WEEK 3: ACROSS AMERICA 2019

WEEK 3 RUN-WALK-BIKE ACROSS AMERICA 2019 STARTS tomorrow
Segment 5: From Walla Walla WA to Lewiston ID
Segment 6: From Lewiston ID to Kooskia ID
 
This week you will be making your way through the easternmost part of Washington State, with its vast wheat fields (an area encompassing parts of Washington Idaho and Oregon called the Palouse; see Seven Wonder link), into Lewiston, Idaho then across the north central portion of the state to Kooskia.
 
After initially reading a Wikipedia entry and curious about this seemingly inland state’s port city, I learned that although Lewiston is a distant 465 miles away from the Pacific Ocean it is the ”farthest inland port on the West Coast” and Idaho's only seaport. Situated at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers,” Lewiston is the last port on the “nation's second-largest water transportation highway”, a system formed from a series of dams and locks on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. According to a page on the u-s-history.com site, 40% of white wheat exported from the United States “travels through the Port of Portland on the Oregon coast of the Pacific Ocean, and “much of it passes through the Port of Lewiston”.   

​On the opposite bank of the Snake River to the east of Lewiston (named in honor of Meriwether Lewis), is the city of Clarkston (after William Clark) in Washington State. Many place names in the region are a reminder of its historical exploration by the famed 1803-1805 Lewis and Clark expeditions.
 
In Idaho, the route follows Route 12 across the state.  Once known as the Lewis and Clark Highway, it’s now the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway. This is the land of the Nez Perce Tribe of Native Americans.  In the process of being named by French Canadian fur traders (the name nez perce means “pierced nose”), tribe members, who do NOT have nose piercings, were mistaken for the nearby Chinook people.
 
The small city of Kooskia, lies at the confluence of two river forks which converge to form the larger Clearwater River and is within the Nez Perce Reservation.  In 1943, a work camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps, located about 30 miles from the city, was converted to an internment camp for Japanese men who had been residents but not citizens of the US.  It’s extremely remote location in the western Bitterroot Mountains made fences and guard towers unnecessary.
 
It’s amazing what can be learned by researching, only very briefly, the land through which the route is mapped. The history of the area sometimes seems simple and inspiring but at other times complicated, disturbing, and sad. More than ever I would like to actually travel through and see it in person. 

RUN & MOVE HAPPY!
 
http://www.sevenwondersofwashingtonstate.com/the-palouse.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palouse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewiston,_Idaho

https://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whats-whole-grain-refined-grain/whole-white-wheat-faq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Clark
 
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2812.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce_people#Nez_Perce_Indian_Reservation
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/journey_intro.html
http://archive.secondstory.com/project/lewis-and-clark-journey-log
 
LEARNING NOTE: NationalGeographic.com once offered an online interactive Lewis and Clark Journey Log with maps and journal entries, as well as a summarizing Timeline, and images of plant and animal species discovered, native peoples encountered, and physical land features seen along the way. The posted unit on NG Kids no longer seems to be interactive, but the Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition on the lewisandclarkexhibit.org website may now be the host of this learning unit.  Scholastic.com has a unit for grades 3-5, 6-8 but the links are poorly responsive and the content can’t be easily accessed.
 
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/lewis-and-clark/
 
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activities/teaching-content/lewis-and-clark-student-activity/
 
http://www.lewisandclarkexhibit.org/cd_index_flash.html