Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The story of their expedition was largely forgotten until their diaries were rediscovered by a young ornithologist, edited, and published.
Most of us know the basic story of the Lewis and Clark expedition sent by President Jefferson to explore the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They crossed the continent between 1803 and 1806 in one of the great heroic accomplishments in American history.
The assignment—to select 10 books suitable for a lay reader that cover American history between the Constitution and the 1850s—sounds easier than it is.
The explorers who set out 200 years ago were in danger for three years. Their legacy was in danger for decade after decade, and it was Meriwether Lewis who almost killed it.
In the spring of 1990, I traveled up the Columbia River aboard a small vessel named Sea Lion on a trip which the cruise company called “In the Wake of Lewis and Clark.” Along the way, probably in a local museum, I noticed a sign bearing
After three times traveling the trail they blazed, the author imagines what the two captains of Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery would make of the civilization we have built on the tremendous promise they offered.
An exploration into the exploration of America
Piskiou,Vaches Sauvages, Buffler, Prairie Beeves—
One morning in July, 1966, a lone buffalo bull grazed near the highway on the mountain between Virginia City and Ennis, Montana, unmindful of the click of camera shutters or the rustle of hesitant tourists getting in and out of automobiles.
The Last Stand of King Grizzly
Bears and people have been at war for a long time-possibly longer than two predatory mammals should be, with any hope of mutual survival. In the beginning, the bears won almost every time, though not as often as the great cats did.
With the current wave of interest in black history, authentic Negro heroes have been eagerly sought in the American past.
The first men to follow Lewis and Clark across the continent to the Pacific were John Jacob Astor’s fur traders. They discovered the formidable chasm of Idaho’s Snake River—and almost never got out
Medicine was primitive and their knowledge of it limited, but in their hazardous journey to the Pacific, Lewis and Clark lost only one patient
John Charles Frémont never succeeded in living up to his fame, yet he was one of America’s great explorers
Featured Authors
