The Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Robert Stuart's Narratives of His Overland Trip Eastward from Astoria in 1812-13 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803292341 ISBN 13: 9780803292345

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1995

Synopsis

Robert Stuart saw the American West a few years after Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and, like them, kept a journal of his epic experience. A partner in John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, the Scotsman shipped for Oregon aboard the Tonquin in 1810 and helped found the ill-fated settlement of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. In 1812, facing disaster, Stuart and six others slipped away from Astoria and headed east. His journal, edited and annotated by Philip Ashton Rollins, describes their hazardous 3,700-mile journey to St. Louis. Crossing the Rockies in winter, they faced death by cold, starvation, and hostile Indians. But they made history by discovering what came to be called the Oregon Trail, including South Pass, over which thousands of emigrants would travel west in mid-century. Besides Stuart’s narrative, this volume contains important material about Astoria and the fate of the Tonquin, as well as the harrowing account of Wilson Price Hunt, who headed a party of overlanders traveling east to join the Astorians.

About this title

Review:

Robert Stuart, a partner in John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, helped found an ill-fated trading post in Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The post fell to disease and hostile attacks, but by then, Stuart had left, heading back east to report to corporate headquarters. In making his way overland across mountains and vast prairies, Stuart blazed what would become the Oregon Trail. His journal, reproduced here, recounts his hardships and observations along the way, and it makes for fascinating reading. In this University of Nebraska Press edition, the noted Western historian Howard Lamar provides an introductory essay that discusses the significance of Stuart's trek to the later settlement of the Pacific Northwest.

About the Author:

Introducing this Bison Book edition is Howard Lamar, editor of the Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West and a professor of history at Yale University.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0803292341
• ISBN 13: 9780803292345
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 397
• Editor: Rollins Philip Ashton