Stephen Harriman Long

Stephen Harriman Long 1784-1864, 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 1819-20 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, 1822-23) tells of that journey. In 1823, Long led an expedition to determine the source of the Minnesota River and to study the United States-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.

Long, Stephen Harriman (1784–1864) army explorer and topographical engineer, born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Long's career as an explorer was relatively short-lived; three major assignments failed to achieve significant results: an expedition up the Missouri River by steamboat to the Rocky Mountains (1819); an expedition to explore the central plains (1820); and an attempt to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi River and the border between the United States and Canada (1823). Long then turned his attention to transportation and went on detached duty for several years as a consulting engineer with various railroads. When he returned to active duty, he supervised dredging of the navigation channels in the Ohio, Arkansas, Red, and Mississippi Rivers. He was briefly called to Washington when the Civil War broke out, but soon retired (1863).