Flight of Discovery – June 2, 2004: Confluences

This is the third installment on the Flight of Discovery, an aerial scientific expedition that retraced the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail from Indiana to the Pacific Ocean. It is summarized by Mike Harding, the Expedition Leader. A complete accounting of the2004-2006 expeditions is recounted in his upcoming book, “On Wings of Gold: Triumph and Tragedy of the Flight of Discovery”.

“Set out 7ock after a verry Hard rain and Thunder,” From the 1804 Journal of Sargeant Charles Floyd, Corps of Discovery.

This morning we launched at 9 a.m. from Henderson, Kentucky and headed down the Ohio River with Southern Illinois to our right. Fair skies and high clouds above us but there was extensive flooding below us from the recent storms. We recognized Fort Massac near Metropolis, Illinois, the home of Superman.

Fort Massac, Metropolis, Ill. Photo credit: Mike Harding, submitted.The airport that we had planned to land at was closed due to construction and the Cave-In-Rock area had been trashed by twisters on the previous days. We flew on to Cairo, Illinois over coal barges and dredges, noting where the clearer water from the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers – their sediment retained by the Barclay and Kentucky Lake dams - entered from the south to diffuse the turbid waters of the Ohio. At the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, there was a discernible difference in the color of the silt suspended in the waters of the separate rivers.

Confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Photo credit: Mike Harding, submitted. 

Our airplanes landed at Cairo Regional (CIR) for fuel, but the choppers flew on to Cape Girardeau for Jet A and lunch. We all eventually joined up around Festus, and from the air I pointed out the Tums manufacturing facility. The Caravan and Hughes took some low-level photos of a tent encampment on the east side of the Mississippi in Illinois.

Everyone got through the St. Louis Class B in different ways; some on ATC and others going VFR beneath or around it. George in the WACO and I straddled the Sanyo blimp near downtown St. Louis, and I caught a glimpse from 1500 feet of the Hughes and Bell helicopters taking pictures of each other framed by the Gateway Arch. I banked west at Wood River – where Lewis and Clark camped during the winter of 1803 - and took the left fork of the confluence. In an instant, I was above the Missouri River for the first time.

Leaving from Camp Dubois on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, Clark and his crew made only four miles their first day. We covered the distance in less than a minute. I can’t imagine the effort it took to cross the Mississippi from the Illinois side and proceed up the Missouri. I’ll bet when the men hit the Missouri’s current, they were thinking: “What the heck? We’re going to be doing this for the next two years?” Today the high flood waters obscured the rip-rap groins that normally can be seen directing the flow of the Missouri away from the north bank to deepen the channel for navigation. You wouldn’t be able to pole a keelboat up this river today.

River flood waters. Photo credit: Mike Harding, submitted. 

We winged past St. Charles and Spirit of St. Louis airports, almost level with Tavern Rock, where Lewis nearly slipped to his death at the very beginning of his expedition. Flying the middle of the river at 1,500 feet took us abreast of mansions nestled above the south bank of the river. We passed the smokestacks of the power plant at Labadie and flew over the top of downtown Washington, Missouri before turning north to land at the town’s airport.

We were welcomed by Rick Schwentker, Lee’s Physics teacher at Washington High School and Dorris Keevan-Franke of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission. Our hosts for the evening’s dinner were there - Phyllis Steckel and her husband Rich and children Nathan and Katie – who would join us on the expedition. I met a few people that I knew from when Lee and I used to live south of town. He and his sister Katie had graduated from Washington High School.

Dinner tonight at the Steckel’s was down-home, meat loaf, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, home-made rolls, etc. Before adjourning for the evening, I read passages from the original Journals appropriate to the time and place. It’s a routine I hope to continue as we proceed on; a sort-of historical pre-flight for the next day.

Most of the crew camped at the airport within the circle of our aircraft. Carol, not a camper, made arrangements for everyone else at the Schwegmann House on Front Street. Always a favorite with me, the place just exudes nostalgia, even to the point where the 15-minute interval of freight trains and their whistles lulls you to sleep (not!). And in spite of the photograph of the old lady in Mike Mann’s room in the garret - whose eyes he reported seemed to follow him everywhere - we all slept pretty soundly, in spite of the trains.