The federal recognition of the official trail (from St. Louis to the Columbia) had its origins in 1958 with a National Park Service proposal to develop a tour-way from St. Louis and into Montana. The proposal was not approved. It wasn’t until 1978 that federal legislation designated the trail from St. Louis to the Columbia’s mouth as one of the National Historic Trails. For some unknown reason, the Eastern Legacy wasn’t included.
As Lewis and Clark’s enthusiasts describe it, the Eastern Legacy’s omission from the official trail is like having the first few chapters left out of an exciting book—you enjoy what there is in the book but you really wish the opening chapters had been included so you could learn the entire story. Those missing chapters would have helped you appreciate the rest of the book even more.
Here are highlights of what has happened in a long effort to bring the Eastern Legacy into full recognition as part of the official trail:
In 2004, during the early days of a multi-year national celebration of the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Expedition, President George W. Bush signed an act that created the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park near the mouth of the Columbia River and authorized a study of the Eastern Legacy. The National Park Service carried out the study, beginning in 2010, and completed it in February 2018 with a recommendation to Congress that the official Lewis and Clark Trail be extended to include the Eastern Legacy.
