May June 2018

The Oregon Surveyor | 26 Vol. 41, No. 3 Book Review Book Review: Astoria, John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire By Peter Stark Copyright © 2014 by Peter Stark 304 pp.; $27.99 Review written by John Thatcher A storia is not a book about Sur- veying. Rather, it is the largely forgotten account of Astor’s at- tempt to create a global trading empire by financing and sending two expe- ditions—one by sea and one by land —to the west coast of scarcely-explored North America. The Pacific hub of Astor’s trading empire was to be a post estab- lished at the mouth of the Columbia River: Astoria. Astor launched the two expeditions in 1808, two years after the conclusion of the Lewis and Clark Expe- dition. Both met with disaster, though in different ways. The book closely follows both journeys as they make their way toward their inevitable tragic ends. Their demise was just as much, if not more, the result of arrogance, xenophobia (not to mention native hostility created two years earlier by Meriwether Lewis), bad judgment and bad luck as these were difficulties inherent in nineteenth cen- tury exploration. By 1808, Astor was already a very wealthy businessman living in Manhattan. Arriv- ing nearly penniless in New York shortly after the Revolutionary War, he went on to make his fortune in the fur trade and in New York real estate. He did, however, have a much larger ambition—a glob- al trade empire. The excellent quality of furs from the wilds of North America were highly coveted by the well-to-do in Europe, but also in China and cer- tain products from China were equally coveted in Europe and America. Astor commissioned his expeditions and con- trolled and communicated with them as much as was possible, without ever leav- ing Manhattan. The cast of characters in the sailing expedition included: • Captain Jonathan Thorn – a naval hero hired by Astor to captain the Tonquin around Cape Horn, to the West Coast, and ultimately to China. Thorn was a by-the-book, strict disciplinarian, unyielding, bellicose and dismissive of “savages.” • Duncan McDougall – a Scottish fur trader recruited from the North West Company, tapped to be second in command at the post to be established on the West Coast. • David Stuart and his nephew Robert Stuart – fur traders and share- holders in Astor’s enterprise. • Gabriel Franchére – a French Canadian clerk who kept a journal of the voyage. The cast of characters in the overland expedition included: • Wilson Price Hunt – a mild mannered businessman tapped by Astor to lead the overland party and be the head of the West Coast hub. • Donald Mackenzie – Scottish fur trader who was experienced in exploration and who had defected from the North West Company. • Pierre and Marie Dorion – Pierre was the son of Lewis & Clark’s interpreter Old Dorion. He was half-Sioux and would serve as the party’s interpreter. Marie was an Iowa Native woman who was incredibly resilient to the party’s hardships, bringing along two children to boot. • Ramsay Crooks – Scottish fur trader from Canada who joined the overland party in St. Louis. This book is so well written that I didn’t want to put it down. Thus, it qualifies for the cliché “page turner”. Even though I was forewarned of the impending disaster of both parties and the entire enterprise, the path to that disaster as told by Stark is a compelling read and historically sig- nificant. I noted above that this is not a book about Surveying, but lo and behold, our old friend David Thompsonmakes an appearance in Astoria toward the end. About the author Peter Stark lives in Montana and is a cor- respondent for Outside, has contributed articles to Smithsonian and The New York- er, and other publications, and has been nominated for aNational Magazine Award. He has written several books about ex- plorations—one of which should be of interest to our community: The Last Empty Spaces: A Past and Present Journey Through the Blank Spots on the American Map. I was interested to learn that after John Jacob Astor retired, he commissioned Washington Irving to write an account of the expeditions. The resulting book, published in 1836, was titled Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains.  x