log cabin

Private George Shannon, at the age of eighteen, became the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an 8,000 mile journey to explore the Louisiana Territory 1804-1806.  George Shannon was born circa 1787 in Pennsylvania.  He met Meriweather Lewis while visiting Pittsburgh as Lewis awaited the completion of the keelboat needed for this expedition. Soon after, in October 1803, Shannon enlisted in the Corps of Discovery.  In 1804, near Yankton South Dakota, Shannon lost track of the group while he was searching for lost horses.  He was separated from the expedition for 16 days.  Shannon survived only off wild grapes and a rabbit he shot using a bullet he had carved from a stick.  On September 11, 1804, the group found Shannon sitting near the Missouri River Bank, noting that the young man had nearly died of starvation. The Shannon Trail was founded in 2001 to commemorate Private Shannon’s adventures.  This 180 mile trail travels through 16 towns in Cedar and Knox Counties along with the Santee Sioux and the Ponca Native American tribes. Each of the 16 communities was gifted a hand-carved wooden statue of Shannon.  These statues were originally carved by Creighton artist, Joe Serres.  Hartington is the proud home to one of these statues. The Private Shannon statue was initially placed at the present-day site of the Veteran’s Memorial. Private Shannon has spent the last few years at the Hartington Public Library.   In April 2025, Dan Kathol and Jeff Olsen, along with the help of Evan Anderson, Kerby Hochstein, and David Newsam, moved Shannon to his forever home at the Cedar County Historical Museum in Hartington. Shannon now sits behind the museum, near the historic log cabin, in a wooden structure built by Jeff Olsen.