For the next two years, Jefferson prepared Lewis to lead the group of explorers by having him study navigation, cartography, plants, and animals at the University of Pennsylvania. After leading the expedition, along with William Clark, the pair returned after three years. Jefferson then appointed Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory. In September 1809 Lewis set out for the nation's capital to answer complaints about his actions as governor, and on this trip died a violent but mysterious death in a tavern about 70 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Whether he committed suicide, as Jefferson believed, or was murdered, as his family maintained, remains uncertain even today. More ...

Benjamin "Ben" Vernon Lilly (1856-1936) - Often called the "last of the mountain men,” Ben Lilly was known as the greatest lion and bear hunter in the southwest. Born in Wilcox County, Alabama, in 1856, Lilly grew up in Mississippi, learning to be an expert hunter.  He attended a military academy, but the boy wanted freedom, rather than discipline, and soon ran away to Tennessee where he worked for a time as a blacksmith.  But, Lilly's passion was always hunting and where the panthers and bears were, Lilly would soon find them.

Though he was married twice and had several children, this didn’t stop his wandering. By 1906, he could no longer be confined, and turning all his property over to his wife, he left home for good. However, though he was gone, he continued to support his family.

Over the years, Lilly acted as a hunting guide for Teddy Roosevelt in Louisiana, and hunted bears and panthers in the Big Thicket of east Texas before making his way across the Lone Star state to Mexico, where he hunted for many years. In 1911, at the age of 55, he moved on to the Gila Wilderness of southwest New Mexico where he spent the rest of his life hunting mountain lions, wolves, and bears. He died at the age of 80 on December 17, 1836 near Silver City, New Mexico. Lilly is credited with killing the last Grizzly Bear in the Gila Forest, and in total some 500 bears and 600 mountain lions during his lifetime. More ...

Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864) - An engineer, explorer, and military officer, Long led what's known as the Long Expedition through the great plains. He was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire on December 30, 1784, a son of Moses and Lucy (Harriman) Long. When he grew up he graduated at Dartmouth College, receiving a bachelors degree in 1809, before continuing his education at the same institution and gaining a masters degree in 1812. Two years later he was commissioned as a lieutenant of engineers in the United States Army, and from 1815 to 1818 was a math professor  in the military academy at West Point.

In April, 1819, he was became a brevetted major and was appointed to lead an expedition to explore the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. (See: Long's Expedition) Just a month before receiving this appointment, he married Martha Hodgkins of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1819. After returning from the expedition he spent several years surveying and building the Baltimore & Ohio and other railroads. He also became an inventor, receiving a number of patents for steam locomotives. When the United States Topographical Engineers' Corps was organized in 1838, Major Long was given an important position in connection with it. After several years of service in this corps he retired from the army and died at Alton, Illinois on September 4, 1864.