Multi-State National Historic Trails (Non-Units)[L-N]-NPS|Travel

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia)

9/9/1992 Back short distance to Mandan and Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. Very pretty park on Missouri River with visitor center and museum, reconstructed village of Mandan Indians [on the Lewis and Clark NHT in ND], ruins of original fort and reconstruction of Gen. Custer's house, and fort towers from fort - fun and interesting but winds up to 30 mph made walking around tough.

The Custer house ...

... with Maureen out front

A view of the Missouri

A blockhouse

7/27/2006 Continued south a few miles [along the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Route] to Hartford and the Lewis & Clark State Historic Site [L&C NHT in IL]. Saw an excellent museum about the site where L&C wintered before setting out up the Missouri. Nice film, good exhibits and a really cool full size keel boat cut in half lengthwise, showing the stores and other stuff. On the grounds is a replica of the encampment with log cabins in a little fort, fully outfitted.

The museum sign

Cool keel boat

L&C memorial

Camp Dubois outside ...

... inside the fort ...

... and inside a building

7/29/2006 Back east towards St. Louis (interstates this time!) and up to St. Charles and the Lewis & Clark Boat House and Nature Center. Saw the working models of the boats used by L&C and a great museum on nature of the area and the L&C expedition, particularly their stay here before pushing up the Missouri. Both here and Camp Dubois are on the L&C NHT [MO].

The Boat House

Nice displays overlooking the river

Excellent dioramas

6/12/2008 Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site Continued a short ways to the Confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Interpretive Center where we saw the said confluence (explored by L&C) and escaped the clutches of an overly-helpful guide lady [and also on the NHT in ND]. … Continued to Fort Abraham Lincoln SHS in Mandan. After some confusion on how the tours worked, got a guided tour of General and Mrs. G. A. Custer’s house at the fort, and checked out the barracks. This is the fort from which Custer lead the troops to the famous battle at the Little Bighorn. Next went to the visitor center to check out the museum and pick up the tour (just the two of us) of the On-A-Slant Village (Mandan) given by a young woman who looked Native American (but we neglected to ask). This once large village of earthen-covered domed lodges lasted from the mid-1500s to mid 1700s (smallpox doing them in). L&C noted the ruins of the village in their logs [and the site is on the NHT].

Sign for the NHT

The sign for the Confluence Center

Nice panorama of the river

The state park sign

Custer's house outside ...

... and inside

The barracks

Ken keeps guard ...

... while I rest

Sign for the Mandan Village

A nice model of the village

A cool reconstruction outside ...

... and inside

6/13/2008 Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site ... then got back on the road north. ... Continued over Garrison Dam, then south down to the L&C Interpretive Center (across the road from our first Cenex dinner stop) [and on the NHT]. This place had very good exhibits on L&C and Sakakawea, including art, history displays, a dugout canoe, etc. L&C did spend one quarter of their trip in ND, but enough of them for one vacation!

The NHT blaze

The Interpretive Center sign

Me as a mini-explorer

Ken by a canoe ...

... and me in a bear robe

5/27/2010 Stopped at Hat Rock SP along the Lewis and Clark Trail [OR] [and on the NPS Ice Age Floods National Geographic Trail (NGT)]. Parked right near the eponymous rock structure and hiked up to it. L&C passed through here, noting the feature that can be seen from quite a way despite it not being that big. The rock is made of vertical columns, like many others in this region. Horsethief Lake/Columbia Hills State Park.

The park sign

Some L&C signage

Hat Rock

The L&C trail sign ...

... and the view to Hat Rock

5/11/2011 First was Lewis and Clark Monument Park on the Lewis and Clark NHT [NE]. This site, high along the “bluffs” overlooking the Missouri, was used for a “council” with the natives by L&C. The rain was pretty much stopped, and we enjoyed a great view of the river, Omaha and the airport under a reddish sky. ... crossed the river into Omaha and went north along the river ... Back a little south and we found the NPS HQ for the Lewis and Clark NHT [IA]. There was interpretive signage about L&C and nature. We walked on a very cool curving bridge over the water for some nice views of the very rapidly moving water and the area. The whole riverfront is revitalized as a dining and entertainment complex, right where L&C landed in 1804 after crossing the river from the bluffs area.

