Centennial had aired on the American media, and fans are still in love with the plot that was displayed for us with the story. There are 12 episodes listed in the drama that came back in 1978 on NBC. The story throws light on the history of Centennial, located in Colorado. The timeline ranges from the year 1795 toll the 1970s. The story on which the plot is based was inspired by the novel of the same name, which was written by James A. Michener back in 1974. John Wilder is the one who directed this project. The series started off with a small introduction to all the characters that are listed within the drama. It was narrated in the present day by Paul Garrett. There also was a brief montage that covered the entire natural history, which was available in the first chapters of the book.
The show has also listed some of the comments by the author himself named James Michener. This provides a powerful insight into the background as well as the context of the drama of the show. The first episode, which was released in 1756, is titled Only the Rocks Live Forever. In this episode, we saw the arms race, which started between the tribes over horses as well as rifles, basically, power. The story introduced us to an Arapaho boy who is nine years in age and is named Lame Beaver. By the time it is 1975, he becomes a leading warrior and comes across Pasquinel. He is a voyager or coureur des bois.
Now, given the fact that he has a counted coup, he gets an allowance to trade the beaver pelts in return for the imported trinkets. There are other existing tribes as well, such as the Cheyenne. They all help him through. Well, tribes such as the Pawnee are not to be trusted as much. The story then starts in 1796 when Pasquinel gets robbed of two years worth of pelts and thus, comes back to St. Louise. Given the fact that he is badly wounded, he sees a surgeon and is later introduced to Herman Bockweiss, a Bavarian silversmith, as they discuss financing. Pasquinel then heads west for the second time and then frees Alexander McKeag. He happens to be a Scottish trapper who is situated in the Pawnee.
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Centennial – Plot
Alexander gives away some of the chief gifts that will guarantee safe travel through his land. This journey leads them to come across some of the well-known river pirates as well as Ute Braves and then back to the Arapaho. This is the place where McKeag comes across Clay Basket, the daughter of Lame Beaver. The story then shifts over to the 1800s, where we see Pasquinel marrying Lise Bockweiss. At the same time, Lame Beaver comes across a gold nugget and turns it into a bullet for his rifle. This motivates him to lead a raid against the Pawnee and kills their chief and gets killed himself. His wife dies as well. Given the fact that Clay Basket has now become an orphan, she goes to Pasquinel and tells him that she is destined to marry him.
He accepts the invitation despite the fact that McKeag has reservations. The story then resumes in 1816 with the second episode titled The Yellow Apron. We see that Pasquinel has two sons with Clay Basket. On the other hand, he is fathering a daughter by Lise. He is still in search of the gold that Lame Beaver hid, but McKeag does not approve of his bigamy. Then in 1825, we see that McKeag has left St. Louise and started to live in the form of a hermit. At the same time, Pasquinel is not giving up on the gold that his wife’s father has left. When McKeag returns to St. Louise, he finds out that Pasquinel has been killed by the Pawnee and takes in Clay Basket and decides to raise her daughter as his own.
Centennial – Where was the show filmed?
There were a lot of locations that saw the cast and crew of Centennial filming. The main location at which the show was filmed was at the Historic Roscoe village, which is situated in Coshocton in Ohio.
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