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(May 1, 2006) – Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD) announced details Monday of an expansion plan for the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. The $3.3 million project will more than double the size of the Missouri Riverfront interpretive center, providing additional space for exhibits, programs and activities that have taken root in the last two years. More than 220,000 people have visited the interpretive center since it opened in September 2002. Admission, all events, activities and class materials are free. MRHD, the non-profit organization that built and sustains the interpretive center, will fund the entire cost of the expansion. Additionally, MRHD will announce the recipients of more than $220,000 in grants this month as part of its annual small grants program for Woodbury County non-profit organizations. Mark Monson, MRHD president, discussed details of the interpretive center expansion project. The plan comprises an enclosed pathway that will link the present interpretive center to an exhibition-performance-activity facility known as “The Encounter Center.” A parking lot to serve interpretive center patrons will be constructed to the south of The Encounter Center. The project architect is Owen Mamura for Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates.
“This project will give us much-needed additional space to bring history alive,” said Monson. “It will be a home for traveling exhibitions and related programming, children’s activities, and especially fine arts presentations. Our visitors and presenters will have a comfortable setting for everything from lectures and plays to live musical performances and panel discussions.” The Encounter Center will add almost 10,000 square feet to the interpretive center campus. It will include a 100-seat theater; an art gallery; activity area/classroom; a lobby with additional exhibit space; a storage room; work room; and restrooms. “The Connection” is conceived as the enclosed pathway that will invite visitors to journey from the time of Lewis & Clark to a place where they will encounter people, particularly Native people, and events influenced by President Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the nation’s expansion. The new facility will make outdoor space more accessible for games and other activities. The interpretive center’s present classroom will become a reference library, resource room and small-group meeting room as part of the expansion. The Keelboat Theatre will continue to host short movies. “In their journals, the explorers often used the sentence, ‘We proceeded on.’ Some historians describe it as the Corps of Discovery’s motto,” said Monson. “Those words and MRHD’s continuing commitment to improving the quality of life for all people in Woodbury County are inspiring this transformation. We’re growing beyond a Lewis & Clark Bicentennial attraction to become a permanent cultural resource.” Collaboration with Creighton University’s Native American Studies Program and the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum at St. Francis Mission, St. Francis, S.D., has brought a Native cultures focus with exhibitions and varied presentations. This month opens the photo exhibition, “Vision Quest: Men, Women and Sacred Sites of the Sioux Nation,” by Don Doll, S.J., of Creighton. Lakota storyteller Jerome Kills Small, of University of South Dakota, will present a program May 7. Dr. Michael Tate, author and professor of History and Native American Studies at University of Nebraska-Omaha, will present the lecture, “Emigrants and Indians,” on May 21. Also in May, the interpretive center will debut “Seaman: The One-Dog Show,” a series of original plays written by the Center’s staff. “Seaman the Newfoundland’s Memorial Day Bash” will bring the “real” Seaman to the Center where winners of the student T-shirt logo design contest will be announced. Seaman, the Corps of Discovery’s dog, was purchased in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1803 for $20 by Capt. Meriwether Lewis. June will bring Native flute lessons; Junior Explorers’ Club activities; performances by the Center’s resident bi-lingual Time Travelers Theater Troupe (Teatro Tiempo de Viajeros); “Discovering the Natural World” plant and animal outreach programs; and a range of guest speakers. As part of a commitment to writing the stories of history, the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center Association will launch “A Way of Life,” a history of the Sioux City Stockyards this spring. The 240-page, richly illustrated book will include the Stockyards’ link to Corps of Discovery history. It was written by Marcia Poole, the Center’s director, with photo editors George Lindblade and Christine McAvoy, and designer Lou Ann Lindblade of G.R. Lindblade. “The Lewis & Clark Bicentennial set the stage for a never-ending story on Sioux City’s burgeoning Missouri Riverfront,” said Poole. “Now as the Bicentennial ends, we’re exploring dozens of ways to commemorate a history of encounters that occurred after Lewis & Clark. Ultimately, all those encounters connect in some way to the Corps of Discovery.” Since 1994, MRHD has distributed more than $8.5 million to Woodbury County non-profits and governmental bodies. Its annual small grants program has awarded more than $2.3 million. Its holiday gifts and special projects distributions have totaled more than $1.3 million. Major MRHD contributions have gone to Sanford Community Center; Habitat for Humanity; The Center; the Sioux City Art Center; Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center; IBP Ice Center; Tyson Event Center; and the Loren Callendar Clock Tower at Sioux City’s City Hall. Funding for the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center totals more than $4.7 million. MRHD is the non-profit organization that holds the license for riverboat gaming in Woodbury County. Its funding is generated from an agreement between MRHD and Argosy Casino Sioux City which allows Argosy to run a gaming operation in Woodbury County using MRHD’s gaming license. MRHD was formed in 1989 when Woodbury County voters approved a referendum that sanctioned riverboat gaming. A second referendum passed by 75 percent in 2002.
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