For Immediate Release:  October 14, 2004

Contact: Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center: 434-979-2425

Keelboat Replica to Hit the Water Oct. 23

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.---Organizers of an eastern-based Lewis and Clark interactive exploratory center will launch their 55-foot replica of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's keelboat "Discovery Virginia" here on Saturday, October 23.

U. S. Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore will take part in the ceremonies, while Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., will swing the traditional champagne bottle to christen the locally built replica as the "Discovery Virginia."

The christening and launch are scheduled to take place at Darden Towe Park off the Stony Point Road on the east side of Charlottesville at 2 p.m. October 23, although related various exhibitions and displays, among them rides in an ox-drawn covered wagon, will be open to the public at the same site from 1:30 to 4 p.m.  There will also be period music, as well as an exhibit of a Native American bull boat.  Admission is free.

Mint Director Fore will present the organizers of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center of Virginia with a gift for future display in their interactive museum, which will highlight the eastern roots of the 1804-1806 expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast and back. 

In addition, U. S. Mint representatives will be handing out the new Lewis and Clark keelboat nickel, free to children under the age of 18 and will coordinate a "nickel exchange" for adults, with the help of a local bank.

While a handful of other communities along the trail blazed across the West by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 200 years ago have built their own keelboat replicas, the local "Discovery Virginia" is the only eastern-based keelboat replica.  It weighs over six tons, and was built under the direction of master historical Boatwright Butch Bouvier. 

It will be moved October 23 from its long shelter---and construction site---in a barn at Darden Towe Park to the waters of the nearby Rivanna River.  Once in the river, volunteers will navigate the boat upstream to its docking place, where visitors will be able to board.  The keelboat has been built by adults and children alike.  Many of the children were involved in the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center’s "Hammer, Chisel and Saw" summer camp activities where they learn boatbuilding skills and receive Junior Boatbuilding badges.

Land adjoining Darden Towe Park will be the future home of the Virginia Exploratory Center. Both Meriwether Lewis and Thomas Jefferson, the president who sponsored the groundbreaking expedition into the uncharted West, were natives of Albemarle County, and Clark was born not far away in Caroline County, Virginia, after his family moved there from an Albemarle County cabin site right next to Darden Towe Park.