Description
Book SynopsisIn the many published accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition, historians have tended to undervalue the explorers’ encounter with Columbia River country. Historian David Nicandri shifts the focus to an essential goal of the explorers: to discover the headwaters of the Columbia and a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
Trade Review"It is a pleasant surprise to find much that is new and important in David Nicandri's River of Promise."
--Oregon Historical Quarterly
"[Nicandri] brings a refreshing perspective and good advice: to read the expedition journals in context, to not take them at face value, to look at the details for fresh insights."
--Crosscut
Table of ContentsForeword
Preface
Prologue The Voice of Meriwether Lewis
Chapter 1 The Great River of the West
Chapter 2 Lessons in Continental Geography
Chapter 3 Half Starved
Chapter 4 Not One Stick of Timber
Chapter 5 The New Sacagawea Myth
Chapter 6 Forks of the Columbia
Chapter 7 William Clark: Scientific Geographer
Chapter 8 Commerce and Pestilence in Indian Country
Chapter 9 The Illusion of Cape Disappointment
Chapter 10 Marooned
Chapter 11 The Solitary Hero
Chapter 12 End of Voyage
Chapter 13 Following Mackenzie, the Protocols of Exploration, and the Conventions of the Travel Narrative
Chapter 14 The "Vote" at Station Camp
Chapter 15 Winter's Delay
Chapter 16 The Return Voyage and the Dissolution of Meriwether Lewis
Epilogue The Fidelity of William Clark
Conclusion Final Reflections on Lewis, Clark, and the Promise of the Columbia River
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes
Index
