The Circle of Cultures has proceeded on.

The ghosts of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition - it being the end of the 10-day signature event and Halloween - moved up the Missouri River to Fort Mandan, where they'll likely spend the winter before continuing to commemorate the bicentennial through 2006.

And, not far away, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people are still there.

An estimated 50,000 people toured earthlodges, listened to lectures and ate buffalo burgers on fry bread beginning Oct. 22. A full 10,000 of those were North Dakota schoolchildren. Promoters and organizers are calling the event a success, based on those numbers and anecdotal response to programming.

"It has been one of the great weeks of my life," said Clay S. Jenkinson, a Lewis and Clark scholar and North Dakota native, who broadcast his syndicated radio show, "The Thomas Jefferson Hour," from the University of Mary on Sunday morning. "This would have been great in Omaha, but it was magic here."

Next year there will be a signature event in Great Falls, Mont., in July and early August, and Montana native and author Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs said her state would do as well.

"I don't think so," Jenkinson said and smiled.

Organizers and supporters celebrated the event's apparent success in a closing ceremony, and then handed the torch over to Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, who will host a signature event in August 2006.

Hall led a program of thanks to those who helped with the Circle of Cultures, and then invited people to New Town in 2006.

Tracy Potter, executive director of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, the lead agency in developing the Circle of Cultures, said, "University of Mary - what wonderful hosts these people are."

Earlier, Potter gave much credit for the success of the Circle of Cultures to Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people, especially for the daily work of interpretation in the earthlodges and in special presentations. In particular, he thanked Amy Mossett.

FALF coordinator of Native Interpretation Candy Mossett thanked her interpreters. "They worked in rain, cold weather and really, really smoky earthlodges."

One red-jacketed volunteer, Bill Engelter, from the city of Mandan, figured he spent 60 hours helping out and doing Lewis and Clark stuff in the past 10 days. Volunteer coordinator Rhonda Haugen managed more than 100 volunteers.

Over the 10 days there were no medical emergencies, according to Circle of Cultures coordinator Marion Houn. She also gave a nod to the North Dakota National Guard, acknowledging its "excellent partnership" and "follow through" in pulling off the event.

David Borlaug, president of the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, said he had been to many of the eight signature events before the Circle of Cultures and "they all pale in comparison."

In the closing address, Borlaug called the bicentennial a "great light illuminating North Dakota" for the rest of the nation. He stressed that the story North Dakota has to tell isn't 200 years old, but thousands of years old.

There was still work to do, Borlaug said. "But because of our past, we have a future … This is the bicentennial that never ends," he said.