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J.M.: There are certain "lightning rods" in the story that draw controversy...have drawn controversy, for a hundred years or more. Sacagawea, Sacajawea, Sakakawea. York -- what happened to him? Did Clark free him? And another perennial debate that comes up is: Model 1803 Harpers Ferry flintlock rifle. You know what's come up most recently...that Lewis didn't actually get a new-issue rifle. That what he got was some reconditioned contract rifles that were being stored at Harpers Ferry. What do you think about that?

S.A.: I pass...I pass. We don't even know what that air gun was like. We don't know if that air gun had a big ball underneath it. A metal ball and you pumped the air into that. Or if it was pumped into the stock of the weapon, and that's where the pressure was built up that could allow Lewis to shoot. We don't know.[Editor's note: See, on this Web site, "Air Gun," under "Technology" in the Discovery Paths.]

Lewis was told to sell everything that he had taken with him, at auction in St. Louis, when he got back. So all of the rifles were sold. The kettles that they brought back with them, the knives that they brought back with them--all of that was sold. The U. S. Government must have saved itself at least six hundred and twenty eight dollars through that sale. Can you imagine what those things would be worth today?

Now I don't know of...now maybe there is...but I don't know of a single rifle that can be authentically said to have gone on the Lewis and Clark expedition. We've got Clark's compass. That's in the Smithsonian. That's virtually the only artifact that we can point to and say: "This made it across the continent and back."

From Discovering Lewis & Clark®, © 2004 VIAs, Inc.