CLARKSVILLE, IN (March 7, 2024) – The new downtown Clarksville streetscape is still under construction, but the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) is already planning to add a bit of history to the area.  The HPC issued a ‘Request for Proposals’ Thursday in hopes of honoring the contribution of brothers George Rogers Clark and William Clark in defining and securing the borders of the young United States to shape the country as we know it.

The end goal of the project is an installation in the Town’s new downtown district along a linear “town square.” For the past 5 years, the Town of Clarksville has been creating a new,urban area along the Ohio River. It was here, near the Falls of the Ohio, where so much of the Clarks’ and the nation’s history played out.  The Town desires the new area to reflect the distinct history of Clarksville and avoid “cookie cutter” design that is common elsewhere. As a simple way of incorporating this goal, the streets of the new district are being named after the nine-young men of Kentucky who were part of the Corps of Discovery. While the area may be newly constructed, we seek to acknowledge our past as we build our future. It is with this acknowledgement of the past that the HPC is seeking to create this project.

The expected budget for the project will be $250,000. However, proposals that otherwise meet the goals of the Historic Preservation Commission will be considered if the proposed cost is higher.  Most of this money will come from fundraising efforts on the part of the Historic Preservation Commission.  Proposals must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. (EST), April 12, 2024.  Interested parties can review the full RFP by clicking here.

General George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) and William Clark (1770-1838) were brothers who each took action that would make a significant difference in what would become the boundaries of the United States of America. George Rogers Clark’s western campaign helped double the size of the young United States. William Clark’s participation as co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition helped secure the U.S. claim to the Louisiana Territory and the Oregon Country., doubling the size of the United States yet again.

Born 18 years apart, George and William Clark were two of the ten children of John and Anne Rogers Clark of Virginia. Five of the Clarks’ six sons would become officers in the American Revolutionary War. William, too young to fight in the war, would lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

George Rogers Clark is little known today, but he was a hero in his time. In the 1770s, Clark saw what the British and Native Americans were doing in the back country to destabilize the American colonies. He left western Virginia, where he had been surveying, and trekked back to Williamsburg to consult with Governor Patrick Henry to describe what he saw. The governor made Clark a colonel in the militia and authorized him to raise men to oppose the British and their allies.

In June of 1778, Clark led a small company of men on an expedition in the dead of winter, through icy swamps to capture the settlement of Kaskaskia, several smaller forts, and Fort Sackville in Vincennes. He was able to accomplish this feat through wit, bluster, and courage. His capture of British Quebec’s Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton was a turning point in American history.

Because Clark continued to hold this territory, the 1783 Treaty of Paris granted that over 300,000 square miles to the United States. That land, the Northwest Territory, was then divided into Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Without Clark’s efforts and courage, the Northwest Territory might have been ceded to the British and the northern boundary of the new United States could have been the Ohio River.

As thanks for his bravery, the young United States conferred 150,000 acres along the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio to Clark and his men, and designated part of this tract as a new town named for the General. George Rogers Clark became the first Town Council President of what is the oldest American town in the Northwest Territory.