Sergeant Patrick Gass, Chief Carpenter

Verse written by Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn in the voice of Sergeant Patrick Gass, chief carpenter on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1803-06, based on research into the expedition and the journal kept by Sergeant Gass himself. Gass's expertise was integral to the success of the expedition; he married finally at age sixty and with his wife Maria raised six children, a seventh having died in infancy.