Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Retired Professor Discovers Historic Lewis and Clark Expedition Site with GPS

 

Contacts:
Dana Schmidt, communications specialist, ECpE, (515) 294-3071, schmidtdiastate.edu
Steve Russell, associate professor emeritus, ECpE, sfriastate.edu

Ames, Iowa -- For 21 consecutive years, Steve Russell, associate professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, has spent his summers camping in a tent out West, using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and precision information systems to research and record hundreds of miles of the Lewis and Clark Trail and various American Indian trails in the region.

This summer, Russell hit the historic trail research jackpot. “A site I discovered on the Snake River has been surveyed by archeologists and they believe it is an authentic Lewis and Clark site,” says Russell.

According to the Associated Press, the site in Idaho is a Nez Perce Indian village believed to be the site where three members of the Lewis and Clark expedition spent time on an ill-fated fishing trip in 1806.

Russell started searching for the route taken by the expedition members several years ago. He realized the topography along Wapshilla and Cottonwood creeks and the Big Cougar Bar match the descriptions in expedition member Sgt. John Ordway’s journal.

This year, teams of archeologists began excavating the site. They found artifacts as well as clues that a longhouse—as described by Ordway—did stand there during the same period that Ordway would have been in the vicinity.

Russell says he and the archeologists will apply to the federal government to earn National Historic Landmark status for the location.

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*Associated Press reports contributed to this article.

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