Across the Great Divide: Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail

John Jacob Astor led the life most people do not even dare to dream about. He was a serial entrepreneur at a time when most of the world was composed of farmers. He was so successful at his businesses that when he died he controlled one-fifteenth of all personal wealth in the United States! Across the Great Divide is a remarkably detailed account of one of his (failed) investments. Directly competing with the Hudson Bay Company for control of the North American fur trade, he is so successful that he is able to finance the establishment of the first American fort in Oregon and supports this effort with his own ships and men via Cape Horn. Returning east overland, one of his employees, Robert Stuart, discovers South Pass, the route that subsequently becomes the gateway to the Far West and the Oregon Trail! This is a most singular accomplishment. In February 1808 Thomas Jefferson, sixty-five years old and in the waning months of his second term as President, is approached by Astor seeking Jefferson's support for a far flung trading venture beyond the Mississippi River. The proposal captured Jefferson's attention. After embarking from New York City and rounding Cape Horn, Stuart arrives in Oregon in 1810, only 5 years after the Lewis and Clark expedition! It is stunning to realize that Fort Astoria's erection and provisioning, completed after a long, arduous sea voyage that included stops at the Falkland Islands and Hawaii, and which cemented America's claim to the Pacific Northwest, is finished just a few weeks before the arrival of Astor's primary competition, the Hudson Bay Company, could lay further claim to Oregon for Britain. In June 1812 Stuart, a junior partner in this venture, is chosen to lead an overland expedition back to St. Louis and New York to report to Astor. Only two American led expeditions had crossed the continent before him, Lewis and Clark's and Wilson Price Hunt's which was part of this Astor venture. However, instead of following the northern route of his predecessors, Stuart heads south along the Rockies and strikes South Pass, the only pass in the 3,000 mile Rocky Mountains passable by wagons. Stuart follows the Sweetwater and Platte Rivers across present day Wyoming and Nebraska. In the process, this obscure messenger-explorer discovers the trail that would become the central route of America's expansion, the emigrant road that opened up the Far West to settlement. Astor's Fort Astoria is captured by the British during the War of 1812 and Stuart never again sees Oregon. Subsequently, he becomes one of Astor's primary field agents, working out of Mackinaw Island in Michigan. Laton McCartney's Robert Stuart is a most stalwart individual. When we stop to think that he was an entrepreneur, not an explorer, his accomplishment becomes all that much more impressive. He blithely embarks from New York on a three year endeavor that circumnavigates the known extent of the Western Hemisphere. His 10 month overland journey is so

"There's a race of men that don't fit in, A race that can't stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will...." ~Robert Service~ Beautiful words paying tribute to the intrepid souls of the adventurers; the individuals among us who found it impossible to live entirely within the confines of civilization. Some had the means to travel, some traveled without means, but both kinds richly deserve the words written for them; about them - no matter how harsh the reality of their story; for theirs is of achievement extraordinaire. This is a book like that. I found it interesting, obviously well-researched and containing much information I didn't know about the early explorers of my own state of residence. Mr. McCartney did an important work in presenting history and in paying tribute to his gutsy ancestor within the same accounting. This expedition followed the Lewis and Clark Corp. of Discovery by only a few years, long before Fremont made his journey into Wyoming. They were conducting the exploring of passageways for trade of all kinds, but for the moment, the fur trade - for John Jacob Astor, one of the most astute businessmen of that century. While Lewis and Clark made mighty discoveries, but didn't hit the jackpot with the intended waterways due to the imposing mountains, it was Stuart who discovered an equally important "northwest passage" in the South Pass route, far to the south which is really where the mountains meet the plains - the gentle ending of the Wind River mountain range - allowing the vast traffic West to begin to pass through. And pass they did, the natives watching astounded as they were pushed aside in the tidal waves of emigrants that followed. I couldn't help it - the naughty thought occurred to me that Fremont, while indeed serving his country in his travels, was primarily the son-in-law of a politician wishing to make a name for himself after the real work was done. It does have controversy, of course - any great discovery is subject to it in the course of hashing out history. John Colter may have crossed it after he split from the L & C expedition - it has been suggested - I'm not enough of a scholar to question some of it but for certain, this man was of the first white men to see it, and documented his journey. The list of names, rivers and landmarks bring it vividly to life for me, as they are dear, familiar places that I visit on a regular basis, thinking all the while of these men who came before. The Platte, Bessemer Bend, Independence Rock, the Snake river, Henry's Fork of the Snake, Fort Hall; the people of Stuart, Hoback, McClellan, Hunt, all of these people live on vibrantly in our country here - with the landmarks memorializing them. For them, life was to be lived - or lost - in the trying. I doubt that many of them aspired to the greatness they achieved - it was simply answering the call of the wild and unknown, reminding me of yet another free spirit - Robe

Robert Stuart was the first explorer to cross the entire continent of the United States from west to east. He discovered the southernly route across the Rockies through the South Pass and followed what would become the Oregon Trail twenty three years later after his crossing. His contributions to the Astoria project also were covered in this volume. He was truly a contributor to the success of the establishment of the American clain to this country, althouth this did not happen until some year later after the fort had been abandoned to the British. He, and the early Astorians certainly deserve the credit for this project of John Astor. Norma Dart

I thought this book was excellent. I thought it was very similar to undaunted courage, but I felt it moved a bit faster, and spent less time on all the minute details of the Astorians' adventure. Maybe my review is higher than the book deserves due to my interest in the subject matter, but I haven't read a historical book cover to cover for along time, and the author did a good enough job that I breazed throught he 270 pages.

Whereas Philip Ashton Rollins still remains the definitive work on Robert Stuart and the discovery of the Oregon Trail, Laton McCartney's book is less encumbered with footnotes and editing to make this a most enjoyable and fascinating read of this courageous, dauntless man. Being a descendant of Stuart himself, the reader easily senses the pride and respect in McCartney's writing of his legendary ancestor.We read of Stuart's grueling voyage to the future trading post of Astoria aboard the soon to be ill-fated ship the Tonquin with a ruthless and scornful Captain Thorn; the establishment of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River; Stuart's adventures in and around this region; the overlander Astorians' journey from the Missouri River to Astoria and culminating with Stuart's ten month expedition of 1812-1813 with six others from Astoria to St. Louis. These men suffered and persevered through hunger, thirst, fatigue, weather, geographical disorientations and Indian intimidations with the final result of course, being the eventual discovery of the Oregon Trail.An absorbing read and extremely well done.