Straying off the Lewis and Clark trail

Monday, October 13, 2003 Posted: 3:15 PM EDT (1915 GMT)

A statue of Pvt. George Shannon stands next to a plaque commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition in Lindy, Nebraska.

NIOBRARA, Nebraska (AP) -- Forget Lewis & Clark.

Some towns in northeast Nebraska are celebrating a lesser-known member of the Corps of Discovery expedition who was definitely the most directionally challenged person in the group.

Pvt. George Shannon almost died of starvation during the expedition when he got lost for 16 days while in present-day northeast Nebraska just south of the Missouri River.

No one knows for sure the route Shannon walked before being reunited with the explorers on the river.

That hasn't stopped 15 Nebraska communities in the area from creating and promoting the 240-mile Shannon Trail.

They are trying to draw thousands of Lewis and Clark buffs away from the river as they retrace the expedition on its 200th anniversary.

Laurie Larsen, a Bloomfield woman who leads the Shannon Trail Promoters, was looking for a tourism hook for those cities not on the Missouri River.

"I knew that Shannon had gotten lost in this area," Larsen said. "It just kind of took off from there."

In the name of poor Pvt. Shannon, what has evolved is a scavenger hunt of sorts for families looking for a day's adventure.

Statue stamps

Statues of Pvt. George Shannon are grouped together at the studio of wood sculptor Joe Serres in Winnetoon, Nebraska.

Each community along the trail has put up a carved-wood statue of Shannon. Each features the private in a different pose during his lost days, and some are hidden in the communities -- some better than others.

The statue locations range from more obvious places, like in Hartington, where he's standing in the open with a compass, or in Niobrara, where the statue is along Nebraska Highway 12, holding an American flag.

In searching for other statues, visitors will find themselves a little off the beaten path -- much like the predicament Shannon faced. Larsen said the most difficult statue to find is inside a park in Crofton.

The most elaborate statue features Shannon and an American Indian just outside Santee, on the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation.

"Shannon is sitting on a stump and the Indian is standing over him, kind of saying, 'What the heck are you doing here?"' Larsen said.

The other statues are in Bloomfield, Center, Creighton, Lindy, Verdigre, Wausa, Winnetoon and Wynot.

Businesses in each community offer to stamp a passport marking that particular statue. If all 12 statues are marked, the bearer will receive a limited edition print commemorating the Shannon Trail.

A play, titled "A Tail of the Trail," about Shannon's own journey through the area had its initial run in Verdigre and Crofton this summer with plans for more performances next year.

In the audience for this summer's run was Shannon's great-great-nephew, Bob Shannon Anderson of Marysville, Ohio.

Anderson intends to take part in an entire 31/2-year re-enactment of the westward Lewis and Clark expedition, playing the role of Pvt. Shannon, who was the brother of Anderson's great-grandmother.

Anderson, a widower with five children, plans to wear handsewn Army period uniforms throughout the trip, including when he gets lost in northeast Nebraska for 16 days starting August 26, 2004, just like Pvt. Shannon did 200 years earlier.

"I'm going to leave the same place he did and start walking," Anderson said. But the 62-year-old Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. retiree admitted he might walk the bridge across the Missouri River instead of trying to swim across the river.

Bad rap

The valley where the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers meet in northeast Nebraska is the area where Pvt. Shannon got lost.

At age 18, Shannon was the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. During his 16 days alone, he survived on wild grapes and the one rabbit he killed.

"I might eat a little bit better than he did," Anderson said. "I've already got a pot belly."

While he also doesn't plan to carry a tent or stay in motels, he might cheat by accepting lodging offers at people's homes.

Anderson said he is not daunted by such a long re-enactment.

Unlike his hapless ancestor, "I know I can come home at any time," he said.

"He just left and thought it sounded really good to him, probably the same as any other teen-ager," Anderson said. "He thought, 'What a great adventure."'

One historian says Shannon has gotten a bad rap, mainly since other corps members also strayed off. They just weren't gone as long as Shannon.

"He simply misjudged it and thought the party was ahead of him, and kept rushing forward," while the others were behind him the whole time, said Gary Moulton, a history professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Not all misfortune

Shannon's troubles didn't end once he was reunited with the expedition above Pickstown, South Dakota. He got lost again when the Corps of Discovery was in the Three Forks area of Montana in 1805.

Moulton also disputes that Shannon got lost a second time, preferring to say he was separated from the group for a few days.

"People make a little much of it," he said.

Shannon later lost a leg in a battle with the Arikara Indians and became known as "Peg Leg" Shannon.

His life was not all full of misfortune. He assisted Nicholas Biddle in preparing the first edition of the Lewis and Clark Journals. He also became a lawyer and later a senator from Missouri. He died in a courtroom while sitting as a judge, and was buried in Palmyra, Missouri.

Even Shannon's final resting place is lost. The exact location of his grave is not known because a railroad eventually was built through the cemetery.

Growing up in Ohio, Anderson remembered family stories about Shannon's accomplishments but nothing about him getting lost or losing a leg.

Anderson doesn't think the family was trying to cover anything up, but it "was something that wasn't mentioned."