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220 Jewett Blvd, PO Box 218, White Salmon, WA 98672 | 509.493.2112
ON FATHER’S DAY -- Gary Lentz as Sgt. Patrick Gass of the Lewis and Clark expedition, will give a demonstration titled “To Protect and Preserve” with historic firearms and weapons, Sunday, June 16, 1 p.m. at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles.
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center will offer free admission to fathers on Father's Day, Sunday, June 16, 2013, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At 1 p.m. join Gary Lentz, retired Washington State Parks Ranger, as he presents his Lewis and Clark program "To Protect and Preserve."
Lentz portrays Sgt. Patrick Gass, one of the three sergeants on the Lewis and Clark military expedition. Firearms were important tools for the Corps of Discovery and "Sgt. Gass" will explain and demonstrate the flintlock firearms from small pistols to the blunderbuss and swivel gun, edged weapons such as swords and knives and the tools that kept them working.
Lentz chose Sgt. Patrick Gass as his persona because he was born only three miles from the sergeant's home and grew up the first 19 years of his life in the same locations where this famous member of the Expedition once lived. He has hiked, camped, canoed and ridden many parts of the trail in the Pacific Northwest and knows and practices many of the skills used by the original Corps of Discovery.
Lentz is a retired Park Ranger who has worked for Washington State Parks for over 35 years. Twenty eight of those years have been at Lewis & Clark Trail State Park. He was appointed to the Governor's Lewis & Clark Trail Committee in 1982 and served until 2010.
As a member of this committee he has had the opportunity to discuss many aspects of the expedition with authors, historians and others knowledgeable on the subject. He is past-president of the Washington State Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
Lentz conducts living history demonstrations at State and Federal parks, schools, youth camps, community service groups, historical societies, museums and many other locations along the trail.
He has written articles on the firearms, medicine and other aspects of the expedition for the Washington State Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Newsletter, Worthy of Note, The National Foundation's, We Proceeded On magazine, and for displays, markers and plaques around the State.
