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CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHIES

John Logan Allen is professor and chair of the Geography Department at the University of Wyoming. A native of Wyoming, Alien received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming and the Ph.D. from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was a member of the geography faculty at the University of Connecticut from 1967 to 2000 and served as department chair at Connecticut as well. His academic specialty is the exploration of North America, and his particular interest is the exploration of the American West in the first half of the nineteenth century. Alien is the author of numerous books, book chapters, and articles on Lewis and Clark, the Rocky Mountain fur trade, John Charles Fremont, and other early explorers of the trans-Mississippi West.

David Blanchette is the public information officer for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

Jeffrey P. Brown is associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University. He received the Ph.D. in American history from the University of lllinois-Urbana in 1979. His dissertation explored the political development of the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1812. He has written a series of articles about politics and community development in the Northwest Territory and Ohio, co-edited The Pursuit of Public Power: Political Culture in Ohio, 1787-1861 (Kent State University Press, 1994), directed the Public History Program at New Mexico State University from 1984 to 1991, and served as president of the National Council on Public History from 1995to1996.

Robert E. Hartley is the author of the book Lewis and Clark in the Illinois Country: The Little-Told Story. He has written about Illinois politics and history for four decades. Other books include Charles H. Percy; A Political Perspective; Big Jim Thompson of Illinois; and Paul Powell of Illinois; A Lifelong Democrat. He is co-author of An Uncertain Tradition: U.S. Senators from Illinois, 1818 to 2000. Since 1983 Hartley has written and presented ten history articles at programs of the Illinois State Historical Society and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. From 1962 to 1979 he worked as a columnist and editor for Lindsay-Schaub newspapers in Illinois. Hartley, a graduate in journalism at the University of Kansas, lives in Westminster, Colorado.

Linda J. McMullen recently retired after thirty-four years of teaching. For the last twenty-two of them, she taught American history to eighth graders at Washington Gifted School in Peoria, Illinois. She earned a B.S. in history from Bradley University and an M.S. in education from Illinois State University. Her research interests include the local history of small towns in central Illinois. Currently, she is developing curriculum materials and conducting historic tours for teachers and students in the Peoria area.

Stan Mendenhall has taught at the junior high school level for twenty-eight years. During that time he also taught United States and European history at Illinois Central College. For six years he was the education associate at the Dirksen Congressional Research Center in Pekin, Illinois. Currently, he teaches eighth-grade social studies at Broadmoor Junior High School in Pekin.

Fred H. Walk has taught social studies for the past thirty-one years at Normal Community High School in Normal, Illinois. He has been actively involved with the Illinois Geographic Alliance and is a teacher-consultant for the National Geographic Society. He has conducted workshops throughout the state and nation and is particularly interested in critical thinking strategies that engage students in inquiry learning. He has worked with the Illinois State Board of Education in the development of social studies performance descriptors and assessment items to assist teachers in implementing the state learning standards.

William D, Walters Jr. grew up in Michigan and has lived in Illinois since 1969. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University. He is now professor emeritus at Illinois State University. From 1969 to 2001 Walters taught geography at Illinois State University. He is author of The Heart of the Cornbelt (1997). He has written several monographs and more than forty articles, many of which deal with the aspects of American historical geography and historic landscapes. He has been editor of the Bulletin of the Illinois Geographical Society. From 1989 to 2001 he served as editor of the journal Material Culture, which deals with aspects of the material remains of the North American past. His research has dealt with nineteenth-century town design, town location, townsite speculation, town advertisements, building materials, and vernacular structures.

Fred Willman is a retired seventh-grade social studies teacher from Naperville. He is a past president of the Illinois Geographical Society and a teacher-consultant with the National Geographic Society. He is currently a college instructor at Aurora University and National-Louis University, an author, and a geographic education consultant and presenter.

Brad Winn is the site manager of the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site.

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