River of the West: Stories from the Columbia - Hardcover

Clark, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062585169 ISBN 13: 9780062585165

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1995

Synopsis

The Columbia River is the great river of both the American West and of the American imagination. From the glacial floods that began to shape it twelve thousand years ago to its discovery, conquest, and colonization by the English, Spanish, and Americans, the river's story encompasses not only the full range of American history but a geography of myth, hope, and tragedy: the impact of conquest on the native peoples; the idea of a United States reaching to the Pacific; the material and spiritual quests of European adventurers, New England missionaries, and emigrants from the drought-ridden plains of the Midwest; and hydropowered New Deal dreams of peace and prosperity.
In River of the West, the Columbia unfolds itself in stories of the people who lived and died on its shores; "discovered" and claimed it for their country; or depended on its dam-generated power or bountiful salmon.
Portraits of the shaman Smohalla, leader of the "renegade" Indians who refused to settle on the reservations, and Christian missionary Narcissa Whitman, who was mutilated and murdered by the tribe she had come to redeem (a tribe nearly destroyed by the diseases brought by white settlers), plumb the perspectives of the indigenous river peoples, the dreams of explorers and settlers, and the drama that resulted when the two met.
Detailing Franklin Delano Roosevelt's stirring speeches urging the construction of the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams, Clark evokes the "hydro-socialism" that brought dust-bowl refugees and Woody Guthrie to the lush Northwest and went on to create boomtowns as the dams powered a huge portion of the nation's World War II manufacturing effort. And, through the accounts of five imprisoned Indian fishermen, Clark reveals the tragic story of how the dams made salmon extinct on two-thirds of the Columbia and flooded ancient fishing grounds, stripping Indians of their livelihood and traditional way of life.
Dramatic, often profound, and always riveting, River of the West is an unforgettable portrait of the West's greatest waterway.
Providing material and spiritual sustenance for at least two dozen native river peoples; the impetus for countless expeditions by explorers - and exploiters - from around the world; central to the national visions of both Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the subject of more than twenty songs by Woody Guthrie; and the site of a "salmonscam" that pitted the U.S. government against traditional Yakima fishermen, the Columbia - the mythic, eternal river of the American West - has many stories to tell.

About this title

Review

"On a day not so very different from any other, the wind began to blow...." So begins Robert Clark's epic history of the Columbia River; twelve thousand years, however, separate that day from present time. All those years ago, a glacial dam in the Bitterroot Mountains of modern-day Montana burst, sending 500 feet of water, rock, and ice with cataclysmic force into the Columbia River; the surge scoured and carved to "depths of one thousand feet and a speed of fifty miles per hour." In a blip of geologic time, creatures, plant life, soil, and hills were wiped out.

From its description of the Earth's violent reconstruction--mirrored by the river's own evolution--River of the West proceeds to paint portraits of those who lived and died on the Columbia's banks: conquered Indians, European explorers, missionaries and settlers, and the New Deal dreamers who would tame the river with their dams.The rich intersection of 16th-century explorers, scientists, and cartographers sealed the river's fate. With both a historian's detailed breadth of knowledge and a storyteller's gift,Clark traces the prevalent myths about America, including the belief that it was an island remnant of Atlantis with passage. Mapmakers, even those who had never sailed beyond the English Channel, built myth upon myth and charted imaginary routes. However, one belief held firm--the existence of a perfectly horizontal way through North America: the Northwest Passage. Centuries later, this would turn out to be the great Columbia.

A highly enjoyable read, River of the West describes the hijinks of the many colorful explorers and travel "consultants" of the age (many of whom never ventured outside of their own countries), as well as the Old World mentality that valued the exotica and wealth of the New. Grand and grandiose, epic and historically exact, River of the West recreates--through journals and accounts--the awesome power of the Columbia River before the dams; it translates more than 500 years of history into stories of vivid characters, grueling adventures, and shattered dreams.

From the Publisher

An award-winning writer reveals the dramatic, often magical, always riveting history of the magnificent Columbia River through the lives and stories of native peoples, explorers, trappers, and scouts.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0062585169
• ISBN 13: 9780062585165
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416