"The Vast Enterprise" | Reviewed by Bill Schwab

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark have gone down in US history as early 19th-century explorers who undertook an arduous, 8,000-mile, 2-year expedition to find a route to the Pacific Ocean. More than 220 years later, their journey remains a captivating part of the United States’ lore.

In 1803, President Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, who was facing war with Britain. This 828,000-square-mile area, west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, marked the boundaries of the $15 million land purchase from France, which doubled the size of the US.

Jefferson charged the Corps of Discovery, composed of US Army volunteers and French-speaking boatmen under the direction of Lewis and Clark, to record anything of natural and cultural interest on their expedition. One of the key concepts of Jefferson’s commission was what he called “our right of preemption,” a complex concept that professed to respect Natives’ “right of occupancy” but was calculated to open the door to “purchases” of indigenous land by pioneers. Lewis and Clark were tasked with conveying this concept to tribal leaders.

Foremost among the trek’s objectives was to find a network of rivers to uncharted areas beyond the Rocky Mountains to claim additional territory for the new nation. Finding a route and claiming the contested areas would revolutionize US trade by establishing a system of commerce extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In this revisionist history of the expedition, the author maintains, “The success of Lewis and Clark depended on more than Lewis and Clark.” His account is a character-based history with familiar names like Sacajawea, Charbonneau, and Clark’s enslaved body servant, York. Then there are a host of obscure characters, including New Hampshire farmer Sergeant John Ordway, who pulled the shallow draft pirogue over sand bars, Wolf Calf, a Blackfoot youth who witnessed his friend die in a skirmish with Lewis, and Kentucky woodsmen Joseph and Reuben Field, who joined the 30-man crew because they were bored and looking for action.

Fehrman provides a more accurate account of this important event in US history than previous versions. He accomplished this over five years by doing extensive research, including visiting dozens of archives, conducting over 100 interviews, and documenting indigenous oral histories passed down from generation to generation.

I found “This Vast Enterprise” to be a “page turner” that includes countless new pieces of information. Fehrman uncovers some of the brutal aspects of the transcontinental expedition, including punishment for soldiers ordered to run the painful “gauntlet,” a chastisement rarely mentioned elsewhere.

Fehrman’s approach gives depth to his account by including notes on the natural wonders the Corps encountered along the rivers and by vividly depicting the hardships they had to overcome. He has written an important book, worthy of broad reading, on a renowned event in US history.

Avid Reader Press is the publisher of this superb 490-page book, a strong candidate for a book prize. It includes two appendices, 30 images, extensive notes, and a thorough index.

About the author: Craig Fehrman, journalist and historian, graduated from the University of Southern Indiana. He sometimes teaches sports writing at Indiana University. Fehrman wrote one other book, “Author in Chief,” a highly acclaimed work on the presidency of the United States.

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