The park sign

The council memorial

Details of the memorial

Ken and me overlooking Omaha

The bridge at the NHT HQ

Interpretive signage

Me on the bridge

5/24/2012 ... then to Fort Atkinson NHL (Fort Atkinson State Historic Park) in Fort Calhoun. This is the first US Army post to be established west of the Missouri River in the unorganized region of the Louisiana Purchase, erected in 1819 and is credited as the first town in Nebraska. The site is along the Lewis and Clark NHT [NE], and we saw a nice sculpture tableau of the Lewis and Clark Council Bluff [sic] meeting, walked around the reconstructed fort and saw another sculpture marking the actual meeting place.

The park sign

A map of the area

Me joining the council

The fort from the outside ...

... and inside

Ken in front of the barracks

9/21/2018 We headed east into the plains, then spent the day going roughly south skirting and into the mountains, much of it on the Lewis & Clark Auto Tour Route, hitting NHLs and L&C [MT] sites: Camp Disappointment NHL/L&C NHT, the northernmost campsite of the Lewis and Clark expedition, on its return trip from the Pacific Northwest. Just a sign and a somewhat defaced obelisk here, out on the windy plains ... Great Falls Portage NHL/L&C NHT. This is the route taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 to portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri River during the outbound portion of the expedition. Three stops for this. First we hit a memorial site with a bronze statue depicting Lewis’s part of the split team. Then heading up the Missouri we found a spot with some signage (unfortunately behind a fence) and another where we could stand right on the river where the party ended the arduous portage around the falls. ... Tower Rock State Park/L&C NHT. We stopped in a little interpretive area at the base of a large rock formation noted by L&C. We didn’t think it was really unique from the surrounding formations, but enjoyed it nevertheless, and continued on into Helena. ... Three Forks of the Missouri NHL, in Missouri Headwaters State Park (and on the L&C NHT), which marks the official start of the Missouri River at the confluence of the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson Rivers. We climbed a trail to a nice viewpoint of the true confluence of the three rivers off in the distance, then went to an area where we could go to the edge of the Madison River right before it joined the other two to form the Missouri.

Camp Disappointment Sign

The obelisk monument

Ken and me in the early sun

Great Falls monument area

Interpretive signage ...

... and NHT detail

Monument close-up

Great Falls Portage area ...

... with Ken and me

Tower Rock park area ...

... and a closer look

Interpretive signage ...

... with NHT emblem

Me and Ken

Me taking photo of ...

... the L&C Trail auto tour sign

Three Forks signage ...

... and our panorama

A look upstream

Interpretive kiosk ...

... and one more emblem

5/31/2019 Pony Express National Historic Trail ... Kaw Point (Kansas City). This is a Lewis & Clark NHT area [KS]. We found a lot of signage about L&C, along with other memorials to Indian nations, etc. The nearby factory had a huge L&C mural on the side. We were looking for a large L&C sculpture at the side of the river, but disappointingly yet amusingly, the river was so high that all we could see was Clark’s hat at the top of the sculpture looking like a shark fin.

Factory mural

KS interpretive sign

A lot of info in this area

One of the panels ...

... with NHT info

What we saw and ...

... what we should have seen

10/3/2019 Arriving in Fort Pierre we did the last sights of the day. First, an exhibit in Fischers Lilly Park for the Bad River Encounter Site on the Lewis & Clark NHT [SD]. Here L&C had a little problem negotiating safe passage up the Missouri due some language issues with the natives, but eventually got it worked out.

Bad River Encounter Site ...

... with plaque ...

... and signage

Our place on the Trail

NPS stuff

10/4/2019 ... then went a short way to the Interstate and stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center for information on the NHT [SD]. Although on the short list for things to bypass if time was tight, this turned out to be very interesting. Along with a small museum, there is a keel boat suspended overhead; we walked up steps leading up underneath through the bottom to the deck, which then lead to doors outside, with half the boat sticking out of the building. Inside were displays on what the boat carried and how it was used, and outside there were nice views of the river. On the ground outside nearer the river was a huge concrete teepee frame, as well as Dignity, a beautiful 50-foot stainless steel Native American woman sculpture.

Outside the Interpretive Center ...

... with NPS logos

Me and the keel boat

Ken on deck

Some of the stuff L&C took

On the outside deck

The teepee and river

The Center ...

... with keel boat poking through

Dignity

4/21/2021 Locust Grove NHL. The property includes a 1790 Georgian mansion that was the home of the Croghan family and gathering place for George Rogers Clark, Lewis and Clark, and U.S. Presidents. This is a pretty little area, especially in spring, but we mostly just photoed the attractive brick main house. We looked for signage but didn’t find any, but in any case, we also knew this site is on the Louis and Clark NHT [KY], it being where in November, 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived at Locust Grove to a homecoming where Lucy Clark Croghan and her family welcomed them back from their journey.

