Keanon Serna shot out of the glass double doors.

He was terribly stricken with field trip fever, and felt immediately compelled to get the lay of the land.

He pushed his way through the crowd of students that had gathered around four earthlodges, on the west side of the University of Mary campus.

"Everybody out of the way!" the 13-year-old exclaimed. "I'm taking a scenery picture."

Serna stopped when his toes reached the edge of the steep hill that overlooked Apple Creek and, if one looked just a little further west, the Missouri River. He grabbed a disposable camera from the pouch of his sweatshirt, snapped and turned.

"Good view," he said, satisfied.

You wondered if, 200 years ago, Lewis or Clark had noticed the same thing. Did they round the bend, look up to the hill where a Beulah Middle School student would one day stand, and think "Good view"? And what would they have thought if they saw the place Monday? Buses and cars ferried somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 people to the site, for the express purpose of learning more about the Corps of Discovery and the Indians the explorers encountered.

Students comprised much of Monday's crowd at the Circle of Cultures, Bismarck's national Lewis and Clark bicentennial event. It was the first day for school field trips, event coordinator Marion Houn said. She said 1,300 students showed up Monday, and 2,500 were expected today. Houn said about 10,000 students will visit the Circle of Cultures by week's end.

"There's a lot out here for them," Houn said. "Interpreters can tailor their presentations to (students). We have classes coming from Oakes, Grand Forks, Minot, Williston, Dickinson and all the little schools in between."

Serna and his pals from Beulah - Zach Zeller, Tyler Schmidt and Colyn Anderson - said the field trip sure beat going to school. And, they agreed, there was plenty for them to do.

"They make it fun to learn about history out here," Serna said. "Most everything else in North Dakota is boring. But the earthlodges and all these tents and stuff is cool."

The students are getting in on the teaching, too. Classes from Twin Buttes and White Shield, located near Lake Sakakawea on the Fort Berthold Reservation, will make presentations all week. On Monday, several students from Twin Buttes displayed items they created, including parfleche bags and coup sticks. They will demonstrate today how to make dreamcatchers, acting principal Lucy Fredericks said.

Could the ancestors of these students have imagined their progeny would one day teach their cultural history to tourists at a university above the river? Did Lewis and Clark watch the creation of the rawhide parfleche, as will be done this week?

A lot of questions for a lot of students.

"It's important for the kids to get out there and see everything that's being offered," said Charlene Zins, a sixth-grade teacher at Fort Lincoln Elementary, in Mandan. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for them."

The Circle of Cultures runs through Sunday, with different events each day. For a list of today's presentations, check out the Circle of Cultures page in this paper.

(Reach Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tspilde@ndonline.com.)