Astoria : John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's lost Pacific empire : a story of wealth, ambition, and survival

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Title:

Astoria : John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's lost Pacific empire : a story of wealth, ambition, and survival

Alternate title:

John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's lost Pacific empire : a story of wealth, ambition, and survival

Author:

Stark, Peter, 1954- author.

Summary:

Documents the 1810 to 1813 expedition, financed by millionaire John Jacob Astor and encouraged by Thomas Jefferson, to establish Fort Astoria, a trading post on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

The launch -- The journey -- Pacific Empire and war -- Fate of the Astorians.

Physical Description:

xv, 366 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Personal Subject:

Astor, John Jacob, 1763-1848.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826.

Geographic Term:

West (U.S.) -- Discovery and exploration.

Northwest, Pacific -- History.

Astoria (Or.) -- History.

Publisher:

Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers,

Electronic Access:

Contributor biographical information

Publication Date:

2014

ISBN:

9780062218292

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2014]

Call Number:

978 STARK

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003058156	Adult Nonfiction	978 STARK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

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 empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga 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, permanently altering the nation's landscape and its global standing.

Six years after Lewis and Clark's began their journey to the Pacific Northwest, 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 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 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.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

At the dawn of the 19th century, America's Eastern coast had largely been settled, but the West remained largely uncharted and undeveloped. In 1810, entrepreneur John Jacob Astor proposed to Thomas Jefferson that Astor start a trading colony in what is now Oregon. In a page-turning tale of ambition, greed, politics, survival, and loss, historian Stark (The Last Empty Spaces) chronicles Astor's mad dash to establish a fur-trading company, Astoria, which would capture the territory's wealth and allow Jefferson to inaugurate his vision of a democracy from sea to shining sea. Astor sent two parties to build his empire, one by sea and one by land. They were to reach the Pacific coast at the same time, but dissension among the leaders of the overland party, as well as Indian attacks and other logistical difficulties, kept it from arriving according to plan. The sea party aboard the Tonquin was scarcely more fortunate. The establishment of the short-lived Astoria coincided with the War of 1812, and in October 1813, Duncan McDougall sold out the trading post to the British. Stark eloquently concludes that though Astoria failed, Astor's vision and drive pushed settlers to establish a Western presence, altering the shape of the American nation. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Stark (The Last Empty Places) vividly writes of fur trader John Jacob Astor's -capitalist quest, put forth in 1810, to establish an American colony on the northern Pacific coast at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River. His grand plans to connect an Atlantic-based America to the trade routes of the Pacific were encouraged by President Jefferson; both men wanted an American presence firmly established in the continental Northwest in competition with the British fur explorations of David Thompson. Stark's strong familiarity with the terrain of the Rocky Mountain states and the use of the explorers' journals serve him well in his reconstruction of the expedition's overland journeys along the Snake River of Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. His fascinating account of the journey's fast sailing ship, the Tonquin, headed to Oregon by sea, provides a dramatic narrative of power struggles with the coastal Native Americans. -VERDICT Stark's book complements Larry Morris's The Perilous West, which concentrates on the establishment of the Oregon Trail. Lay and undergraduate readers will appreciate this title that never loses its focus on the founding of Astoria as the prime objective within Astor's push west. [See -Prepub Alert, 9/9/13]-Nathan Bender, Albany Cty. P.L., Laramie, WY (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.