PROVO, Utah — The national Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation presented BYU historian Jay H. Buckley with a 2023 Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor it bestows, at its 55th Annual Meeting in Missoula, Mont.

The award inscription reads: Presented to Jay H. Buckley for guiding and mentoring young scholars on their own journeys of discovery along the Lewis and Clark Trail, 2023.

Carol Buckley, son of Jack and Carol Buckley of Lyman, received his BA and MA in history at BYU before earning a PhD in history from the University of Nebraska in 2001. That fall, the BYU history department hired him, where he teaches history, coordinates the University’s interdisciplinary American Indian Studies minor, and directs the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

Buckley has authored or edited 10 books dealing with the history of the American West. His peer-reviewed academic books published by university presses include By His Own Hand? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis (2006); the award-winning William Clark: Indian Diplomat (2008); Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (2012); and Great Plains Forts (2023).

Buckley serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the LCTHF’s peer-reviewed quarterly journal, ‘We Proceeded On.’

In addition to his own publications, Buckley has been a guest editor several times, including two issues where he featured the research of BYU undergraduate students. Moreover, Buckley has co-authored or edited articles with 12 BYU history undergraduates in ‘We Proceeded On.’ Most recently, he and BYU history undergraduate Deveney Reber published an article on Reuben Lewis, the brother of Meriwether Lewis, in the February 2023 WPO. In the upcoming August 2023 WPO, he and BYU history undergraduate Maren Burgess have authored a groundbreaking article on Sacagawea.

This is not the first time the LCTHF has recognized Dr. Buckley. He was honored to be the Gary E. Moulton Inaugural Lecturer (2018) and Scholar-In-Residence at LCTHF national headquarters (2004) and is the recipient of the William P. Sherman Fellow Award (2015) and the Meritorious Achievement in Scholarship Award (2010). Buckley served on the LCTHF Board of Directors from 2007 to 2011 and as the national president in 2011-2012, a pivotal year during which he helped save the organization from internal division and collapse. He was recognized for this vital service by the National Park Service and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Superintendent Mark Weekley who presented him with the NPS Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2012.