Review by Choice Review
Fur trade historians will learn nothing new from this book, and may be annoyed at some oversimplification. But it is not intended for them. The author is a self-described free-lance writer of adventure and exploration. In this work, he has taken Washington Irving's 1837 commissioned laudatory history of John Jacob Astor's early-19th-century prescient effort to establish a United States of America presence on the northwest coast and, with some additional research, made it a thoroughly enjoyable adventure story while remaining true to the broad history. Stark's account of both prongs of Astor's ill-fated efforts--a maritime journey and an overland expedition to reach the mouth of the Colombia River and establish a fur trading post--hold the reader's attention in a way that academic historians rarely achieve. Numerous extras, such as a cast of characters, eight pages of pictures, maps, a prologue, an epilogue, and a bibliography add to the work. Unfortunately, 29 pages of footnotes after the text are not as useful as they could be because they are not numbered, but refer only to pages. Summing Up: Recommended. General, undergraduate, and public libraries. P. T. Sherrill emeritus, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
If things had gone differently, Thorn and Hunt might be names as familiar to school-children as Lewis and Clark, and the Pacific Northwest might be known not only for its gray weather and laid-back residents, but also as the epicenter of an international trading empire. In 1810, less than a decade after Lewis and Clark set off to explore the newly purchased American interior, John Jacob Astor, a New York businessman who made his fortune selling "fine musical instruments and wild-animal pelts," dispatched separate parties of explorers, one overland, one by sea, to establish Astoria - a trading outpost intended to be what contemporaries called "the largest commercial enterprise the world has ever known." Encouraged by Thomas Jefferson, Astor hoped to create an emporium at the mouth of the Columbia River that would collect furs from the western half of North America and oversee a triangular trade with London and China. In "Astoria," Stark, a correspondent for Outside magazine, details the epic ambition and failure of this effort, which was complicated by bad weather, hostile Indian tribes and inept leadership. Each party also faced its own set of problems: Having fallen months behind schedule, Wilson Hunt's overland expedition walked right into a blistering Northwest winter (which forced them to eat their horses), while, at sea, the "wilderness hippies" aboard Jonathan Thorn's Tonquin regarded their captain with suspicion - a situation that didn't improve when Thorn attempted to abandon nine passengers in the Falklands. The surviving members of the groups did make it out west and even managed to set up an outpost, but eventually the "dank, dark setting, fringed by violent death," got the better of them, and they sold Astoria to a rival fur company. It would be years before John Jacob Astor would accept defeat, and even when he did, he probably never got the full story. Too bad: Stark's delightful narrative is proof that even though Astor didn't leave the legacy he intended, his grand failure certainly deserves its own place in history.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 6, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
In 1810, two years after the Lewis and Clark expedition crossed the American continent, wealthy fur merchant John Jacob Astor financed an overland and overseas expedition to build the equivalent of a Jamestown settlement on the Pacific Coast. Over a three-year period, separate groups, comprising a hodgepodge of Americans, French, and Scottish Canadians, set out for the coast. The Tonquin sailed for six months from Boston to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest to create an outpost from which to circumnavigate between China, the eastern U.S., and Europe, to take advantage of the rage for otter pelts. At the same time, 140 adventurers and investors set off in two parties, one crossing the treacherous Rockies; nearly half of them died. Stark, author of Last Breath (2001) and The Last Empty Spaces (2010), offers a thrilling true-adventure tale filled with unforgettable characters, clashes of culture, ambition, and physical hardships from starvation to Indian attacks to cruel weather. A breathtaking account of an expedition that changed the geography of a young nation and its place in global commerce and politics.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by 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.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by 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.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A correspondent for Outside recovers a remarkable piece of history: the story of America's first colony on the continent's West coast. Beginning in 1810, John Jacob Astor (17631848) set in motion an audacious plan to create "the largest commercial enterprise the world has ever known." He planned to control North America's entire fur trade by establishing a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River, the lynchpin of a network extending west to the Pacific Rim and east to Europe. President Thomas Jefferson encouraged the venture, envisioning Astor's proposed settlement as the beginning of a "sister democracy" to the United States. From his base in Manhattan, Astor launched a two-pronged expedition: an Overland Party that carved a path later known as the Oregon Trail and a Sea-Going Party that sailed around Cape Horn to the coastal region west of the Rockies. Stark (The Last Empty Places: A Past and Present Journey through the Blank Spots on the American Map, 2010, etc.) spins the tale of these arduous journeys, the founding of Astoria and the outpost's abandonment during the War of 1812. He focuses on the tyrannical sea captain, the beleaguered, consensus-seeking businessman, and the shady, self-important fur trader who headed the parties and the French voyageurs, Yankee seamen, and Scottish woodsmen they commanded, as well as the Native American tribes they encountered. If the character of Astor remains indistinct, not so the horrors faced by the Astorians. Their various ordeals give Stark the chance to comment on cold water immersion and hypothermia, the efficacy of pounded, dried wild cherries in combating scurvy, and the intriguing role of what we would today call PTSD in the early exploration of North America. Near the end of his life, Astor employed Washington Irving to tell the astonishing story of Astoria. With Stark, this almost unbelievable tale remains in expert hands. A fast-paced, riveting account of exploration and settlement, suffering and survival, treachery and death.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
