Expedition Days At Travelers Rest This Weekend

Our fabulous journal of interesting day trip suggestions continues with a salute to Lewis and Clark for Expedition Days.

Travelers Rest State Park invites you to this community event this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, June 26-27. The annual fun-filled weekend commemorates the 1806 campsite of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The expedition stopped at this site near Lolo from June 30 through July 3 to rest, hunt, tend to equipment and finalize their plans to split into two groups for the return trip through Montana.

You can expect historic firearms demonstrations, a modern dance performance, guided tours of the archaeological site, journals, plant pressing, leather crafts and lots more, including a postmortem petting zoo. Yep, you read that right. A petting zoo of pelts and skulls should reduce the risks of your children being bitten.

The days will also include demonstrations of traditional skills like bullet making, flint knapping, hide tanning and Native American games.

Travelers' Rest State Park is located at 6717 Highway 12 West, Lolo. In 1960, the National Park Service named Travelers’ Rest a National Historic Landmark, but placed the site approximately 1.5 miles east of its current location. History buffs intent on finding the exact location of the Corps of Discovery campsite contributed to the research that revealed the actual sites of the camp’s fires and latrine.

Expedition Days events run from 11:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. both days. Since we did not have access to a set schedule of events, if you are interested in a couple specific things, we suggest you call or email the organizers at 406-273-4253, and info@travelersrest.org. Otherwise, just enjoy all or most of the day.