Dale Dufor has been a volunteer docent at Travelers’ Rest State Park in Lolo for about two years and loves every minute of it.He’s retired from the Forest Service and lives close to the park, making his love for the Lewis and Clark camp near his home come all the easier.
Dufor does a little bit of everything, but really enjoys talking to visitors about the archaeological aspects of the Travelers’ Rest site and how the discovery of those came about. He also gets a kick out of educating school kids about Lewis and Clark in general and the historic site in particular.
“It’s just fun to talk with them,” Dufor said Friday, “and explain what was done here, how the archaeologists worked, how they found the proof of this being a campsite of Lewis and Clark.
“To watch their faces, they are just a captive audience,” he explained.
Rather than wanting the blanks filled in about the expedition as a whole, Dufor finds that these expert visitors want more detail about Travelers’ Rest.
“They probably know a lot more than I do about Lewis and Clark in total,” Dufor noted. “They don’t know the details of this site. So they’re like a sponge absorbing the information that we have about this site.”
Dufor has his favorite thing about the Travelers’ Rest site as well.
“When I’m here early in the morning or late in the evening, and it’s quiet and nobody’s around,” he said, “and you reflect about the site and what happened here, and who was here, and what they did, and what it means.
“It’s an emotional experience here for a lot of people,” Dufor reflected, including himself.
Dufor likes to find out where the visitors have come from.
“We get them from everywhere,” he said. “East coast, west coast, a lot from the south, a number of foreign countries.”
The entrance to the state park was moved last fall from south of Lolo Creek to the north side on Highway 12 about one-half mile west of Lolo. So they kept the park open on weekends during the winter to gauge the impact of the move.
“I was surprised at how many people came out in nasty weather,” Dufor said. “Some of them would walk the trail. A lot of them would just stop in … and visit with us about it. We’d show them photos of evidence that was found and how they excavated, things like that.”
Dufor said it’s remarkable how many people are dedicated to expanding their knowledge about the Corps of Discovery and its stop at Travelers’ Rest.
The other thing that Dufor has helped create is competition for his job.
“Last year we had over 4,000 school kids here,” he recalled. “Now we’re having school kids dragging their folks out here from Missoula and surrounding communities, and they act as tour guides.
“They really have fun, because they’ve been here and they know what happened,” Dufor added. “It’s primarily fourth and fifth graders.”
Re-enactors from St. Charles, Mo. - they call their group Discovery Expedition - have been camping at the site since arriving Thursday, marking the actual date that the expedition stopped at Travelers’ Rest on the way back from the Pacific coast. Dufor marvels at their dedication.
“They have been traveling back and forth across the country for several years,” Dufor explained. “They’re all sorts of professional people who have taken time away from their livelihood.”
He noted that the individual portraying Capt. William Clark is Bud Clark, the great-great-great-grandson of the original explorer who Dufor believes is a retired automotive engineer from Michigan.
He said a dentist from Mississippi is filling the role of Meriwether Lewis while his son has taken over his practice back home. And they play their roles to the hilt.
“They treat this as a military operation,” Dufor said. “They have a ceremony every single morning, every single evening, raising the colors, lowering the colors. They practice their drilling.”
As part of their travels they also lecture on different aspects of the journey. Friday there was a lecture about the medicine of Lewis and Clark days. Different members have adopted different aspects of the expedition on which to focus.
The group even brought the expedition dog along. The actual Seaman was a 150-pound Newfoundland. Dufor said the current substitute is only about 100 pounds right now.
“He was here last fall,” Dufor said, “and when he came back this year the first thing he did was ran to the creek and laid down in this hot weather. So he’s having fun.”
A full schedule of activities for all ages is planned each day through Monday. For a complete schedule visit http://www.travelersrest.org.
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