Undaunted Courage

Some years ago Mona told me about this book.  She had read it and knew I would like it too.  But I forgot
about it as time passed. Until we began planning to live on the road. Then I began to read many books about or by those who lived, at least for a time, on the roads, and trails, of the North American continent.

The most impressive thing I found about this book was author Steven Ambrose' style of writing.  Casual, yet precise.  Care in every word to say what he means but also what is true.  This is a book which replaces none of the others written about Lewis, Clark or Jefferson. Instead it informs the reading of all of them.

I won't tell you any of the conclusions Ambrose comes up with  for Lewis' decision to break his little band of Americans up into five tinier bands on the way home, having his own first and only fight with Indians in the process. Or why Lewis never bothered to complete the manuscript for his journals in his lifetime. And I surely don't want to reveal Steven's belief's about the sad suicide of Meriwether Lewis (or was it suicide?).

What I will say is that upon completion of this tale I, like Ambrose, and Lewis and Clark before him and others, want to stand in Lemhi Pass, with one foot in the Missouri and one in the Columbia watershed, and say with these first Americans to do so, "I've done it".

-Ken