Stephen H. Long: Frontier Explorer (Now You Know Bio)

Stephen Harriman Long was a U.S. army explorer, topographical engineer, and railway engineer. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s.

In his 1820 expedition, Long and 19 men traveled up the North Platte River to the Rocky Mountains. After finding and naming Long’s Peak, the expedition journeyed down the South Platte to the Arkansas watershed.

In his report of the expedition, Long wrote that the Plains from Nebraska to Oklahoma were “unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture.” On the map he made of his explorations, he called the area a “Great Desert.”

Stephen Long: Frontier Explorer is Number Eighteen in the Now You Know Bio series.

Steve Walsh is retired from a long career in elementary education as a teacher, facilitator, and trainer. He and his wife, Miriam, have resided in Denver for more than forty years.

Steve’s interest in Colorado history led him to write four other biographies for young readers: Chief Ouray, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Enos Mills, and Bill Hosokawa. All are part of the Great Lives in Colorado History<\I> biography series from Filter Press.