Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West |...

Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West | Stephen Ambrose | Outstanding!

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Undaunted Courage ...

	Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West Stephen Ambrose Simon & Schuster, 1997 - 521 pages average customer review:based on 351 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Exciting piece of history...

An incredible writer at his finest. The historical detail is fascinating and the adventure is incredible. You feel as if you are making this journey with Lewis & Clark. This was my first Ambrose book that I read. He has become one of my favorite writers because he never cheats the reader. He knows his story, his characters and his history and weaves a tale that is fascinating.

Outstanding!

Whether you are a history buff, a history student, or just like reading about the American west, this is a must read. Stepen E. Ambrose has written a well documented piece. You find yourself in the boat with Lewis and Clark as they traverse the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. You feel the excitement that Meriwether Lewis brought to the mission. After you read this you'll need to see the museum under the Arch in St. Louis, MO.

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Pure Ambrose

What a word picture Ambrose paints of this wonderfull and dangerous experience. I understand that he has been to a lot of the locations that the L&C expedition traveled.

We are planning a paddlewheel excursion of the Columbia and Snake rivers out of Portland this spring. This book and other accounts of this expedition will give us a better appreciation of this historic event.

Three incredible explorers: Lewis, Clark and Mackenzie

Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose.

This review will focus on some of the incredible country encountered by Lewis and Clark (L&C) and some of the awesome weather experienced. This will also bring in a bit of a comparison with Alexander Mackenzie a bit further north.
Lewis and Clark's voyage up the Missouri River--following the Louisiana Purchase--is a great story. It established, at least in part, the U. S. Claim to the Oregon Territory. Jefferson had also hoped for a major river coming down from Canada and thereby giving the U. S. a claim to the Canadian Prairies. L&C reported there was no such river.
Lewis and Clark traversed much of North Dakota and Montana, an area immediately south of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Lewis took particular interest to note what rivers came south into the Missouri There were a few, but they were relatively small. However this interest indicated a sensitivity to the British presence not too far north.
Canada was a hotbed for fur traders and explorers, primarily due to the Hudson Bay and the North West companies. The dominant motive of the explorers was a search for the so called Northwest Passage. One explorer, Alexander Mackenzie, was of particular importance. He took many tortuous trips across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and into northern Alberta, all by water. The last part of this northern odyssey brought him to the Clearwater River in far northwest Saskatchewan. The Clearwater was the end of a historical 12 mile portage from the Churchill River. As one moved north through the forest, one would suddenly break into the clear at the rim of this canyon, with a magnificent view. Alexander Mackenzie reported that from this "precipice, which rises upwards of a thousand feet above the plain beneath it, commands a most extensive, romantic and ravishing prospect." The Clearwater would then flow downstream to the Athabaska River and places north.
Two of Mackenzie's trips stand out. The first one started at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska in 1789 and led to the discovery of the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. The second trip also started at Fort Chipewyan and used the Peace River and other rivers to reach the Pacific, 1792-93, near Bella Coola, BC, about 300 miles north of Vancouver, and 12 years ahead of Lewis and Clark. This event, when finally published in 1801, caused great concern in Washington. At that time four countries--Great Britain, Russia, Spain and the U. S.--had an interest in the area called the Oregon Country. Hence, this trip by MacKenzie surely contributed to the launching of the Lewis and Clark odyssey.
While there is no doubt that their trip was one of undaunted courage, it was also one of great luck. This is based primarily on their heading into the mountains, crossing the Montana and Idaho divide (due west of the northwest corner of Wyoming) about the middle of August. When they left the last tributary of the Missouri they had no idea what kind of mountain territory lied ahead and how they were going to get out of these mountains. And winter was coming.
Lewis and three others had moved ahead of the main party to scout their situation. Their supplies were limited to what they could carry. They had no horses. Lewis had hoped for an easy portage to a major branch of the Columbia. All he could see instead, when he reached the divide, was "immense ranges of high mountains, still to the west of us- - -." But the next day they immediately ran into a friendly band of Shoshones, and indeed, they had a large heard of horses with them. And the following day, after much exchange of gifts, and much partying, the Indians agreed to take 30 horses and go with him to meet Clark and help bring their supplies over the divide.
However, this may well be the absolutely worst spot to have crossed the continental divide. There were no good options on how to proceed, once across the divide.
* If the troop went south, past the "Lost River Range", they would soon discover that "losing rivers" is exactly what happens. The runoff disappears into extremely porous volcanic rock. Hence one would have to carry all their water supply across these treeless, lava deserts. If they somehow made it through that hazard, the Snake River and the impassable Snake River Canyon awaited.
* If they went due west, the option was the Salmon River, through what is now called The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. The Smithsonian Guide described this area as "the start of Salmon River Canyon, an enormous gash as it cuts across central Idaho. "It is the second deepest gorge in North America, and it joins the deepest - the Snake River Canyon." Indeed Clark explored this river a short distance before agreeing that it was impassable.
* The third option, which was the one they took, was to head north, through country described by the Shoshone Chief as follows: ". . . the road was a very bad one - - - and that they had suffered excessively with hunger - - - as there was no game in that part of the mountains which were broken rocky and so thickly covered with timber that they could scarcely pass." To take this option they had to retreat across the divide, then cross it again. "As the party ascended toward the Divide, the going grew worse. "On September 3, it snowed."
They were desperately searching for a better stream to get them down from the Bitterroot Mountains. Remarkably this was to be another Clearwater River. After a week or so of terrible indigestion from a diet heavy to roots, and about ten days building new canoes they were ready to get out of the mountains by October 6. Although far superior to the Salmon River, the Clearwater was still very swift with many rapids. One of the troopers was so petrified running these rapids he deserted. The canoes and the remaining troopers survived and reached the Snake River by the 10th. While they still had much dangerous river mileage to navigate, the worst was over.
The fact that they survived--what today would have been surely considered to be a very risky trip plan--was testimony to their outstanding leadership, to their woodsman ability, to their incredible boat building capability and to their ability to handle white-water.
The fact that they survived was also testimony to the skills and savvy of a Shoshone Indian maid - Sacagawea. She was married to a French Canadian trader, Pierre Charbonneau, who had been hired on in 1804 as a scout for their party. She knew about the Shoshone customs and schedules and could translate for them.
The L&C troop had survived the terribly cold and windy winter at what is now Mandan, ND. They were now faced with a different type of terrible winter at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia. While not as cold, this site was always close to freezing and always wet. It is hard to say which was more miserable. Finally the fact that they survived was also testimony to their incredible luck. They were fortunate not to have met the fate of the Donner Party, a little bit later in the century, and a bit further south. This sad party became trapped by a series of blizzards, ten in all, starting late in October, 1846.

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excellent read for the history buff

Ambrose precedes his reputation with this excellent account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The primary focus of the book is Lewis with a heavy dose of Thomas Jefferson and his influence on Lewis. The book is very detailed and an accurate account of the Corps of Discovery expedition. The details could be dry for some readers, but for those with an inherent interest in history, this is a great read. Undaunted Courage builds upon previous biographies of the Lewis/Clark expedition and adds its own spin through the discussion of Jefferson. I learned lots from this book and would highly recommend it.

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