Back in January of 1993, at a meeting at the English Inn, when Jane Sale Henley said, "I'll do it," backed up by her cousin Howell Bowen, the Home Front Chapter was born. Nine years later, Jane, President of the National Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, was the main speaker at the Home Front Chapter Annual Meeting May 16, 2002.
As historian of the Home Front Chapter (i.e., the one willing to store all the boxes) Jane reminded us of some of the early adventures, such as the initial meeting, securing tax-exempt status, and the trip out West.
"The Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in Virginia: The Beginning and the Triumphant Return" was Jane's main focus at the well-attended meeting. January 18, 1803, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Congress to ask for money for the expedition he had been plotting for two years with his secretary Meriwether Lewis. Thus, the Bicentennial will begin with the January 14-19 "Jefferson's West: A Lewis and Clark Exposition" hosted by Monticello.
Among the events during the four-day celebration will be a noon celebration at Monticello on the 18th, a presentation at Cabell Hall of music in the days of Lewis and Clark, and performances at the Performing Arts Center.
Jane's husband Page Henley, a member of the Charbonneau Society (consisting of the men who follow the women who follow the trail of the Lewis & Clark Expedition), is in charge of vendors for the event. Home Front Chapter will have a booth in Newcomb Hall, and the North Carolina Chapter accepted an invitation to join us there.
Less press has been given to the Triumphant Return

     I have always believed that we honor Jefferson, Lewis, and Clark by applying their own methods and approaches. Unless there are compelling considerations for doing otherwise, do things in the same manner that they did, from arranging a council to securing a perimeter. And every group activity affords an opportunity for ethnographic observation and practice in their own way, with any one of the typically enchanting "Evening Conversations at Monticello" programs an exemplary example.
     Jefferson sought to bring wise chiefs from the West; Big White of the Mandans being the one likely first to come to mind. And in his Notes on the State of Virginia, he referenced the speech of Chief Logan, tragically closer to hand. He would be pleased to see that tradition yet alive here, with eminent Western scholars and speakers such as James Ronda (Oklahoma), Gary Moulton (Nebraska), and John Logan Allen (Wyoming) frequent visitors to his mountaintop, bringing wise words of counsel and varied geographic and philosophical perspectives from all across the continent.
     On the evening of July 23, a capacity house was favored by the return of John Logan Allen, who beneath an airy canopy that itself would have been the envy of the Expedition's own staff, enthralled a rapt audience with an earnest examination of the matter of "Thomas Jefferson and the Mountain of Salt."
Attendees of the '95 LCTHF annual meeting here will recall the same speaker's commentary on "Exploring the West from Monticello," delivered in the Rare Book area of the UVA library, and closely based upon the priceless collections of maps, documents, and artifacts then on display there. Drawing upon these to illustrate his points, he related the long cartographic history of chronic fascination with the yet largely unknown (to all but Native Americans) American West.
     Tonight, however, he would use no visual aids, ancient or modern, relying instead on the active imaginations of his listeners to follow the often almost entirely speculative efforts of early day geographers to construct a plausible if unsubstantiated vision of that same region.
     Announced by a drum roll of thunder, from the West, (which Thomas Jefferson Foundation President Daniel Jordan characterized as an expression of displeasure on the part of Jefferson's antagonist Alexander Hamilton), Professor Allen detailed a chronology of Age of Enlightenment intellectual activity sufficient to have at least this member of his audience willing to believe: the narrow dividing ridge presented by the distant Stony Mountains, the easy portage between the two watersheds, the mammoths-and the mountain of salt. That reality proved otherwise, perhaps, should not diminish the beauty of the vision itself or discount the appeal of its logic in the context of the times.
     In the question period, Professor Hantman (one of our locality's own respected chiefs) addressed the fact that although Jefferson's vision had not been flawless in its particulars, it had in the main been largely substantiated by the Expedition's findings: there were volcanoes, and complex Native American cultures; great beasts previously unappreciated if not totally unknown, and extensive deposits, if not an actual mountain, of salt.
     As I grappled mentally with all of this, drained a bit by the heat and worn from the cares of the day, some of the major concepts, and no doubt numerous more subtle elements of the discourse, may well have entirely escaped me. But fortunately more accomplished ethnographers than myself were present, formally audio taping, I believe, the entire evening… just as Lewis and Clark would have done had the technology been available to them. And with the new Jefferson Library at "Kenwood," no doubt we can avail ourselves as to the finer points as often as we please, dispensing entirely with imperfect recollections or poor paraphrases such as this one. And we can all enrich ourselves also with a reading of Dr. Allen's classic Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American Northwest.
     Visitors to Monticello that memorable evening found a new bridge awaiting them at the entranceway. Thanks to Dr. Allen's luminous discourse, his host's warm and cogent welcome and introduction, and the thoughtful observations of his scholarly peers, they just may have discovered one beneath the awning on the west lawn as well.