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The Modern Missouri, 200 Years after Lewis & Clark

A stretch of the Missouri river in Desota National Wildlife Refuge north of Omaha, Nebraska.
Greg Allen, NPR
A stretch of the Missouri river in Desota National Wildlife Refuge north of Omaha, Nebraska.
The Gavin's Point dam, built by the Army Corps of Engineers, forms Lewis and Clark Lake.
Greg Allen, NPR /
The Gavin's Point dam, built by the Army Corps of Engineers, forms Lewis and Clark Lake.

This summer, communities along the Missouri River are celebrating the expedition that literally put them on the map.

Two hundred years after Lewis and Clark made their trek up the Missouri and opened up the American West, the river has gone from a raging giant to a harnessed conduit. The once fearsome river has grown so docile that environmental groups want to see changes made that would restore the waterway to a more natural condition.

NPR's Greg Allen reports on the anniversary of Lewis and Clark's seminal adventure and the arguments over the river's future.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

As NPR's Miami correspondent, Greg Allen reports on the diverse issues and developments tied to the Southeast. He covers everything from breaking news to economic and political stories to arts and environmental stories. He moved into this role in 2006, after four years as NPR's Midwest correspondent.