Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (Click image to enlarge. See Image Gallery for more photos.)

The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center Fund, Inc. was created in 1991 by several of Montana's leading citizens in partnership with the US Forest Service, the federal agency entrusted with management of the Center. This non-profit organization was incorporated to provide the resources and leadership necessary to generate funds needed to build the original facility in the 1990s. By 1995, Fund, Inc. had successfully raised $3 million to match a federal appropriation of an additional $3 million, which funded construction of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.

The new Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center opened to the public on May 5, 1998. Within a year, board members began exploring a long term role for the organization, and the name was changed to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation. Since that time, the Foundation has assisted the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center with a number of projects including:

  • $177,000 toward relocation of the access road and parking lot
  • $10,000 for production of a four-color marketing brochure distributed nationally
  • $5,000 for the cost of distributing travel brochures
  • $15,000 for the Scholar-in-residence program
  • $6,700 for the fabrication of exhibits and display cases
  • $10,000 for the publication of books for the Center's gift shop
  • $10,000 for equipment for the Center's audio tour
  • $65,000 for design of the Interpretive Center's facility expansion.
  • $300,000 to provide remodeled space for the national headquarters for the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation and Library
  • Purchase of properties on the north shore of the Missouri River across from the Center, and valued at $665,000

May, 2007 - Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation Completes Remodeling Project at Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

A major $290,000 remodeling project completed at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, with a grand opening held on May 6, 2007. This project provided home for the national headquarters of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation (LCTHF) and library.

New office space for the Trail Heritage Foundation offices and library was created in the building's administrative area. The LCTHF will be able to house seven staff in the new space along with a small conference room. The new library contains state of the art compact shelving on rollers. The remodeling project also created new office space for the Center's staff, and for the Portage Cache store. The store space is bigger to accommodate more merchandise.

Image Gallery