For thousands of years, the salmon had returned to the rivers to spawn, and the elk had multiplied in the endless forest of the Pacific coast. Here too, the Indians had flourished in perfect harmony with Mother Nature. Then the first European ship touched the wilderness shore, and began trading trinkets with the Natives. That first contact would change the history of this land forever. In the decades that followed, many other nations came and laid claim to portions of the Oregon Country, including early voyagers from Spain, Portugal, England and Holland. Then, the overland trappers and traders arrived from Canada and Russia. For a time, all of these nations believed they had dominion over the Pacific Northwest. Then the fledging Americans came.
On his first trip around Cape Horn, Captain Robert Gray discovered Tillamook Bay in 1788. On his second trip, in 1792, this black-eye-patched captain discovered and named Gary’s Harbor. A few days later, he found, named and charted part of the mighty Columbia River. Gray’s early discoveries would later be used as proof that America had the only legitimate claim to the Oregon Country.In 1804, the American President Thomas Jefferson, sent the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery across the continent. This band of brave men would winter at Fort Clatsop on the Pacific coast in 1806. When the expedition returned home in 1807 and published journals about their adventures, their words sparked the imagination of many American schemers and dreamers. Soon, the wilderness west of the Mississippi River filled with explorers and trappers, who prospered at the inland fur trade. Some of these mountain men climbed the Stony Mountains and walked all the way to the Pacific shore. Along the way they built log forts, homes and trading posts. But still, other nations challenged America’s claim to the Pacific Northwest.
It would take another war, a few quirks of fate and a second expedition across the continent to finally resolve these disputes. This second enterprise would come to be called the Astor Overland Expedition or Overland Astorians. One would have to dig deep into American history to find another journey so fraught with drama, hardship and stubborn heroism.
Astor’s original plan was to dispatch a thirty-man brigade of trappers and traders from St. Louis in the spring of 1810. These men would paddle up the Missouri River and cross the continent, following the Lewis & Clark trail. While these men trudged across the wilderness, Astor would send a ship, the Tonquin, around the Horn to meet up with the overland brigade on the Columbia River in the spring of 1811.
The expedition faced delays from the very beginning. First Astor had to form the Pacific Fur Company, of which his wholly owned American Fur Company held half of the shares. Ownership of the remaining half of the company was divided among working partners who made up the core of the expedition. Some of these partners, like Wilson Price Hunt, Donald Mackenzie and Ramsey Cook, would travel overland. Other partners, including Duncan McDougall and Alexander MacKay, traveled aboard the Tonquin. Astor and his partners spent many months selecting, purchasing and outfitting the Tonquin, and making preparations for the expedition. It wasn’t until July of 1810 that the overland partners reached Montreal, Canada – which, at that time, was the center of the fur trade – to begin recruiting men for the journey.
Their competition, the Hudson Bay and the Northwest Fur Companies, stifled their efforts for weeks. Finally, near summer’s end, they succeeded in forming a brigade of hunters, trappers, interpreters and Canadian voyageurs. After a change of leadership, this troop of men finally reached St. Louis in September, where a fateful decision was made to double the size of the brigade to sixty men. While some of the partners traveled off to secure the new men, other partners paddled and poled the original brigade up the Missouri River, four hundred and fifty miles to the confluence of the Nodaway River. There, away from the temptations of St. Louis, the men would winter, living off the land and awaiting reinforcements.
This article is an excerpt from the new novel 'Destination Astoria.'
