Campus Life

UWF public history students blaze an old trail – exploring the west Lewis and Clark style

Following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, 17 UWF students departed July 6 for a 4,745 mile journey across the western United States as part of a new Public History Travel Course - "Corps of Discovery 2: Exploring the West of Lewis and Clark." This new adventure created by renowned University of West Florida Public History Professor Patrick Moore will take students through 15 states and 22 cities.

Following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, 17 UWF students departed July 6 for a 4,745 mile journey across the western United States as part of a new Public History Travel Course – “Corps of Discovery 2: Exploring the West of Lewis and Clark.” This new adventure created by renowned University of West Florida Public History Professor Patrick Moore will take students through 15 states and 22 cities.

“The course provides an opportunity for parallel learning in which students will see first-hand what they have read about in history books and how things have changed in the continuum of American history,” said Moore. “This will be the trip of a lifetime.”

The adventure begins in St. Louis, Mo., where the original Lewis and Clark discovery took place. From there, the class will visit such places as the Lewis and Clark State Park in Iowa; the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, Iowa; Little Big Horn Battlefield in Sundance, Wyo. and Yellowstone National Park in Billings, Mont. They will also raft down the Salmon River as Lewis and Clark once did, more than 200 years ago. After visiting Lewis and Clark’s Fort Clatsop at the mouth of the Columbia River in Ore., the UWF journey will end in Seattle.

“This trip is a great way for students to see the U.S. and the complexity of American history, from colonies all the way to modern metropolises,” said Moore.

Throughout the month-long journey, students will record and share their experiences via journals, podcasts and Facebook. Taking the concept of trailblazing a step further, the class plans to record site specific coordinates by utilizing a new user interface GPS tagging application called “iShareHistory” which will be featured on the Corps of Discovery 2: Exploring the West of Lewis and Clark Facebook page. Fans will be able to log in and view the exact coordinates of each specific site traveled and read personal student accounts of those places.

“Not until recently have we had the means to share information with such accuracy while at the same time, incorporating authentic, human experiences,” said Moore. “By the end of the trip, there will be a robust repository of ‘iShareHistory’ pieces.”

Students from all majors were welcome to sign up for the course. In fact, UWF history graduate student Greg Stanley has been on every travel course that Moore has offered, including the Route 66 to the Atomic West and The Great Urban America Adventure trips.

“These trips have provided me with a unique opportunity to not just read about history in an academic setting, but to actually see and experience it myself,” said Stanley. “By actually traveling the large distance like Lewis and Clark, hopefully it will provide all of us a new perspective on how truly remarkable the original corps of discovery was.”

To learn more about the Public History Lewis and Clark Trail Travel Course, contact Moore at (850) 474-2680 or e-mail pmoore@uwf.edu. Become a fan of the Public History Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pensacola-FL/Corps-of-Discovery-2-Explorin g-the-West-of-Lewis-and-Clark/91039412513.

Written by Lauren Smith, University Marketing Communications