Travel planning and history are combined in this informative atlas designed specifically for those who want to follow the route of Lewis and Clark by car. Covering more than 800 destinations in 23 states, from the White House to the Pacific Ocean and from the Canadian border to New Orleans, this guide offers a choice of routes for each featured drive, from interstate highways to scenic byways, that follow the actual historic trail. Each group of attractions has descriptive information on one large-format page, with driving directions and full-color maps on the facing page. A list of 573 expedition campsites is arranged by state and county, and each entry is cross-referenced to the journals of Lewis and Clark. All attractions have hours, prices, phone numbers, and websites listed.
Kira Gale is an independent historian who believes in "history connected to place." She thinks that most people want to get oriented as to what happened here at an earlier time--what was it like? She has also discovered that the more you know, the more interesting something becomes. We all have different interests and are curious about different things. She worked for six years writing Lewis and Clark Road Trips, learning about our country's history.
In looking for a new project, she contacted Professor James E. Starrs about publishing the transcript of the Coroner's Inquest into the death of Meriwether Lewis that he organized in 1996. He asked her to become a co-author. She decided it would be useful to gather primary documents relating to Lewis's death and publish them. Then she added her own narrative of 85 pages speculating as to who organized a conspiracy to murder Lewis, and why they did it. The investigation in to his death is ongoing and more evidence is turning up. Kira appeared on C-Span Book TV discussing The Death of Meriwether Lewis at the Southern Book Festival in Nashville, Tennessee on the 200th anniversary of Lewis's death in 2009. She also appeared in an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded series on the History Channel in 2010. The episode is called "Presidential Codes," which refers to Lewis writing a coded list of army officers identifying whom President Jefferson could trust. It appears almost certain that army officers participated in the conspiracy to end his life. Their motive was to prevent Lewis from interfering with valuable lead mine leases in the district south of St. Louis, as lead was necessary to make bullets; and to prevent him from disclosing their plans to invade Mexico and take control of the silver mines, the world's source of hard currency.
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