Lewis and Clark to be memorialized

Architect Maya Lin, best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will create a series of memorials to Lewis and Clark at four locations in Washington state. She was approached by the Vancouver, Wash., based-Confluence Project, which hopes to unveil the sites in 2005 to mark the bicentennial of the duo’s arrival on the West Coast. The cost of the effort is estimated at $15 million.

Over the next few years, communities from St. Louis to along Washington state’s Snake River will be marking the journey by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find the Northwest Passage, which was supposed to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Confluence Project, a nonprofit formed for the effort, came about after several parties, including a small town on the Washington coast and a tribal leader in Oregon, thought independently of Lin to create pieces that could look at the journey from a variety of perspectives. After connecting with each other, they approached the architect last year.

Although Lin won’t speak publicly about her plan until next year, project director Jane Jacobsen says Lin will keep in mind the basalt, pines and water of the Pacific Northwest. “The entire [Columbia] River is her site,” says Jacobsen.

About $3 million has been raised already, mostly from private funds.