Private Shannon’s Misadventure

View of the Missouri river where Shannon briefly lost his way and almost lost his life.

TrickoftheLight, Flickr

Quick Facts

Location:

88090 Spur 26 E, Ponca, NE 68770

Significance:

George Shannon, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, got lost near here in 1804.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Ponca State Park

MANAGED BY:

Ponca State Park

Amenities

19 listed

Boat Ramp, Canoe/Kayak/Small Boat Launch, Electrical Hookup - Boat/RV, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Picnic Table, Primitive Campsites, Restroom, Restroom - Accessible, Showers, Swimming Pool, Tent Campsites, Trailhead, Trash/Litter Receptacles, Water - Drinking/Potable, Water - Hookup - Boat/RV, Wheelchair Accessible

Most members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were skilled at providing their own food, shelter, and clothing. 

George Shannon could do those things, but he also earned a reputation for being absentminded. Twice during the expedition, he got lost, and on many occasions he forgot important items—like his tomahawk—and had to retrace his steps to retrieve the property.

Shannon was born in Pennsylvania around 1785. In 1800, his family moved to Ohio to farm land that formerly belonged to Indigenous people and that the U.S. government was doling out to White settlers. Shannon followed Meriwether Lewis to Kentucky to enlist in the Army and join the expedition. At eighteen, he became the youngest member of the expedition. 

Shannon’s first misadventure started in the summer of 1804. On August 26, Shannon and George Drouillard set out to search for two horses that had strayed. The men separated to cover more territory. When Drouillard came back to camp the next day, Shannon had not returned. The captains sent search parties, but Shannon remained missing for sixteen days.  

They finally encountered Shannon on September 11. He had apparently found the horses early on but misread some tracks and assumed the expedition had passed him. Shannon therefore proceeded upriver expecting to meet the party, but they were actually downstream of him.  

When they found Shannon, he was sitting beside the river, “nearly Starved to Death” waiting for a boat to pass. He hadn’t eaten for twelve days, having run out of ammunition for his gun. He foraged some wild grapes and managed to kill a rabbit “by shooting a piece of hard Stick in place of a [musket] ball.”

Ponca and Omaha people who lived here knew how to feed themselves and how to find their way home based on thousands of years of ancestral knowledge. Shannon did not. There was food in these woods, there were trails to follow—he just was not from here and did not know where to find them.

About this article: This article is part of series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

Visitor Centers (shown in orange), High Potential Historic Sites (shown in black), and Pivotal Places (shown in green) along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail