On their remarkable journey across the North American continent,
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's "Corps of Discovery"
traveled almost 10,000 miles, about 9,000 of them on rivers—the
Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Jefferson, Beaverhead, Clearwater,
Snake, Columbia, Yellowstone—or their associated forks, creeks,
and tributaries. With an expert's eye, Verne Huser tells us what
it was like to mount and carry out an expedition that was
"basically a river trip." From the construction of the boats in
1803 to the negotiation of the last miles home three years
later, the explorers were tied inextricably to the river systems
that carried them west into uncharted territory and back again.
From the Ohio River to the Columbia, they rowed, paddled,
pulled, poled, sailed, and portaged their way into
history—mapping, collecting, and recording a country's first
glimpse of its western wealth. Himself a river man, Huser has
canoed, rafted, or cruised much of the expedition's route. He
brings to the famous story his knowledge