U.S. House passes legislation to study whether to extend Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Legislation to study whether and how to extend the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail has been approved by a U.S. House committee, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson announced Thursday.

The legislation has been combined with nine other bills that will be sent to the House floor as the America's Historical and Natural Legacy Study Act, Emerson said in a prepared statement. Emerson, R-Mo., said the quick action on the measure, introduced in late September, shows both the merits of the bill and the effort to win its approval.

The Lewis and Clark trail begins at the site of the expeditions 1803 winter campsite in Illinois across from St. Louis. Emerson's measure would allow for the addition of sites along the explorers path from the East Coast to that campsite in 1803 as well as their return to Washington, D.C. in 1806. In Southeast Missouri, the Red House Interpretive Center in Cape Girardeau and the site in Mississippi County where the explorers first set foot on land in the Louisiana Purchase would be candidates for inclusion.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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