This is aimed at YA readers but I myself find the scholarship quite good. The book deserves a better title. Each of the chosen 'explorers' receives a fair amount of text (30pp on Fremont, for example) interspersed with illustrations, so there is a good amount of detail. The sidebar I liked best was the 'Bill of Fare' 25 December 1848 at Camp Desolation.
Last year I read much of Vestal on Bridger, Stegner on Powell, and Morgan on Smith and find Ms. Jones offers fair histories.
Index, some endnotes, bibliography, and a timeline. She has done considerable research, often in small collections. The best illustrations accompany the essay on Powell--he traveled with a photographer.
Note the fierceness of the Indians on the Coast and on the Great Planes.
The essay on Long is especially welcome.
Smith's terrible problems with the terrain of the Far West are well told--he was actually present at the three largest battle of the fur trade era. I still wonder why the gold flakes and nuggets in the streams went unnoticed when his men were trapping in what became the Gold Country.
Last year I read much of Vestal on Bridger, Stegner on Powell, and Morgan on Smith and find Ms. Jones offers fair histories.
Index, some endnotes, bibliography, and a timeline. She has done considerable research, often in small collections. The best illustrations accompany the essay on Powell--he traveled with a photographer.
Note the fierceness of the Indians on the Coast and on the Great Planes.
The essay on Long is especially welcome.
Smith's terrible problems with the terrain of the Far West are well told--he was actually present at the three largest battle of the fur trade era. I still wonder why the gold flakes and nuggets in the streams went unnoticed when his men were trapping in what became the Gold Country.