The mansion from the quarter ...

... and front

Some architectural detail

Ken and me

10/17/2021 First stop in Hartford was the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site[, also on the MRWT NRT]. The site commemorates Camp River Dubois, the camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from December 1803 to May 1804, and on the Lewis and Clark NHT [IL]. I had been here, and Ken didn’t wish to spend too much time. Inside, we checked out the very impressive full-sized, sliced in two keelboat. It’s pretty amazing to see how much stuff they packed aboard. We also look at the reconstructed encampment outside.

The park sign ...

... and cool monument

NPS signage ...

... with emblem

Sign of the times

Full sized keelboat

Another starboard view

Looking from ...

... the cutaway side

Lots of stuff!

A look to ...

... the camp recopnstruction

Another fort view ...

... and artist concept

Some more ...

... views ...

... inside

9/18/2024 Still in Astoria, we drove up a steep road to an area high over the town for the Astoria Column RA. “There's a stunning view from the Astoria Column, a civic landmark atop Coxcomb Hill. A spiral staircase winds 164 steps to the top observation deck. The column was built in 1926 and the beautiful mural of local history that spirals around the exterior was recently restored” The mural captures elements of Lewis & Clark, including Fort Clatsop. Although we could have climbed up the tower for great views (and toss a souvenir balsa plane down), we knew we had a long day still ahead so did not. Instead, we enjoyed fantastic views offered even from the ground, watching the little planes others tossed down, and the absolutely huge bubbles a guy was making. These bubbles shimmered in the sun, drifting across the parking area, and adding even more interest to the stop. This site is on the Lewis & Clark NHT, as indicated by some NPS signage. ... Lewis and Clark National Historic Park ... The very busy quaint if touristy town [of Seaside] had lots of traffic and little parking, so Ken went around a little dead-end traffic circle at the beach and dropped me off. I got some photos of the End of the Trail Lewis and Clark NHT monument. Replacing a 1940 sign, in 1990 a bronze statue of Lewis, Clark, and their dog Seaman, by sculptor Stanley Wanlass was installed. After photos, I hopped back in the car when Ken circled back and we moved on.

Signage on the high bluff ...

... including L&C

Ken and me

Beatiful views from here ...

... down river ...

... and towards Youngs Bay

Astoria Column ...

... with L&C mural detail

Sign for ...

... End of the L&C Trail ...

... with monument

Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail (Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming)

9/16/2009 ... headed over to This Is The Place Park. Although there is a heritage village here, I was just stopping to check out the monuments, including the huge TITP monument, on the Mormon Pioneer NHT (actually, the end). Also checked out the Pony Express monument. Weather is really great – warm, blue skies, pretty clouds. From TITP, headed east to Echo Canyon. ... Right nearby, though, was a station marker for the Pony Express [NHT in UT]. This route was also on the MP trail. South on I15 and off at Lehi to head to Fairfield. Stopped at the Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park to see the Inn and the Pony Express exhibit. Continued a few miles to where the PE trail took off on a dirt road.

This Is The Place monument

Mormon Trail marker

Pony Express Monument sign

Nice PE statue

A PE map and info

Reconstructed PE station

Weber PE station marker

Camp Floyd sign

Camp Floyd PE marker

The PE blaze

One of the Camp Floyd buildings

A view on the Pony Express Trail

5/12/2011 North a bit more brought us to a part of the Mormon Pioneer NHT [NE]. This was the area of the Winter Quarters. An LDS Temple is at the site of the Pioneer Cemetery where hundreds of pioneers who died over the winter were buried. There were some bronze monuments and memorials here as well.

Winter Quarters and Cemetery sign

A nice statue at the sign

The cemetery sign

One of the many graves

5/30/2019 Heading south out of [Osceola] we picked up the Mormon Pioneer Auto Route with the official signage. ... Garden Grove. Here there was a wayside exhibit with signage and a memorial for the Mormon Pioneer NHT [IA]. It was a temporary way station established near the river in April 1846 and was abandoned in 1852.

The auto route

Me taking a photo of ...

... the auto route sign

Ken reading Garden Grove ...

... interpretive panels ...

... about the NHT

Park sign ...

... with emblem

Ken and me by ...

... the memorial

5/24/2012 [Between Fremont and Schuyler] Historic Monument (Overland and Mormon Trails).

National Historic Trails (Non-Units) - Multi-State[L-N]