Across the Great Divide : Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail

by Laton Mccartney

• ISBN13: 9780743249249
• ISBN10: 0743249240
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-26
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Resurrecting a pivotal moment in American history, Across the Great Divide tells the triumphant never-before-told story of the young Scottish fur trader and explorer who discovered the way West, changing the face of the country forever. In the heroic tradition of Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage comes the story of Robert Stuart and his trailblazing discovery of the Oregon Trail. Lewis and Clark had struggled across the high Rockies in present-day Montana and Idaho, but their route had been too perilous for wagon trains to follow. Then, six years after the Corps of Discovery returned from the Pacific, Stuart found the route that would make westward migration possible. Setting out in 1812 on the return trip from establishing John Jacob Astor's fur trading post at Astoria on the Oregon Coast, Stuart and six companions traveled from west to east for more than 3,000 grueling miles by canoe, horseback, and ultimately by foot, following the mountains south until they came upon the one gap in the 3,000-mile-long Rocky Mountain chain that was passable by wagon. Situated in southwest Wyoming between the southern extremes of the Wind River Range and the Antelope Hills, South Pass was a direct route with access to water leading from the Missouri River to the Rockies. Stuart and his traveling party were the first white men to traverse what would become the gateway to the Far West and the Oregon Trail. In the decades to come, an estimated 300,000 emigrants followed the corridor Stuart blazed on their way to the fertile farmlands of the Willamette Valley and the goldfields of California. Across the Great Divide brings to life Stuart's ten-month journey and the remarkable courage, perseverance, and resourcefulness these seven men displayed in overcoming unimaginable hardships. Stuart had come to the Pacific Northwest to make his fortune in the fur trade, but during his stay in the wilderness he emerged as a pioneering western naturalist of the first rank, a perceptive student of Native American cultures, and one of America's most important, if least-known, explorers. Today Stuart's expedition has largely been forgotten, but it ranks as one of the great adventure odysseys of the nineteenth century. A direct descendant of Stuart, award-winning journalist Laton McCartney has obtained unique access to Stuart's letters and diaries from the expedition, lending depth and unparalleled insight to a story that is at once an important account of a pivotal time in American history and a gripping, page-turning adventure.

Author Biography

Laton Mccartney grew up on cattle ranches in Colorado and Wyoming and is a graduate of Yale University. Winner of the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award, McCartney has written for numerous publications including The Washington Post, Upside, Fortune, Manhattan Inc., [More], Catalyst, Town & Country, and Newsweek International. He is the author of the national bestselling Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story and lives in Manhattan and Wyoming with his wife, Nancy.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword

1 Mr. Astor's Proposal

2 A Highlander's Progress

3 Hidden Agenda

4 In Pursuit of Castor canadensis

5 Starting Over

6 Final Preparations

7 Aboard the Tonquin: New York to the Falkland Islands

8 Paradise

9 Arrival

10 Getting Settled

11 The Overlanders: From Montreal to the Missouri

12 Visitors

13 The Diplomat

14 The Rainy Season

15 The Overlanders: From the Missouri to Astoria

16 Dangerous Passage, Reunion, and Rescue

17 Bearers of Bad News

18 Taking Stock

19 Send-Off

20 Jeopardy

21 Up the Columbia

22 The Snake

23 Shortcut

24 Crows

25 To the Tetons

26 Hunger

27 South Pass

28 The Chateau of Indolence

29 Reversals

30 Uprooted

31 Winter March

32 Surrender

33 Down the Platte

34 St. Louis and New York

Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index