Well, I had a tough time coming up with a title for this post, but hopefully it caught your attention…
So I’m back in wintery Saskatchewan now and getting back into the regular grind. I mentioned in my previous post that on our recent road trip to Mesa, AZ (think Chevy Chase Vacation, complete with the ‘Grand Canyon nod’), I saw many sites that really made me think about, and marvel at the natural features like the Grand Canyon and man-made features such as the dam system on the Colorado River.
During our travels we stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam and the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take in the ‘dam tour’, but we spent an hour or so viewing the dam and taking in the exhibits and the short video presentations describing all aspects of the dams purpose, history, and construction. While the dam itself is an impressive structure, I think what impressed me more was the Glen Canyon Dam bridge. How this was constructed into the side of a sheer cliff is simply amazing.
All of the controversies (environmental, floods of 83 and 84, etc.) aside, two things struck me during this part of the trip and made me stop and think, wow…
- First, was the engineering and construction aspect of building the bridge and what a feat that must have been to fasten the bridge to a sheer cliff.
- And the second thing I got thinking about was:
- How did they determine what areas and extents were going to be flooded when these dams were created?
In other words, what did their analyses processes look like back then? How accurate were the end results to what was calculated/estimated? With the advancements in 3D scanning technologies, and the software capabilities of today, it’s easy to see how this analysis could be performed with today's tools, and probably in a fraction of the time it might have originally taken.
This really intrigued me, and is something I’ve put on my list of things to read up on, and learn more about.
The other piece of Americana history we took in was an afternoon spent at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls, MT. Now, I’m going to admit a bit of my naivety on a couple subjects here… While I had been through Great Falls, MT a couple times before, I had not really given much thought to the name or why it was named ‘Great Falls’. Well duh… Needless to say I was quite impressed to learn that the Missouri River drops over 500ft through a series of rapids and 5 breathtaking falls. The other subject I have to admit that I was not very familiar with was the travels of Lewis and Clark. And to be perfectly honest, before Ben Stiller’s 2006 movie A Night At The Museum, I hadn’t even heard of Sacagawea... However, it was around this same timeframe where I started to hear about the upcoming Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clarks expedition and had done enough research to know enough to stop when I saw this Interpretative Center listed on the map.
Back to the travels… 
The interpretive center was fantastic! It was a real learning experience for my wife and myself, and especially for our kids. The center offers a Junior Explorer program for kids, which is an incredible way to get kids (and their parents) to actually learn much more from these museums as opposed to just walking through and viewing the exhibits. The kids are provided with age appropriate activity sheets, where they need to find answers and draw pictures and take a more active role as they are going through the center. At the end, the kids get a Junior Explorer badge for completing (or trying to complete
). My 9yr old daughter was adamant that she was going to find EVERYTHING she needed to complete every last question. My 7yr old son on the other hand wasn’t quite as receptive… He thought this seemed a lot like ‘school work’ and couldn’t understand why he had to do school work on a vacation!! 
I had to laugh when he made that comment, and who can blame him… to a 7yr old, it did look like a lot of ‘work’. But, we made it fun and ended up finding many of the answers, and in the end, he did get his badge so he was very happy.
From my perspective, as someone who is extremely intrigued by all things ‘maps’ and cartographic, it was very interesting to learn about the mapping that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did during their expedition. From the research I’ve done, it seems that Clark was the primary map maker, but they are both truly responsible for mapping the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains. It’s hard to believe now, but before Lewis and Clarks expedition, it was believed that the Rocky Mountains were a simple line of mountains that could be crossed in a single day! Clark is truly responsible for starting to fill-in the blanks of Western America, and especially for starting to map the Rocky Mountains.
I haven’t even scratched the surface on the accomplishments of the Lewis & Clark Expeditions, but needless to say, I now have another topic of research to add to my list.
Boy, I’ve got some reading to catch up on…
Until next time,
Take care.
Warren M
