Saw the thread which mentioned the air rifle and video mentioned the huge amount of journal entries they had from the expedition.

I don't think a direct reading of the journal would be interesting to me, but maybe a condensed version of their journey with all the exciting stuff mentioned or described might be good.

Also open to anything similar in regards to early explorers of our nations wilderness and/or dealing w/ indigenous peoples.

prefer factual or at least fact based.
Regarding fact-based; I love historical fiction sometimes if I know that the writer has done their research well.

I live near one of the areas that Lewis and Clark came through and the book I always hear about is Undaunted Courage by Stephan Ambrose.

If you're really into it you can even sign up for a tour:
https://stephenambrosetours.co...ewis-and-clark-tour/

Yup, Stephen E. Ambrose: Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery (1998).

Another vote for the Ambrose book. Incidentally, you can download The Journals of Lewis and Clark to your Kindle without charge. (I just did. )

The Stephen Ambrose book Undaunted Courage doesn't read like a history book it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. It's a good read.

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
The Stephen Ambrose book Undaunted Courage doesn't read like a history book it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. It's a good read.

That sold it, right there. Thanks !

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
The Stephen Ambrose book Undaunted Courage doesn't read like a history book it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. It's a good read.

That sold it, right there. Thanks !

Well, everyone got in first, but plus 1 for Undaunted Courage.

Even stranger, another of his, Nothing Like It In The World makes big business and the transcontinental railway pretty riveting.

I downloaded their journals for the Kindle.
Some were not interesting, I would say, but there were parts that gave insight to their daily trials. One I remember is where they came to the river area now known as Great Falls, Montana.
They had to traverse their watercraft and supplies by land around the falls. The length of the falls is approximately 16 miles. It took them 30 days.

PC

I'm looking forward to reading the journals. I've got to finish Chernow's Hamilton biography and then the Eisenhower book. Apparently the journals have the original orthography and haven't been edited. That's great!

A couple of the negative reviews on Amazon complained about it being boring and that the authors were ignorant because of their spelling. Standardized spelling didn't come along until later in the 19th Century with Noah Webster, until then it was phonetic. Jefferson would sometimes spell the same word different ways in the same sentence: Anyone who considers him ignorant must have very high standards indeed.

When editors 'clean up' texts, something important gets lost, IMHO.

FWIW, I found Undaunted Courage to be a somewhat difficult read, and never did finish it.

Most, if not all, of what I know of the expedition came from college courses that I took on Montana history. That, and local lore.

The journals have long been on my list of things to read, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

When I think of their trip, I am still just blown away that they were able to complete it. Only one man died during the entire trip, and this was in a time before antibiotics or any other modern medicine, and as I recall only one or two men quit. John Colter being one...near the end. Can you imagine paddling upstream a couple thousand miles in those big-assed heavy boats? Them were some tough SOBs.

Also, they screwed up. At some point, between Ft. Benton and Great Falls, Lewis and a few men explored up around modern day Browning and East Glacier. Had they gone just a few more miles west, they could have hit the Middle Fork of the Flathead and taken that to the Clark Fork to the Pend Oreille to the Columbia and on out to the coast, all downstream. Easy peasy. It would have saved them all of the trouble they had going down to the headwaters, into Idaho, and back up to Lolo and out. Apparently Sacajawea didn't know shit.

If only they'd had a GPS or at least a decent map.

It's also interesting that archeologists have been able to track their trail and campsites from the mercury pills Dr. Rush prescribed. It seems constipation was an issue on that trip.

Having lived most of my life in various parts of Montana, I enjoyed Undaunted Courage. I have seen many of the areas that Lewis and Clark traveled and still am awed by the beauty of Montana. I can't even begin to fathom what they endured on the journey.

Not Lewis & Clark, but I read one a couple years ago called "Astoria" that traces the establishment of 'civilization' on the west coast. It was a split expedition, one group sailing around South America and up, and the other going cross-country by horse/wagon/canoe/foot.

Just last week I finished one by Michael Crichton called "Dragon Teeth". It's about a group of archeologists/paleontologists (aka, dinosaur hunters) in Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming just about the time of the Little Bighorn massacre. Some of the characters and events are fictional, but others are real.

I wasn't aware of Undaunted Courage, but I'll keep an eye peeled for a copy. I grew up in Montana too, until the ripe old age of about 15.

I really enjoyed "Undaunted Courage", I'd sure like to drive around Montana/Oregon with this expedition in mind.