Long, Stephen Harriman

Long, Stephen Harriman Long, Stephen Harriman, 1784â€"1864, American explorer, b. Hopkinton, N.H. As an army engineer, Long was sent on several exploring and surveying expeditions. The first in 1817 was to the region of the upper Mississippi and the Fox-Wisconsin portage; it is recorded in his Voyage in a Six-oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony (1860). A journey to the Rocky Mts. in 1819â€"20 provided much new knowledge of the mountains. He climbed several peaks, including Long's Peak, and explored the regions of the Platte and Arkansas rivers. Edwin James's Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (2 vol. and an atlas, 1822â€"23) tells of that journey. In 1823, Long led an expedition to determine the source of the Minnesota River and to study the United Statesâ€"Canadian boundary W of the Great Lakes. Some of his notes were used in W. H. Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River (1824). Chosen to select a route for the Baltimore and Ohio RR, he made a survey that resulted in an authoritative railroad manual, with tables of grades and curves. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies