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This is the eighth 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'.

June 8, 2004: Meeting Sacagawea

Up before daylight to the sound of voices and a car alarm. It was election day in Mandan - the FBO was a polling area - and apparently, democracy never sleeps.

We showered next to voting booths (no electronic ballots here) and generally had a great time talking to the locals (no politics, though). We gave out buttons and medallions to the poll workers who I think were initially disconcerted by all the wine bottles and beer cans laying in the trash cans (there are around forty of us, so that’s a lot of recycling material), but I think we eventually won them over. We voted early and voted often.

I bought $190 worth of elk steaks for dinner this evening at Wolf Point, Montana. Put the meat in the Expedition and the aircraft then headed for New Town. Roger and I were the first to try a grass field take off at high density altitude. Not such a good idea on tall, wet grass but we eventually got airborne. Once we cleared the power lines, we radioed back for others not to do the same; everyone but the Caravan opted for the asphalt.

Overcast when we arrived at New Town and there appeared to be no one on hand to meet us as we had expected. That changed as soon as Roger and I landed when Amy Mossett showed up with her van and cell phone. Within minutes we had about fifty kids, their parents and other assorted visitors from town climbing through our aircraft and generally having a good time in spite of the rain and cold.

Cathy and Kevin McPhillips – the sponsors of the Trunk of Discovery for New Town – drove in from their circuitous vacation on the Northern Plains and joined Amy for a scenic flight with Chin in the Bell 206.

We were invited to the elementary school in town for lunch and an exchange of gifts. I’m sure the crew will write much more about this day when we expand our journals for publication but suffice it to say that wonderful people of the Hidatsa-Mandan-Arikara nations are just as hospitable today as they were two hundred years ago. It is also instructional to note that they were growing agricultural crops here 1,000 years before Lewis and Clark and will probably be doing so 1,000 years from now. Change is a relative thing.

I flew with Mike “the Caravan” Mann along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Missouri River - high enough for safety, but with cameras trained lower to catch the pelicans and sand bars beneath us. We joked that we could read the “Beechnut” on the fishermen’s hats; but that was really with our telephoto lenses.

We were met tonight at Wolf Point by Don Horsman and the kids from two elementary schools. We had time before dinner to take every one of those children up in an aircraft, too. The kids that had contributed the most effort on the Trunk of Discovery collections got to ride in the helicopters. Overall, collections and observations for the Wolf Point trunks were the best that we’ve seen so far.

After the elk steak dinner - prepared with a dash of Vermouth by Rob and Andrew – most folks opted to stay in town at the Heritage, and I gave the Ford Expedition a bath and called Carol.