Prologue: The Timely Arrival of This Poor Unfortunate Woman
Chapter 1: I Shall Have Two Boats Well Manned and Armed
Chapter 2: A Powerful Company Is Forming
Chapter 3: Dissolved by Mutual Consent
Chapter 4: We All Now Became Blind from the Reflection of the Sun’s
Rays
Chapter 5: Whiskey Flowed Like Milk and Honey in the Land of
Canaan
Chapter 6: About Seventy Able Bodied Men, Nerved to Hardship
Chapter 7: Families, Plantations, and All Vanished
Chapter 8: A Very Sad Recollection
Chapter 9: The Inscrutable Ways of Providence
Epilogue: Desolation and Horror Stared Me in the Face
Chronology
Larry E. Morris is the author of The Fate of the Corps, which was named a Top Academic Title by Choice and a History Book Club selection. Morris has published articles on early Western history in such periodicals as The Missouri Historical Review, American History, and We Proceeded On. He is a senior editor with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He and his wife, Deborah, have four children—Isaac, Courtney, Justin, and Whitney—and live in Salt Lake City.
Morris (The Fate of the Corps: What Became of the Lewis and Clark
Explorers After the Expedition) here focuses on the early 1800s
Western fur trade, beginning with Robert McClellan and Ramsey
Crooks, both of whom started up the Missouri River in 1806, each
meeting the returning Lewis and Clark expedition. Despite the
title, the adventures of many more than seven major historical
figures are presented here in a single integrated narrative about
the search for a new overland route to reach the Oregon country.
Prominently featured is Marie Dorion, the Iowa Indian wife of
interpreter and hunter Pierre Dorian Jr. In 1811–12 she became the
second woman in recorded Western history to travel cross-country to
the Pacific Ocean, with voyageurs employed by St. Louis fur
merchant Wilson Price Hunt. Marie Dorion’s adventures parallel
those of Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition; the two women
even seem to have befriended each other between 1809 and 1811.
VERDICT Highly recommended for both specialists and general
readers, this history of the Western fur trade and early explorers
along the Oregon Trail is a welcome addition to the literature.
*Library Journal, Starred Review*
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.
*Publishers Weekly*
Written for academics and history buffs alike, Larry E. Morris has
provided a new perspective of six noteworthy frontiersmen and one
female who made their marks in the exploration of the early
American West. . .He paints good word pictures in the reader's mind
and provides the reader with a new appreciation for the fur
traders, trappers, and Indians involved in founding the Oregon
Trail. . .Morris captures with intensity the lives, events, and
hardships experienced by those involved as they sought to make
their marks for history.
*Overland Journal*
In this interpretation of western history, the West becomes the
backdrop for an exciting story of heroic and entrepreneurial men
who overcome great obstacles to expand the reach and operation of
American society, economy, capital, and governance.
*Oregon Historical Quarterly*
Larry E. Morris, the author of this appropriately titled work, has
done three things well. First, he has chosen a long-untreated story
with appropriate respect and found its nuances. In doing so he
inspires the reader's interest in learning and highlights the pure
joy of discovering history. Second, he presents comprehensive
references, analytical notes, and concise biographical profiles
about various characters in a lastingly useful manner. Resources
are created in the text and an appendix, providing a foundation for
further study by even the most casual reader. Finally, he leaves
the reader wanting more - more detail, more substance, and more
references still. ... The Perilous West is a thoughtful study in
chance and the potential influence of individual human beings on
the course of events of an entire nation. ... The Perilous West
will make an excellent reference work that will be a lasting credit
to author and publisher alike.
*Annals of Wyoming*
The Perilous West is both a tribute . . . as well as a useful
reference work bridging the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the
heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. . . .Morris has done his
homework and his genealogical research goes far in providing new
information on many obscure or poorly-documented individuals.
*We Proceeded On*
Even as Morris is providing a competent survey of events on the
northern Great Plains and the Rockies in the wake of Lewis and
Clark, he also effectively demonstrates just how perilous this West
could be for Euro-Americans. All too frequently adrift in
territories completely foreign to them and confronted by some
indigenous peoples intolerant of intruders, the ranks of the
earliest Euro-American voyagers were drastically thinned by
starvation, drowning, disease, and battle. As Morris describes such
events, he redirects the reader’s attention to those relatively
anonymous figures, such as John Hoback, Jacob Reznor, and Edward
Robinson. . . .Morris also sheds light on an intriguing family, the
Dorions, who played their own significant role in the arrival of
American exploration and enterprise in the Great Plains and the
Rockies. By doing so, Morris reminds us, in his own way, of the
importance of family and kinship. . . . [T]hose readers who wish to
bolster their understanding of the American republic’s tentative
first steps into the worlds around, above, and beyond the Missouri
at the dawn of the nineteenth century would find much of value in
this volume.
*Great Plains Quarterly*
Larry Morris picks up where he left off with his previous
examination of men who made up the Corps of Discovery to present
the too often neglected stories of seven early frontiersmen and
their influence on the exploration of the West. Morris brings fresh
insight to this study of several important individuals who made
significant contributions to an expanding nation following the
return of Lewis and Clark. Though each character examined in the
book has their own exciting story of gripping adventure, Morris
does a splendid job weaving their inter-related involvement in a
young Rocky Mountain fur trade into a well-researched, concise
narrative, bringing long-awaited recognition to seven people who
impacted the creation of the Oregon Trail.
*Jim Hardee, Editor, The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, Museum
of the Mountain Man, Pinedale, WY*
Author Larry E. Morris follows up his excellent Fate of the Corps:
What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers After the Expedition
with a sweeping chronicle of the forerunners of the Oregon Trail.
His narrative of the adventures of Manuel Lisa, Wilson Price Hunt,
Robert Stuart, Robert McClellan, Ramsay Crooks, Pierre and Marie
Dorion, and many others reveals that misfortunes often proved as
significant as successes in shaping the history of the American
West.
*Jay H. Buckley, Author of William Clark: Indian Diplomat;
co-author of By His Own Hand? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether
Lewis; and, Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the
West*
Larry Morris deftly chronicles the escapades of seven venturesome
westerners whose pioneering journeys helped establish the Oregon
Trail along a route that became the preferred path to the Pacific.
This well-told tale will please academics and history buffs alike.
Move over Lewis and Clark!
*William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey the Life of William
Clark and coauthor of The First Chouteaus: River Barons of Early
St. Louis*
Morris (The Fate of the Corps: What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers After the Expedition) here focuses on the early 1800s Western fur trade, beginning with Robert McClellan and Ramsey Crooks, both of whom started up the Missouri River in 1806, each meeting the returning Lewis and Clark expedition. Despite the title, the adventures of many more than seven major historical figures are presented here in a single integrated narrative about the search for a new overland route to reach the Oregon country. Prominently featured is Marie Dorion, the Iowa Indian wife of interpreter and hunter Pierre Dorian Jr. In 1811-12 she became the second woman in recorded Western history to travel cross-country to the Pacific Ocean, with voyageurs employed by St. Louis fur merchant Wilson Price Hunt. Marie Dorion's adventures parallel those of Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition; the two women even seem to have befriended each other between 1809 and 1811. VERDICT Highly recommended for both specialists and general readers, this history of the Western fur trade and early explorers along the Oregon Trail is a welcome addition to the literature.-Nathan Bender, Albany Cty. P.L., Laramie, WY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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