Attending a magic show by my friend Joshua Jay in Pittsburgh got me pondering the “magic” of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Animatronic depiction of York at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, Iowa
Clay reflects on the historical dynamics of the “Ten Young Men” who made up the original core of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery.
LTA truck and Airstream at Poplar Forest
Clay begins his 2025 Lewis and Clark transcontinental journey in the land of Thomas Jefferson, the patron saint of the famous 1804-1806 expedition.
airstream

Leaving Home

Spring is here. It’s time to pack the bags, load the truck, and get on the trail of Lewis and Clark.
Protesters in Belle Fourche S.D., April 19, 2025.
This will sound like a parable, and it may be. But I’m going to describe it exactly as it happened.
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Oxford English Dictionary

A Word About Dictionaries

A short dissertation on my infatuation with dictionaries.
Clay and LTA Airstream
In a few weeks, Clay will embark on an 11,000-mile trek following the Lewis and Clark trail across the continent and back. As he loads his pickup and prepares to hit the road, Clay ponders what he has learned so far in his multi-year project to Listen to America.
Isaac, the day before his Naturalization ceremony in Fargo, North Dakota. (Photo Clay Jenkinson)
On a recent Uber drive to the Bismarck airport, Clay met Isaac, a North Dakota emigre from Ghana and a proud, brand-new U.S. citizen.
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Earlier this year, President Biden commuted the prison sentence of Leonard Peltier. This week, noted “wet plate” photographer Shane Balkowitsch visited Peltier at Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where he took a series of historical portraits of the 80-year-old Native American activist. Balkowitsch’s portraits of Peliter are published here for the first time.