Stephen Harriman Long was a U.S. army explorer, topographical engineer, and railway engineer. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s. In his 1820 expedition, Long and 19 men traveled up the South Platte River to the Rocky Mountains. After finding and naming Long’s Peak, the expedition journeyed down the South Platte to the Arkansas watershed. In his report of the expedition, Long wrote that the Plains from Nebraska to Oklahoma were "unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture." On the map of his explorations, he called the area a "Great Desert."
Long explored Great Plains and eastern Rocky Mountains in an important 1820 Expedition.
