Boat House in St. Charles, MO

On Sunday, May 1, while returning from the St. Louis area, I stopped to see the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Nature Center in St. Charles, MO.  This was the first official site visit for my trip.  There are  full scale replicas of the boats  used by Lewis and Clark including the keelboat, red pirogue, white pirogue and dugout canoes.   The museum is located on the upper level and has highlights of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

I loved the artifacts in the museum.  There were a couple of journals of L & C, as well as one of their military uniforms and tools they used to map and navigate.

These are a couple of the actual journals of Lewis and Clark on display in the museum.

 Lewis and Clark took military uniforms to wear when meeting Native Americans so they would look more official when representing our government.  This is an example of the uniform worn.

The surveyor's chain in the picture is the type used by Lewis and Clark to measure distances.  Each chain is 66 feet long and it took 80 chains to equal a mile.  I had never seen one of these before and can't imagine how difficult it would have been to measure distances this way. 

This was a great first stop and a wonderful way to get us more excited for our trip!