Historian:  Are you referring to the “Nine Young Men from Kentucky”?

JLM:  That is an important one.  The “Nine” is the name gave the Kentucky members of the 31-man unit that eventually accompanied Lewis and Clark.  Captain Clark was tapped by Meriwether Lewis to be his co-commander.  Already being here in Kentucky, Clark became the major recruiter of most of the elite cadre of adventurers that eventually were selected.  At least eleven had some Kentucky tie including William Clark and his manservant York who was the only African American on the journey.

Historian:  So you feel it is a national event?

JLM:  In my mind the adventure started on January 18, 2003, at Monticello  when Thomas Jefferson officially inaugurated the expedition and Lewis set out to the West gathering boats, supplies and men all along the Ohio River.  Maysville, for example was a stop, where it is reported he recruited John Coulter, another of the “Nine Young Men from Kentucky”. 
Plans are in the works for celebration of the eastern portions of his trip and the heroes’ return to Washington right through Lexington and the Bluegrass.
If things go as they did when the nation celebrated the Civil War Centennial in the 1960s, Lexington, and your museum, will attract heightened interest because the nation and world will have much more awareness of the expedition and the incidents following the “lost” explorers’ return.   Interest in the Civil War increased significantly after that Centennial, and we can expect the same with Lewis and Clark.

Historian:  So things don’t end at St. Louis?

JLM:  No, a good example is the fact that on September 23, 1806 when the bedraggled band got to St. Louis they were called the “Lazarus group” because they had been given up for dead.  They hadn’t been heard from for over a year and a half.  The two captains first act to was to stop the postrider then heading east to Louisville in order to jointly write a letter to Clark’s brother Jonathon telling of their success.  They knew it was politically important for not only President Jefferson, but the entire nation to know the venture had in fact given the United States key information necessary to prevent other nations from successfully taking over the western country.  They sent the letter immediately knowing that newspapers would then spread the word from Kentucky to the East faster than any other method.  And indeed from early news stories in the Louisville and Lexington newspapers the news spread like wildfire.