Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Fort Clatsop has announced the next In Their Footsteps free speaker series event. Historic Winter Transportation by Richard Brenne will be held Sunday, December 15, at 1:00 p.m.

Did Lewis and Clark know anything about skiing? Ski historian Richard Brenne doesn't think so, but he knows they referenced snowshoes in their journals. Brenne theorizes that the expedition members might've been constantly interacting with the distant descendants of skiers or snowshoers. His talk will become a fun discussion ranging from the domestication of dogs, winter hunting, large scale prehistoric human migration, the California Gold Rush and how skiing came to be used by mail carriers, miners, ranchers, doctors and pastors throughout the West, including on Mt. Hood beginning in 1890. Brenne will show how important the Lewis and Clark Expedition is to history and even, indirectly, to the history of skiing.

Brenne is a skier, mountain climber, world traveler, tour guide, freelance writer and award-winning screenwriter who has a few tricks audience members could use to help children become expert skiers. He also produces and moderates panel discussions and town meetings about human impacts on the earth. His program should be enjoyable for anyone, but will be of particular interest to those who love anthropology (including conjectural anthropology), big picture history, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, dog-sledding, or Scandinavian, Alpine and Western Mountain history.

For more information, call the park at (503) 861-2471, or check out http://www.nps.gov/lewi, or Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on Facebook.