals that the river current whipping around the rock then back into the main stream, "would instandly dash [boats] to attoms and the whirlpool would as quickly take them to the botom."
The re-enactors currently have a keelboat and 40-foot pirogue, and will pick up another pirogue at Kaskaskia. They plan to leave the Chester riverfront at noon today for Kaskaskia.
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