Retired professor honored for lifetime of work involving Lewis and Clark expedition

The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled across the United States in the early 1800s and it was more than a century later when Jack Taylor as a college student began studying their journey.

Still the explorers had a profound impact on his personal life and his career.

“Lewis and Clark changed my life,” he said. “The boys brought me a lot of pleasure.”

Taylor, a retired rangeland ecology and management professor at Montana State University, now resides at The Springs at Whitefish with his wife Kay.

The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation recently honored Taylor with its distinguished service award. The foundation incorporated in 1969 to preserve, promote and teach about the heritage of the expedition that was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western United States.

Taylor personally studied the expedition, used it as part of his lessons, led Smithsonian Study Tours, has been the speaker for numerous school and civic organization and was an invited speaker for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial conference and co-authored a book on the subject. Lewis and Clark also played a role in his meeting of his second wife.

Taylor has made outstanding state-wide and national contributions to furthering the knowledge and adventure of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and he is an invaluable ambassador to people eager to learn expedition history, according to the foundation.

“We are proud to present this long overdue distinguished service award to Dr. Taylor for his life long contributions to enriching and spreading understanding of the Lewis and Clark expedition to others through his vast knowledge, enthusiasm and love for the story and his ability to connect humbly with his audience,” Jane Knox, the foundation’s awards chair, said in a statement.

Also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, the Lewis and Clark expedition lasted from May 1804 to September 1806. It began near St. Louis, Missouri, made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to reach the Pacific coast. The expedition comprised a selected group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, William Clark. They collected more than 300 species of plants and animals, and also recorded detailed maps of the region.

As a youngster, Taylor visited the Potlatch River in Idaho and he remembers his grandfather telling about the first non-Native Americans to travel through the country. Taylor figures this was his first exposure to Lewis and Clark.

One summer during college he took a job with the U.S. Forest Service in north Idaho, where the story moved from abstract to finite idea. Taylor served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, but once he returned to civilian life attended Idaho State, where one day he was discussing with a professor about plant collecting and the professor mentioned seeing some of Lewis and Clark’s plants at Harvard and that there were many more at the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia.

“I was astounded that these specimens still existed, and wondered if I would ever get to see them,” he said. “And I did, about 30 years later.”

Eventually Taylor ended up at Montana State University in Bozeman in 1960, where he says he became immersed in Lewis and Clark country.

“Since that time I have presented talks, taught classes, led tours and traveled the Lewis and Clark trail for almost 60 years,” he said. “I have had countless amazing experiences, met many memorable people, and have continued to be inspired by the greatest adventure in our national history.”

After years of giving talks on Lewis and Clark, and guiding tips with students, Taylor was contacted by a travel agent in Helena who was interested in hiring him to speak about the explorers for clients on a trip. She promised him lunch, so Taylor decided to meet with her, but instead she sent a friend to meet him.

“This woman in pink floated in the door,” Taylor recalls the moment his wife Kay entered the restaurant.

“Lewis and Clark introduced me to my wife,” he said. “That’s the best thing they ever did for me.”

Taylor weaves stories about Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery Expedition with his own stories traveling sections of their routes. He’s been to many of the historic points along their trail in Montana and around the country. He peppers his stories with antidotes about the Lewis and Clark trip.

He points out that the expedition packed 50 pounds of coffee and just two pounds of tea when leaving St. Louis, Missouri, thinking they’d be back within a year when the adventure actually lasted more than two years to compete.

“That doesn’t seem like enough coffee to make it out of St. Louis,” he says with a laugh. “But that’s too much tea.”

He has traveled the Missouri River in Montana every year since 1960 — this year marks his 58th straight year. He estimates he has made hundreds of total trips.

“Nobody knows that river better than me — even Lewis and Clark didn’t know it that well,” he says with a laugh. “But then I knew where it was going.”

Taylor, has a doctorate in ecology and physiology, and with a background in biology has had a lifelong interest in natural and cultural history. While teaching classes at MSU or for the Elderhostel programs through the University of Montana, he always found ways to get students out into the field along the Lewis and Clark trail.

“If you’re a biologist you can’t understand the country from a book — you have to get out and smell it,” he said. “You have to feel the plants and be surprised by what you learn.”

He recalls the times he stood in the same spot that Lewis and Clark once did and the way the landscape has remained the same all these years. One time he was talking to a group of students on a Lewis and Clark trip, and the Northern Lights began to color the sky while a coyote howled in the distance.

“I’ve been studying Lewis and Clark for 60 years and I’m still excited about it,” he said.