>>Letting the Public In

Letting the Public In

All of the homes and sites associated with Lewis and Clark in the Albemarle area remain private residences. Many of these places are on the National Register of Historic Places, but only two sets of owners have attempted to make at least a portion of their property a museum open to the public to further educate people about the site and the history attached to it. Mary Wheeler, Clara Belle Wheeler's mother, opened a museum dedicated to George Rogers Clark at Buena Vista. The museum closed in 1981. Twenty years later, Clara Beller Wheeler agreed to donate the land and clapboard house to the new Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center to help further educate the public about the county's and nation's past but to also celebrate the work her mother did in bringing the cabin to Buena Vista.