September 2019: Mark brought his knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Northwest for “Passage of Lewis & Clark”, a riverboat cruise on the Columbia and Snake rivers. In addition to serving as the official host for Indiana University alumni on the cruise, Mark delivered two lectures: "Building & Launching the Corps of Discovery" and "Into the Great Blank & Back Again."
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the Corps of Discovery, which set off on the Missouri River in May 1804 to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. The expedition, which lasted more than two years, dramatically increased knowledge of the land, people, flora, and fauna of what was to become a huge and important part of the United States. Cartographer William Clark drew numerous maps of the land covered in the expedition. Along the way, the men met the Shoshone teenager Sacagawea and other Native Americans, documented hundreds of animals and plants, and endured hardships ranging from an 18-mile portage to a grueling trek the Bitterroot Mountains.
Mark, who planned and led a student trip on the expedition in the bicentennial year of 2004, has traveled the Lewis and Clark trail, taught classes featuring Lewis and Clark, and given presentations on the Corps of Discovery. He was part of an Adventures in Ideas seminar at the University of North Carolina in 2004. In preparation for this cruise, he recently returned to the trail, where he hiked, took pictures, and visited several sites, including Fort Mandan in North Dakota, Decision Point in Montana, and Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in the Pacific Northwest.