A Struggle for the Public Commons: Buffalo, the Department of Interior & American Prairie Reserve
Tuesday, January 20 2026
Clay reflects on a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of the Interior to revoke bison grazing leases from American Prairie, an organization that has long been working to establish a buffalo wildlife reservation in Northern Montana.
- Published in Features
Running Out of Gas (And the Value of the Humanities)
Monday, January 12 2026
I nearly ran out of gas yesterday on a remote highway in the Bitterroot Mountains. It was a winding, narrow road with no shoulder to pull off onto ... but more of this crisis later in the story.
- Published in Features
Four Perfect Days
Monday, September 08 2025
Clay and friends are just off four perfect days canoeing remote sections of the Missouri River in central Montana.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Assessing Two Years on the Road in My Airstream
Monday, September 01 2025
Clay assesses the good and bad as he wraps up his second season traveling America's byways in his 23' Airstream.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Drowning the Missouri River — Lewis and Clark on the Reservoirs!
Monday, September 01 2025
The Missouri was a wild, free-flowing river when Lewis and Clark began their epic western journey in 1804. Today, much of that river is a series of reservoirs.
- Published in Features
My Montana Summer
Monday, August 11 2025
Clay Jenkinson reports on his month-long adventure crisscrossing Montana in the long-since-passed footsteps of Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Clay Checks in From Missoula — Video Dispatch
Monday, August 04 2025
Clay reports in on his adventures at the conclusion of his recent Montana Lewis and Clark Cultural Tour.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Hunting Rivers’ Sources on the Upper Missouri
Monday, August 04 2025
Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and Clay Jenkinson all share a fascination with the origins of rivers.
- Published in Features
The Quest for the Authentic on the Lewis and Clark Trail
Saturday, July 26 2025
As Clay Jenkinson leads his annual canoe trip through a remote section of the Missouri River, a sudden thunderstorm makes for dramatic challenges
- Published in Features
Meriwether Lewis’ Deadly Encounter
Tuesday, July 22 2025
Clay reports on his visit to the remote Montana site where Lewis and Clark had their only fatal encounter with Native Americans on their historic 1804-1806 expedition.
- Published in Features