Each age rediscovers Lewis and Clark, so began historian-author Gary E. Moulton as he spoke to a full house in Arno Gustin Hall at the Circle of Cultures in Bismarck on Saturday.

Young families and gray-haired history buffs crowded the University of Mary campus in the second day of the 10-day event commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

"I'm euphoric," said Tracy Potter, describing his reaction to the turnout.

Other scholars and presenters on the bill with Moulton, the editor of the 13-volume edition of the journals of expedition, included Amy Mossett, Landon Jones, Keith Bear, Teri Evenson, Clay Jenkinson and Potter.

Moulton suggested that Lewis and Clark were being interpreted now for this time. He talk was titled "Lewis and Clark's New Look."

"I belong to the Lewis and Clark Book of the Week Club," joked Moulton, as he noted the flood of new written works and new perspectives on the Corps of Discovery. In past celebrations, the focus as been on the Louisiana Purchase rather than the explorers, he said.

In the '40s and '50s, Americans saw Lewis and Clark as larger than life, as heroic. It was a time when Superman was popular. Recently, Moulton said he saw the movie "Spiderman II," in which the hero is "anguished." Today, the nation creates heroes with issues.

The Meriwether Lewis and William Clark being discovered during this bicentennial are not confident heroes like Superman. The explorers had issues.

Much has been written and considered in conjunction with Lewis' emotional state after the expedition - he committed suicide Oct. 11, 1809.

And Clark, said Moulton, has always been thought of as a "good man, a kind man," but in letters discovered recently, from a period shortly after the expedition was over, Clark told how he treated his servant and slave, York, very harshly. He wrote to his brother that he was going to hire York out to harsh masters to teach the slave a lesson and, worse for York, was considering sending him to the slave market in New Orleans. This is the same York that, with Sakakawea, voted with the rest of the Corps of Discovery on where to spend the winter in 1805-06.

York had been nagging Clark that he wanted to visit his family.

The present generations have encountered Lewis' emotional issues and Clark's slavery views. Moulton claims that says as much about the present time as it does about Lewis and Clark.

What's important, Moulton said, is to "keep questioning."