| Captains Lewis and Clark Were Much Puzzled at This Point to Know Which of the Rivers Before Them Was the Main Missouri | Frontispiece |
| FACING PAGE | |
| “I Now Resigned Myself to the Fate with Which I Was Menaced” | 28 |
| A Man of the Naudowessie From Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by Jonathan Carver |
62 |
| A Man of the Ottigaumies From Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by Jonathan Carver |
62 |
| Alexander Mackenzie From Mackenzie’s Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America, etc. |
84 |
| Mackenzie and the Men Jumped Overboard | 118 |
| Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Monument at Colorado Springs, Colorado | 208 |
| Buffalo on the Southern Plains From Kendall’s Narrative of the Texas Santa Fé Expedition |
236 |
| Two Men Mounted on Her Back, but She Was as Active with This Load as Before | 270 |
| Fur Traders of the North | 280 |
| Astoria in 1813 From Franchere’s Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America |
302 |
| Caravan on the March From Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies |
334 |
| Wagons Parked for the Night From Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies |
340 |
| Trappers Attacked by Indians From an old print by A. Tait |
360 |
| Train Stampeded by Wild Horses From Bartlett’s Texas, New Mexico, California, etc. |
372 |
| Major-General John C. Fremont | 394 |
| An Oto Council From James’s An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains by Major Stephen H. Long. |
414 |
| MAP | |
| PAGE | |
| Routes of Some of the Pathfinders | 2 |
About This Book
This collection retells and synthesizes first-person accounts and contemporary narratives of early overland exploration and trade in North America, organized into chapters on individual pathfinders and thematic studies. It follows river and transcontinental routes, sketches hardships and encounters with Indigenous communities, and examines the fur trade and prairie commerce that shaped expansion. Illustrations, maps, and excerpts from earlier journals accompany contextual commentary that links episodic adventures to broader patterns of movement, commerce, and geographic discovery.