The Perilous West
Seven Amazing Explorers and the Founding of the Oregon Trail
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Although a host of adventurers stormed west in 1806 after Lewis and Clark’s safe return, seven of them left unique legacies because of their monumental journeys, their lionhearted spirit in the face of hardship, and the way their paths intertwined time and again. The Perilous West tells this riveting story in depth for the first time, focusing on each of the seven explorers in turn – Ramsay Crooks, Robert McClellan, John Hoback, Jacob Reznor, Edward Robinson, Pierre Dorion, and Marie Dorion. These seven counted the Tetons, Hells Canyon, and South Pass among their discoveries. More importantly, they forged the Oregon Trail–a path destined to link the Atlantic coast with the Pacific, spurring national expansion as it carried trappers, soldiers, pioneers, missionaries, and gold-seekers westward. The PerilousWest begins in 1806, when Crooks and McClellan meet Lewis and Clark, and the vast expanse from the Dakotas to the Pacific coast appears a commercial paradise. The story ends in 1814, when a band of French Canadian trappers rescue Marie Dorion, and even John Jacob Astor’s well-financed enterprise has ended in violence and chaos, placing the protagonists squarely in the context of Thomas Jefferson’s monumental opening of the West, which stalled with the War of 1812.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition prompted numerous similar attempts to explore and exploit the West, paving the way for cutthroat rivalries and revolving partnerships between competing fur traders, trappers, and native peoples. Morris (The Fate of the Corps) takes a scholarly look at the ill-fated lives of seven explorers, including an abused and pregnant Native American who ventured with her two small children through hostile territory and endured intense deprivation. While noted fur company owners such as John Jacob Astor waged economic war against other well-heeled rivals, the ruthlessness and bitterness was much more personal for trappers deep in various Native American hunting grounds, where they fought natural obstacles like unforgiving storms and the raging Snake River, as well as each other. The detailed descriptions of these dangerous treks render some of the lesser-known pioneers interchangeable in their misery and struggles; the appendix of biographical histories and chronology is crucial for armchair navigation. Although the expeditions are sometimes difficult to track, Morris offers a revealing look behind frontier fatalism and the drive to be the first to discover and capitalize on America's hidden resources. Illus.
