History, according to Webster, is “an account of what has or might have happened, especially in the form of a narrative, play, story or tale…what has happened in the life or development of a people, country, institution, …all recorded events of the past… the branch of knowledge that deals systematically with the past… a recording analyzing, correlating, and explaining of past events.”
As we navigate east today on the Columbia River, we start our day with a reflection of the beauty, the solace and the mystique nature has to offer with the rising of the sun. We are following a story of an expedition that took place across huge tracts of unmapped territory. The “story” or the history is written in many different books with just as many different perspectives. William Clark reflected on the natural beauty of the landscape before him. He recorded the visual splendor and the intoxicating fragrances that combined and brought about a peace of mind. This he wrote on our nation’s 28th birthday, 197 years ago.
“The plains of this country are covered with a Leek Green Grass…interspersed with crops of trees, spreading their lofty branches over springs or brooks of fine water. Groups of shrubs covered with the most delicious fruit is to be seen in every direction, and nature appears to have exerted herself to beautify the scenery by the variety of flowers delicately and highly flavored raised above the grass, which strikes and perfumes the sensation, and amuses the mind.”
July 4, 1804, near Doniphan, Kansas, William Clark
What a fine opportunity to be able to reflect and appreciate the splendor of the land around us.
