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SHANNON TRAIL RELIVES THE LEWIS & CLARK ADVENTURE IN NORTHEAST NEBRASKA
Welcome to Private Shannon Country! Shannon Trail invites you to relive the adventure in scenic Northeast Nebraska where in the late summer of 1804 Private George Shannon, the youngest member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, was lost for sixteen days.
Shannon Trail Promoters was created in 2001 in an effort to make Lewis & Clark history come alive, to promote tourism, and to unite area communities in a common effort. The Nebraska communities involved are Bloomfield, Bow Valley, Center, Creighton, Crofton, Hartington, Lindy, Niobrara, St. Helena, St. James, Santee, Verdel, Verdigre, Wausa, Winnetoon, Wynot, and the Ponca and Santee Sioux Nations. The Trail encompasses an area steeped in history, dotted with pioneer cemeteries and ghost 
towns. Jesse James reportedly hid out in the rugged wooded terrain known as the Devil’s Nest, where a curious formation of trees and brush on a hillside forms the word, “DEVIL.”
A National Park Service grant and donations from local banks contributed to the placing of sixteen wayside signs commemorating the life of George Shannon. Following the Expedition, he was wounded in a battle with the Arikara in a failed attempt to return the Mandan chief, Shekeke, to his village; his leg was subsequently amputated above the knee. He helped Nicholas Biddle prepare the first narrative account of the Expedition for publication. Shannon then became an attorney and circuit judge, served in the Kentucky and Missouri state legislatures and ran against Thomas Hart Benton in a bid for the U.S. Senate. He died at age 50.
A local artist, the late Joe Serres, created thirteen life-size wooden chainsaw statues of Private Shannon, each in a different pose, one complete with a horse. These are located in participating communities along the 240-mile trail, artfully displayed among native plantings, wildlife carvings, national and state flags and the distinctive Shannon flag with artist Ray Kelly’s drawing of Shannon on a yellow background. The Lindy display also features a Nebraska Department of Roads historic Lewis & Clark Campsite sign.
Each community’s stamp features the picture of a different animal. Collecting all the stamps qualifies visitors to receive limited-edition 12″ x 18″ prints of Private Shannon or “antique” maps of the area showing key Lewis & Clark sites. Approximately 1500 prints, 125 reproductions and 500 maps had been distributed by the summer of 2007.
The postal service also sponsored a one-day-only historic stamp cancellation at statue unveiling festivals and other events. The cancellations have now become collector’s items.
Find Shannon. Where is he this week? A life-sized mannequin in period dress, affectionately referred to as “Shannon the Mannequin,” was displayed at area businesses and state parks, where visitors could sign up for free one-day passes to parks and the Ashfall Fossil Beds. Yankton radio station KK93 sponsored quiz contests with questions about Shannon. Their Website featured photographs of winners posing with Shannon the Mannequin.
A Shannon Trail volunteer compiled weekly articles on Lewis & Clark for area newspapers. Trail volunteers give talks at area schools and distribute information about Lewis & Clark. Shannon Trail brochures are displayed at participating businesses. To date, more than 40,000 have been distributed.
Shannon Trail has received grants and funding from the National Park Service, the Peter Kiewit Foundation, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Nebraska Arts council, the Nebraska Division of Tourism, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Greenspace Program, the Knox County Visitors committee, Great Plains Communications, local banks, a private donor, and in-kind contributions from the communities involved.
Shannon Trail has also sponsored special fundraisers.
- 1) Concerts by the Discovery String Band.
- 2) A concert and dance featuring area native Joanie Keller of Nashville fame.
- 3) Original Shannon musicals written by a local playwright and songwriter and performed by local talent. Robert Shannon Anderson, a collateral descendent of George Shannon, made guest appearances at the plays. Wearing his period costume, he mingled with audiences and displayed his exhibit of historical pieces, which includes a copy of the Harper’s Ferry rifle similar to the one his famous ancestor may have been using.
- 4) Sales of prints featuring artist Ray Kelly’s drawings of Private Shannon, with the original poetry of Edward R. Cook.
- 5) Sales of T-shirts with the Shannon logo. These were also distributed to a different school each month to inspire student interest in the rich history the area has to offer.
- 6) An auction of Lewis & Clark paintings by a local artist.
- 7) Ongoing sales of a CD entitled “Voices Of The Trail,” which incorporates special sound effects and music by the Discovery String Band and Calvin Standing Bear, with narrations by Hal Stearns portraying Meriwether Lewis, Mel Hankla as William Clark, Darrel Draper as George Drouillard, Hasan Davis as York, Joyce Badgley Hunsaker as Sacagawea, Bob Anderson as Shannon and Rudy Thomas as Thomas Jefferson.
Shannon Trail has become a certified National Park Service Trail. The organization has received three awards from the Nebraska Tourism Industry: 2002 Outstanding Tourism Awareness Campaign, 2003 Outstanding Regional Organization and 2006 Outstanding New Event. The Trail also received the 2004 National Community Improvement Award.
In 2006, the Northeast Nebraska Resource and Development Agency in Plainview nominated Shannon Trail as a presenter at the 2006 National Tourism Extension Conference. In September of that year, four members of Shannon Trail were honored to represent Nebraska at the conference in Burlington, Vermont, which included twenty-four states and three countries.
Although the final selection in 2007 was “Discovery Bridge,” “Private Shannon Bridge” won the popular vote as a proposed name for a new bridge spanning the Missouri River between northeast Nebraska and South Dakota at Yankton.
Karla V. Sigala, Interpretive Specialist, noted, “The George Shannon Trail organization has been monumentally effective in bringing together people from 16 communities and two American Indian Tribes in a combined effort to tell the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the eyes of Pvt. George Shannon. This is an example to other communities across the country and they should be recognized for their efforts.”
A sign at the junction of U.S. Highways 81 and 84 invites travelers to Visit Shannon Trail Country. Shannon Trail Promoters continues to explore new ideas for attracting visitors to the largely-undiscovered historic and scenic treasures of this portion of the Lewis & Clark trail. They are currently seeking funding for extended newspaper and magazine advertising, as well as 30-second television commercials for the Outdoorsmen Adventures markets.
Shannon Trail President Laurie Larsen may be reached at
lklarsen_72@gpcom.net