Lewis and Clark brought to the Pacific Northwest the first fiddlers of which we have any record. Musicians and music researchers, Vivian and Phil Williams, will present many of these fiddlers’ tunes at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 2 at the Hoquiam Timberland Library.

Lewis and Clark knew that the Indians really liked fiddling and had recruited fiddlers George Gibson and Pierre Cruzatte. The fiddle was used throughout the trip to make friends with the Indians and to help with trading for horses and assistance. The program includes quotes from Corps of Discovery journals about fiddling and dancing, interchanges with the Indians, and the history of the tunes up to the present day.

Considerable research by the Williams and by Dr. Howard Marshall, Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of Missouri, has uncovered the tunes that were commonly played by fiddlers in the Mississippi-Missouri river area around 1800. The Williams will play the music on fiddles, guitar, frame drum, sounden horn, and Jew's harp – instruments used by the Corps of Discovery.

To preserve the musical heritage of the Pacific Northwest, the Williams have co-founded the Seattle Folklore Society, Northwest Folklife and the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association. They help keep the music itself alive with their performances.

This free, all-ages Inquiring Mind program is being sponsored by the Friends of the Hoquiam Timberland Library. For more information, please call the library at (360) 532-1710. The library is located at 420 7th Street, Hoquiam.