Washington DC has its “Capital Fourth”. Boston has its "Pops" and outstanding fireworks over the Charles River from its Esplanade. Here in West Central Montana, we celebrate the holiday in an equally patriotic, if less extravagant manner.

It took Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery two years, four months, and ten days to reach the Pacific Ocean after leaving their winter camp in St. Louis. Along the way, the group mapped and surveyed thousands of landmarks; made countless zoological and botanical discoveries; met with members from dozens of Native American tribes; and proved plausible the Jeffersonian ideal that the United States could one day stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.