Lewis, Clark researcher tracks steps of explorers

ATCHISON, Kan. -- Jim Harlan says he can pinpoint everything explorers Lewis and Clark did on their 1804 trek. And he says he can prove every detail -- such as what day the expedition camped near Atchison.

But some skeptics are questioning the research done by Harlan, assistant program director and geographer of the University of Missouri's Geographic Resources Center. His efforts are backed by a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the state of Missouri.

Chris Taylor, director of the Atchison County Historical Society, says Harlan can't possibly know where Lewis and Clark were at each stop of their journey.

"No one is ever going to be able to narrow down one exact place," Taylor said.

But Harlan, who is also senior research specialist for a Missouri River history corridor, says that is wrong.

Used their journals

Harlan is resurrecting the experiences of the explorers and documenting their every move. Using the journals Meriwether Lewis and William Clark kept during their expedition, surveyor field notes from the General Land Office, pre-U.S. French and Spanish surveys, and documents from the Missouri State Archives, Harlan is delineating their journey on maps.

"After reading multiple of thousands of pages I connected the dots," he said.

Now he has created maps using all the information he has found. The journals and land grant records gave him the data to reconstruct landscapes of the river corridor and create graphics that will show the land as it was when the Corps of Discovery answered President Thomas Jefferson's request and set out to find a route across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean.

"I can tell you right now the distance the surveyors traveled just to get that to point," he said. "I can tell you where they stopped and where they camped."

Camped near Doniphan?

They camped at a spot that later became the town of Doniphan on July 4, Harlan said. In fact, his map shows they camped right near the corner of River and Monrovia roads.

"There was about five miles separating them from the Atchison and Doniphan line," Harlan said. "Clark climbed up on top of the bluffs, then he wrote it all down."

Taylor said the research Harlan is doing is on a big scale and it doesn't allow him to pay attention to a local area. He said someone like historian Frank Fogler is the best expert on where Lewis and Clark were in July 1804.

Fogler said Harlan is right on some things, but incorrect on others -- such as the Doniphan campsite.

Harlan, of course, disagrees: Lewis and Clark camped in Doniphan. He said many historians in the past had based their conclusions on faulty writings. And he suggested that some towns with Lewis and Clark sites don't want to know that the explorers didn't actually stay there.

"Look at all these signs, " said. "I'm sorry, it's implausible. It's all political and money that's causing these people to pound these signs in the wrong place."