| Ground was broken Sunday to mark the
beginning of construction on the Missouri River Basin
Lewis & Clark Historic Trail and Visitors Center
scheduled to open late in 2003. More than 140 people
attended the groundbreaking ceremony conducted at the
future center's site overlooking the Missouri River
off of the J. Sterling Morton Beltway in Nebraska
City.
First District Rep. Doug Bereuter attended the
ceremony and reiterated his support for the project
which began prior to 1987. "It has been a long
time in coming. The people and organizations
involved with it deserve a lot of credit," Bereuter
said. "I first came to this site in 1980 and was
very impressed with it."
In 1987, Bereuter received authorization for a
Lewis and Clark Center to be built in Nebraska City.
The project, however, met several political roadblocks
and Nebraska soon lagged behind other states such as
Iowa in building the center.
"There were a lot of delays in getting started here
for a variety of reasons," Bereuter said. One of
them was raising matching funds for the project
totaling more than $5.5 million. "Now, no one
will have a better Lewis and Clark site."
After construction was authorized for the Nebraska
City center, Bereuter said the National Parks service
bought 65 acres to place it on. The purchase,
however, did not include an essential 17-acre area
that overlooked the river.
"Jim Able of NEBCO donated the 17 acres," Bereuter
said. "Not only was it important to have the
land by the river, but it was also essential to have
the land that provided access to the center from
Highway 2. Without this easy access, the center
might have been a white elephant," he said.
Others speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony
were Doug Friedli, secretary of the Lewis and Clark
Foundation; Gene Conley, foundation president, Nancy
Hoch, president of the River Country Economic
Development Corporation; Gary Moulton, Lewis and Clark
scholar who published their journals; and William
Schenk, Midwest regional director for the National
Park Service. |
