Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier ― A History of the Oregon Trail - Softcover

Stark, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062218301 ISBN 13: 9780062218308

Publisher: Ecco, 2015

Synopsis

In the tradition of The Lost City of Z and Skeletons in the Zahara, Astoria is the thrilling, true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American fur-trading empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga of survival in which a band of explorers battled nature, starvation, and madness to establish the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest and opened up what would become the Oregon trail, a pivotal moment in U.S. westward expansion that permanently altered the nation’s landscape and its global standing.

Six years after Lewis and Clark’s journey to the Pacific Northwest began, two of the Eastern establishment’s leading figures, John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson, turned their sights to founding a colony akin to Jamestown on the West Coast and transforming the nation into a Pacific trading power. Author and correspondent for Outside magazine Peter Stark recreates this pivotal moment in 19th-century American history for the first time for modern readers, drawing on original source material to tell the amazing true story of the Astor Expedition.

Unfolding over the course of three years, from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship on the American frontier, both in the wilderness and at sea. Of the more than one hundred-forty members of the two advance parties that reached the West Coast―one crossing the Rockies, the other rounding Cape Horn―nearly half perished by violence. Others went mad. Within one year, the expedition successfully established Fort Astoria, a trading post on the Columbia River. Though the colony would be short-lived, it opened provincial American eyes to the potential of the Western coast and its founders helped blaze the Oregon Trail.

Drawing on firsthand accounts, this epic survival story uncovers the brutal reality of a venture that changed America forever:

• Two Epic Journeys: One party’s harrowing overland trek across the Rockies, and another’s perilous sea voyage around Cape Horn―both converging on a single, dangerous prize.
• High-Stakes Global Trade: The grand ambition of John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson to build a commercial empire that would rival the British and transform the United States into a Pacific power.
• A Brutal Fight for Survival: A gripping account of the battles against starvation, madness, and violence that claimed nearly half the expedition’s members.
• A Forgotten Chapter of History: The forgotten saga of Fort Astoria, the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and how its founders helped blaze what would become the Oregon Trail.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Stark is an adventurer and historian. He is the author of Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, a New York Times bestseller and a PEN USA Literary Award finalist. A former correspondent for Outside magazine, Stark has also been published in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Men’s Journal. His other books include Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father, a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize; and Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation. Based in Montana, he and his family have also lived in Mozambique and Brazil.

From the Back Cover

In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent. Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of the men who made the journey. Though Astoria, the colony itself, would be short-lived, its founders opened provincial American eyes to the remarkable potential of the Western coast, discovered the route that became the Oregon Trail, and permanently altered the nation's landscape and global standing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062218301
• ISBN 13: 9780062218308
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400