She provided an invaluable service ...

She provided an invaluable service to soldiers in the Lewis and Clark expedition, unless historians don't even know her name. They simply relate to her as the "washerwoman."

She washed and retouched clothes for more than 30 soldiers from Jan. 1 to May 14 1804 while they were staying at Camp River DuBois in the Illinois region

"We don't know long of anything about her," said Pam Imes of Caseyville, a re-enactor who portrays the washerwoman. "In those days, they didn't write too a great deal about women."

Imes and other re-enactors will participate in "Women tend hitherward to Camp," a new circumstance at Lewis and Clark State Historic Site, near Hartford. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday. Admission is delivered

The idea is to help visitors understand the character of frontier women by focusing forward those who lived in or around