Man With A Plan

Inspired by a trip to Astoria last February for the Mud Bowl, I found “Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire” by Peter Stark at the UO bookstore. A fascinating -- and at times, frightening -- tale, the book chronicles the exploration and settlement of America’s first colony on the continent’s West Coast.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor dispatched two advance parties -- one by ship around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and another by overland party -- to establish a base in the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half would die violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, exposure and worse.

Stark confirmed many things I already had known, but provided a veritable bounty of new information. What I knew: if not for Astor, the denizens of Oregon could have eventually become British, Canadian or even Russian, subjects. Once established, Astoria would become the first U.S. settlement on the Pacific Coast.

The overland expedition was only the second such transcontinental foray by Americans behind the Lewis and Clark expedition less than ten years earlier. The scale of his plan was mind-boggling. At this point in time, the wealth of the west lay in furs; there was no gold, no commercial fisheries, no wheat or timber harvested.

The expedition, supported by Thomas Jefferson and documented by none other than Washington Irving, would become the “largest commercial enterprise the world has ever known.” But “the grand venture” would exact a toll in lives and fortunes. It would also affect the ultimate configuration of America.

What I didn’t know: the early French settlers and fur trappers, known as “voyagers,” possessed a resilience despite their travails in the wilderness that the English decidedly lacked. While the Pilgrims grimly read their Bibles through long, dark nights, the French enjoyed feasts of game and wine accompanied by song.

Other learnings: Wilson Price Hunt, leader of the overland party, dubbed the loopy waterway they painstakingly traced westward the “Mad River.” We know it today as the Snake River, the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean.

Finally, the incredible wealth of marine life supported a standard of living among Northwest natives in many ways superior to 18th century living conditions in London or New York: tightly built longhouses with post-and-beam construction and an abundance of salmon and other marine life -- oysters, seals, halibut, whales and much more.

Though ultimately doomed to fail, Astor’s bold enterprise served as the first push of American settlers across the continent: finding the route, establishing a presence and keeping the idea of settlement alive in the public consciousness. Without it, the U.S. might look quite different. A compelling read: highly recommended.