The American Serengeti

I usually try and keep things close to home…but today I am going to venture off course and take you for an adventure that I hope you might possibly turn into reality in the future. Well to our west in one of my favorite states, Montana, there is a project of epic proportions. This undertaking is in part being funded by private donations as well as our own US Game and Fish; The American Prairie Reserve is located in east-central Montana between the cities of Lewistown and Malta.

It probably won’t take a lot of thinking for you to get the origin of Lewistown…that would be Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark adventure from some 200 years ago. The Corps of Discovery was commissioned by our third President, Thomas Jefferson, who named its leaders…the fore mentioned Lewis and his able bodied sidekick, William Clark. Lewis and Clark along with 31 other able bodied men (and one dog) left St. Charles, Missouri on May 21^st in an effort to find a viable water route to the Pacific Ocean.

When the Corps entered what is now the present day state of Montana they noticed an amazing increase in the wildlife; it was abundant and if you read the journals of Lewis you will find that at one point the group was sidetracked for more than two days as they waited for a massive herd of bison to cross a low point in the Missouri River. Besides buffalo, the group would be astounded by contacts with prairie dogs, antelope, mountain lion, bobcat, eagles, sage grouse, etc….oh, and grizzly bears.

“In the evening we saw a Brown or Grisley beare on a sand beech, I went out with one man Geo Drewyer & Killed the bear, which was verry large and a terrible looking animal, which we found verry hard to kill we Shot ten Balls into him before we killed him, & 5 of those Balls through his lights This animal is the largest of the carnivorous kind I ever saw we had nothing that could way him, I think his weight may be stated at 500 pounds (227 kilograms)…we had him skined and divided, the oile tried up & put in Kegs for use.” William Clark-Sunday, May 5, 1805

For many of you reading this small snippet may be as close as you ever get to a Lewis/Clark ‘moment’…maybe it doesn’t even appeal to you. I have to say that if given a chance to go back in time…to any time and place, I would jump in, join up with and love every moment of the awesomeness of this great expedition!

The sad truth is that as of yet a time machine hasn’t been invented; so the next best thing is a possibility…The American Prairie Reserve. When it is all finished there are high hopes to have restored about 3 ½ million acres of Montana prairie back to its “pre-Lewis/Clark” condition that will be totally devoted to wildlife, it will protect a unique natural habitat and bring back numbers of animals to a level that hasn’t been seen for more than two centuries.

To say the least I’m excited as Vickie and I will be leaving Indiana in about a month, heading our camper west for a variety of sights from Mount Rushmore to Glacier National Park to countless other western signatures; the least of which will be the American Prairie Reserve which we will stop and visit somewhere between the Black Hills of South Dakota and Glacier. The idea that somewhere in the future…the not-to-distant-future…the sights that Lewis and Clark came across in 1805, might once again be restored…is hard for me to fathom!

Maybe you too are interested in getting in on the ground level of a project that is going to make a huge difference in our country…heck, our world; go to www.americanprairie.org and visit their website as you will find it to be very informative and enlightening. Please take the time to visit the website, go to the bottom of the main page and watch the new National Geographic movie, it will highlight the many animals that you can see while on the property.

Look for an upcoming column (mid-July) on our trip and time spent in east-central Montana, at the American Prairie Reserve, as we visit an amazing place…as we both Enjoy the Great Outdoors.