The Perilous West: Seven Amazing Explorers and the Founding of the Oregon Trail

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. (Dec.)