NEBRASKA CITY- With a ribbon chopping Friday, the Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Center at Nebraska City celebrated substantial completion of the five-cabin Camp River Dubois fort replica.

Center director and labor volunteer Doug Friedli said he welcomed the idea to a build a fort with keelboat builder Butch Boviier.

Friedli: “We decided to pick the first fort that Lewis and Clark built. This is a replica of what they built in 1803, 1804 across the river from St. Louis – Camp River Dubois at Wood River, Ill., which at the time was the western border of the United States.”

 

An observance was held at the fort upon its completion for the Louisiana Purchase, where 530 million acres of territory was added to the United States.

Friedli: “At that moment, the land beyond the Missouri River and the Mississippi became the United States.”

Friedli: “So Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to be in this part of the world as representatives of the United States.”

 

 

The fort is becoming a popular site for  living history demonstrations over the AppleJack weekend with hundreds of students coming on bus tours. There were demonstrations from rope making to hides, trapping and blacksmithing. Bovier also sounded off the canon.

Friedli said volunteer builders help construct the cabins and palisade about a year ahead of schedule.