HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 15

(By Delegates C. Miller, Sobonya, McGeehan, Storch, Deem, Wagner, Rehrbach, Kelly, Zatezalo and Westfall)

[Introduced February 21, 2017 ]

Requesting Congress to fully support the National Park Service’s recommendations to extend the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail to include additional sites along the Expedition’s Eastern Legacy. 

Whereas, The Lewis and Clark Expedition (“Expedition”) and the Corps of Discovery are nationally significant for their exploration of the Louisiana Territory and search for an all water route to the Pacific Ocean.  Under orders by President Thomas Jefferson, the Expedition was responsible for mapping the territory explored, as well as documenting new species of plants and animals, and engaging with the American Indian tribes they encountered.  Although part of the route was unmapped territory, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was able to use maps provided to them by American Indians, European explorers, and fur traders. Ultimately, the Expedition was able to link routes and maps together to find passage from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean, a feat which had never before been accomplished; and     

Whereas, In order to recognize the historic significance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the National Park Service previously designated a trail which runs from Wood River, Illinois to the West Coast in Oregon and Washington; and

Whereas, Public Law 110-229, passed by the United States Congress in 2008, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to study additional sites associated with the preparation and return phases of the Expedition, located in Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri and Illinois. Those sites were to be considered for inclusion in the “Eastern Legacy” of the Expedition; and   

Whereas, The National Park Service evaluated 25 distinct route segments used by the Corps of Discovery for the Expedition to determine if they met the criteria for national significance established by the National Trails System Act; and

Whereas, In August 2016, the National Park Service published its Draft Lewis and Clark National Trail Extension Study, finding that three sections meet the criteria established for inclusion in the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Those segments include the Ohio River, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Louisville, Kentucky, from Louisville, Kentucky to the confluence with the Mississippi River, and from the Mississippi River’s confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, to Wood River, Illinois; and  

Whereas, A portion of the proposed extension of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail includes sites along the Ohio River in West Virginia. The inclusion of this segment along the Lewis and Clark National Trail is not only historically significant and appropriate, but may have a positive economic impact on those sites; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That the Legislature requests Congress to adopt the National Park Service’s recommendations as to the additional segments for inclusion in the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail; and, be it 

        Further resolved, That the Clerk of the House is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the President and Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Clerk of the House of Representatives and to the members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation.