________________________The University of Montana President's Report 1999________________________

Interest in the explorers has heightened with the approaching 2003 bicentennial of their trek, and UM has taken a leading role in providing information about this historic duo. Joe Mussulman, a former UM music professor, leads a team designing the “Discovering Lewis and Clark” Web site – described by historians as the best source of Lewis and Clark information on the Internet.

The massive site, at last count comprising more than 2,500 files and hundreds of individual Web pages, is housed on UM servers and maintained by the University’s Information Technology Resource Center, a department specializing in new technology and multimedia development. After President George Dennison agreed that UM would support the site, Mussulman began working with ITRC to place the site on campus servers.

Mussulman also formed a nonprofit corporation, VIAs Multimedia Productions Inc., to spearhead the project, and has raised more than $150,000 in grants and gifts to make “Discovering Lewis and Clark” come alive. He currently is working with ITRC on additional funding opportunities.

“This site is not just another telling of the story,” Mussulman says. “What we do is look back through 200 years of history. We look at the land and peoples as they were then, and as they are now, and how things got this way, and what that has to do with Lewis and Clark.”

________________________The Discovery Continues________________________

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