Astoria By Stark

New York Times Bestseller
“A fascinating and sometimes terrifying window into the brutal and acquisitive essence of not only America but of the human condition. It?s also a great and, in its own hard-won way, an ennobling tale of survival. Highly recommended.”—Nathaniel Philbrick

“A fast-paced, riveting account of exploration and settlement, suffering and survival, treachery and death.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 

At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, President Thomas Jefferson and millionaire John Jacob Astor foresaw that one day the Pacific would dominate world trade. Just a few years after the Lewis and Clark expedition concluded in 1806, these two visionaries turned their sights westward once again—to settle a colony on the Pacific coast.

Astor backed this ambitious enterprise with his vast fortune. He dispatched two groups of men west: one by sea around the southern tip of South America and one by land over the Rockies. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent.

Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship, drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of those who made the journey. Though the colony itself would be short-lived, its founders opened provincial American eyes to the remarkable potential of the western coast, discovered the route that became the Oregon Trail, and permanently altered the nation?s landscape and global standing.