Customer Reviews

Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail (Bison Book)

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4 star:		(3)
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David Lavender's WESTWARD VISION spans the period from the mid-17th century to 1849 as he chronicles the search for a reliable overland route to, and the subsequent settlement of, what would become known as Oregon, principally that area which borders the Willamette River as it flows into the Columbia (at present-day Portland). As the subtitle of the book indicates, this is "the story of the Oregon Trail".

For the sake of summary, I arbitrarily divide this book into five parts: early exploration of the Upper Mississippi River by French-Canadians seeking a route to the "western sea", the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the subsequent unsuccessful efforts to establish an easy route to Oregon via the Missouri River and its headwaters, the influx of "mountain men" into the area and the discovery of a more southerly route (the Oregon Trail), the early settlement in Oregon of Christian missionary groups sent to proselytize the Indians, and the massive immigration of land-seekers in the 1840's which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a U.S. Oregon Territory.

WESTWARD VISION is the result of extensive research on the part of the author. Its wealth of details is both its strong point and its undoing. Probably the most commendably concise chapters (5 and 6), considering the length of the event, deal with the amazing Lewis and Clark Expedition. Perhaps Lavender thought the history of the two-year trek adequately covered elsewhere. In any case, the following chapters on the exploits and travails of the fur-trapping mountain men and the missionaries are so full of minutiae that it would require the reader to take extensive notes in order to keep track of the various groups and individuals endeavoring to cross the Great Divide into Oregon in the 1820s and 30s. (Reading this book for pleasure, I wasn't prepared to expend that much effort.) Only in Chapter 19, which gives an account of the 1843 journey of the first large immigrant train - almost 1000 persons- over the Oregon Trail, does the narrative regain a concise clarity. A major failing of the the volume is the lack of adequate maps to locate the majority of the named and innumerable places and geographical features: rivers, river forks, buttes, mountains, rocks, forts, mountain passes, river fords, trapper rendezvous, and settlements. Perusing contemporary state highway maps didn't help much. And in a work this extensive, I would have expected a large section of illustrations. Except for several very crude drawings, there were none.

What elevates WESTWARD VISION, and compels me to award four stars, is that the author makes his point magnificently, i.e. that it took many tough people with large reserves of true grit to expand the fledgling United States to the Pacific's shores. The crossing was hard:

"At the rainswept crossing of the North Platte, blue with cold, cramped by dysentery and pregnancy pangs, Mary Walker (an 1838 pilgrim) sat down and 'cried to think how comfortable my father's hogs were' (back home). As for Sarah Smith, Mary sniffed, she wept practically the entire distance to Oregon." And even recreation had a sharp edge, as at the 1832 trappers' rendezvous:

"... a few of the boys poured a kettle of alcohol over a friend and set him afire. Somehow he lived through it, and fun's fun."

Finally, Lavender eloquently suggests the reason so many embarked on the Oregon Trail at all:

"What matters is not whether fulfillment was attainable in reality (at the Trail's end), but rather that at long last in the world's sad, torn history an appreciable part of mankind thought it might be. That was both the torment and the freedom - to go and look."

Noted historian David Lavender has penned probably the finest single volume on the Oregon Trail ever written. Starting in 1719, 130 years before the trail was formally established, Lavender slowly and concretely builds the story of the United States first claim to this territory by examining similar efforts by the Spanish, French, Russian and English which preceded the American claims.

Incorporating and firmly underscoring the efforts of the Native Americans, the Mountain Men, Hudson's Bay Company and the early missionary efforts, Lavender reveals that these four groups did more to claim the Northwest for the United States than any politician or political party in Washington. Always in the forefront of Western Expansion, the impact of the missionary effort was pivotal to the US claim to this Norwest portion of our nation.

This is a truly fine history and a remarkably excellent piece of writing.

This is an excellent account of the great quest for the Northwest, which eventually culminated in the vast migrations of Americans along the Oregon Trail. From the early exploration efforts of Jacques Cartier (1530's); Jean Nicolet (1630's); Marquette and Joliet (1670's); LaSalle (1680's); Bourgmont (early 1700's); the Verendryes (1730's to 1740's); Jonathan Carver (1760's) and others too numerous to mention, we see how the English, French, Spanish and Americans all had the goal to establish roots in Oregon. When the mountain men came into the picture searching for their beaver pelts in the early 1800's, it was this breed of men that finally opened the routes across the Rocky Mountains which lead the wagon trains through to the Northwest. Lavender then takes us up to the first overland migrations (1840's) of the missionaries and others in search of a better way of life, along with all their sacrifices and perils. This is a great book and very insightful of events leading up to the Oregon Trail.

The appreciable detail within this book makes it difficult, at times, to follow; and that makes it difficult to construct an overview in our memory. The author uses a narrative style that gives no indication of where the narrative is heading. Unless you already know the history and are familiar with the principal characters, the text can seem overloaded with detail, the value of which may be unclear till further in the story. For example, in chapter 14 we are not told till the final paragraph that the two women we have been reading about, Eliza Spaulding and Narcissa Whitman, "were the first women to cross the North American continent." (286) This new information gives greater value to the details narrated in the chapter than they seemed to have on first reading. The book is written such that we (almost) never know where we're going, only where we are at the moment. It is the first book I've read encompassing the period, and it may not have been the best choice for an initial broad overview.

Using divisions within the bibliography helps us find the organization of the book:


Chapters 1 - 3

Early Explorations, general accounts

Specific Explorations - Charlevoix, La Salle, Verendrye, Carver and Rogers, Upper Missouri River and Mandan Indians


Chapter 4

The Northwest Coast, 1776 - 1800

Explorations Across Canada

Spanish Explorations on the Missouri River


Chapters 5 - 6

Lewis and Clark


Chapter 7

Trading and Trapping Methods

Early American Adventures on the Missouri

Letters, Reports about She-he-ke's Return

Trouble with Blackfeet

Thompson and Pinch-Perch


Chapter 8

The Astorian Adventure


Chapters 9 - 11

Proposals to Occupy Oregon

The Yellowstone Expedition

The Arikara Battle and Aftermath

Opening of Rocky Mountain Fur Trade

British-American Fur Trade Conflict


Chapters 12 - 13

Hall J. Kelley

Bonneville, Wyeth and Jason Lee


Chapters 14 - 16

The Missionaries


Chapters 17 - 18

Emigrations of 1839-40

Emigrations of 1840, 1841, 1842


Chapter 19

Emigration of 1843


Chapter 20

Emigrations of 1844

Emigrations of 1846