Welcome to Litsy!

Read in 2020. What an adventure. A disastrous adventure.

As an Oregonian I was interested in reading this book. I learned a lot about the exploration & initial settlement of Astoria. I was surprised both to find out that John Jacob Astor never visited this part of the country & also that he didn‘t come up with the name. With a lot of suffering & failure the story is intriguing...but even more so is how this exploration eventually led to creating the route for the Oregon trail.

With as much as the author researched the indigenous people of the area, staying with them, canoeing with them, experiencing ceremonies and rituals...I wish their story featured a bit more as they had a huge impact on the explorers as well as the routes used on the expedition. Most of the explorers would‘ve starved without their help. And the contentious interactions between them & the Americans helped in changing the course of history too.

I find it interesting that the initial curiosity that led to the book came from John Day rather than the town of Astoria or from John Jacob Astor. It‘s funny how one thing will lead you to others and change your thinking.

Thomas Jefferson is merely a blip in the story...not sure why his name is part of the title. Hit the epilogue at 66% of the way through and that part was quite interesting. So much suffering by the Astorians in their attempt to create an empire on the west coast. I had no idea how much Britain was involved in the area at the time. Also shocked that Astor himself never visited the area. His efforts eventually led to the Oregon trail though.

At 60% in the book is much more interesting (and has been since maybe 40%). I like the photo inserts, but on a kindle paper white the maps are nearly illegible which is disappointing. The story is quite interesting...the challenges of travel, communication, rival business, and going to war... while at first the book was kind of a drag, now I want to sit back and read until I‘m done.

“They were happy. These “Men of the North” well knew this weather and this paddling. Winter was coming.” Channeling Game of Thrones here...

Put together to form one cohesive story. While overall chronological, parts of the story kind of give me spoiler alerts. I‘ll read about X, then something like ‘10 days earlier‘ xyz happened leading to X. You already told me about X, so why did you ruin it. Overall so far it is interesting, but it‘s not one of those books that is hard to put down. 2/2

About 30% in to this one. I generally prefer historical fiction rather than a more documentary style of non-fiction. Being an Oregonian, and visited Astoria and the coast many times, I hadn‘t heard this story before (I did know Astoria was named after Astor). But so far I‘m not drawn in...I don‘t love any characters, I don‘t “care” about any of them yet. I realize this info is garnered from real journals from those on the adventure & put 1/2

Just starting this book, but in the first few pages the west coast is described as mostly unclaimed & available for anyone to take. Which just seems so at odds with all the native people living on those lands at the time. How did people think they just had the right to claim whatever they laid their eyes on?! I know I shouldn‘t be surprised when “that‘s how things were back then”...but human decency, c‘mon.