Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Abraham Lincoln saw in the name renewal—the Union Pacific. Chartered by Congress in 1862, it was a railroad forged out of the depths of civil war. Lincoln then fervently hoped to heal the Union by stretching its tracks across the West. Finally, with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, the great undertaking could begin. By then, Lincoln had been assassinated, but the Union would indeed endure.

How railroads helped evolve the national park idea and grow tourism will be discussed by Dr. Alfred Runte in a presentations at Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.