(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City is stepping back in time this weekend to highlight an important event that happened there in the 1800’s. Sioux City Museum spokesperson Theresa Weaver says the annual Lewis and Clark encampment starts Saturday at 10 a-m. “We’re basically marking the days that Lewis and Clark and their whole crew traveled through 200 years ago at this time. And you’ll see the tents and the gear, and there’s usually a blacksmith. People will be in uniform, and they’ll be reenacting parts of some of the core members of the crew that were with them at that time,” Weaver says. Lewis and Clark came through what is now Sioux City in 1804 as they explored the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and sought a northwest passage to the west coast. Weaver says some of the re-enactors have been taking part for several years and take their roles very seriously.

“They’re really experts on their character that they’re portraying, and they have particular gear and items, replica items, that are focused on what their person might have worn,” Weaver says. “So there might be a private they might be one of the captains. And it is so neat to see the tents and the gear and the equipment that they use, because it was very much cutting edge at the time.” As the expedition came up the Missouri River Sergeant Charles Floyd became ill and died. He was buried on a bluff overlooking the river and the site is now marked by a monument overlooking Interstate 29. Re-enactors will hold a commemoration of Floyd’s burial at 6 Saturday evening.

“The captains and several of the sergeants wrote in their journals, and they, of course, all write about losing Charles Floyd, and we kind of draw on, you know, what were military funerals like at the time? It’s really an important piece of our Sioux City history and national history as well,” she says.

The encampment will run from 10 a-m until 4 p-m Saturday and then from 10 a-m until 3 p-m on Sunday at Chris Larson Park off the I-29 Hamilton Boulevard exit.